NATIONAL CRIMINAL DEFENSE COLLEGE FACULTY
J
Omodare Jupiter
Federal Public Defender – Mississippi
Biography
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Richard Kammen
Of Counsel, Kammen & Moudy
Biography
Richard Kammen is a criminal defense lawyer with his office in Indianapolis, Indiana. He concentrates his practice in serious felonies, white-collar defense, complex crimes and death penalty defense. He is of Counsel to the law firm of Kammen and Moudy. He graduated from Ripon College cum laude in 1968 and New York University School of Law in 1971. Admitted to the Bar in 1971, he began his practice after service in the United States Army.
During his professional career, Mr. Kammen has served as a public defender in the Marion County Courts on two occasions, 1972-1974 and 1978-1979.
Mr. Kammen has represented clients charged with offenses ranging in seriousness from felony drunk driving to Racketeering and Capital Murder.
Mr. Kammen has defended over three hundred homicide cases including approximately forty death penalty cases in both State and Federal courts. No client that Mr. Kammen has represented at trial has been sentenced to death. Mr. Kammen has been trial counsel on six State death penalty cases, including State of Indiana v. Charles Smith, a retrial of a reversed death penalty conviction in which the defendant was found not guilty. He has been appointed by United States District Judges to represent capitally charged defendants throughout the United States including such cases as United States v. Raymond Cheely (Government’s request for death penalty dismissed as improper) United States v. Reginald Brown (Government’s request for death penalty and underlying Murder charges dismissed because the defendant is innocent) , United States v. Joe Minerd, in which the defendant, convicted of killing his pregnant girlfriend and her three year old with a bomb received a life sentence. He was appointed “learned counsel” in United States v. Donnell Young, which was, until it was resolved by a plea the longest Federal capital case pending in the United States.. Mr. Kammen was appointed as “learned counsel” in the Federal capital case, United States v. Timothy O’Reilly. Mr. O’Reilly received a life sentence after a trial lasting three months. He was lead counsel on the defense team that represented David Camm who was exonerated and freed by acquittal, after being imprisoned for thirteen years, and two prior convictions of killing his wife and two children.
Until October of 2017, Mr. Kammen served as “Learned Counsel” in United States v. Abdul Rahim Al-Nashiri who is charged before a Military Commission at Guantanamo Bay Cuba. Al-Nashiri is alleged to have been a central figure in the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in 2000 in Aden, Yemen. This is likely to be the first capital military commission. Mr. Kammen and other Civilian counsel withdrew from the case after the Commission refused to address possible intrusions into the attorney client relationship.
A frequent speaker and lecturer on criminal defense issues, Mr. Kammen has spoken in almost every state and federal circuit. He has been a member of the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College since 1982 and the Trial Lawyers College since 2001.
Mr. Kammen is the recipient of the Pro Bono Award given by the Indiana Bar Association and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Indiana Public Defender Council.
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Recent Teaching History
Masood Karimipour
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TPI Graduate
Joshua Karton
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TPI Graduate
Kathryn Kase
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TPI Graduate
Michael Kennedy
Partner
Biography
Mr. Kennedy has worked almost exclusively in federal courts in the west (Nevada, California and Washington state) since 1992 defending individuals accused of a variety of federal crimes (guns, drugs, murders, rape, white collar offenses, RICO, VICAR, artifacts and anthrax to name a few) in some high profile, more low profile and often no profile cases. In March of 2016, he left the Office of the Federal Defender in Nevada and opened his own law practice. Mr. Kennedy teaches trial skills each year at the National Criminal Defense College, the Federal CJA Trial Skills Academy and/or other similar programs.
Mr. Kennedy has successfully defended numerous individuals accused by the government of committing crimes. In 1998, he successfully defended Larry Wayne Harris (identified in an 1997 US. News & World Report article asthe “Next Unabomber”) in Las Vegas and Columbus, Ohio against charges identifying Harris as a domestic terrorist in an alleged plot to use anthrax as a weapon. In 2006, he obtained a complete victory for Sohn Regas in both the 14 defendant state – and 44 defendant federal – Hells Angels prosecutions in Las Vegas arising from an incident in Harrah’s Laughlin casino between the Mongols and Hells Angels which left 3 dead. In 2008, he obtained acquittals in Reno in two attempt murder prosecutions, one of which arose from a shoot-out inside his client’s (David Lantry) home where two law enforcement officers were shot. In 2014, he obtained an acquittal on all four federal murder charges in a DOJ, Civil Rights Division, double homicide prosecution against an alleged former skinhead leader.
In March of 2016, he and his co-counsel obtained an acquittal in a federal mortgage fraud conspiracy and wire fraud prosecution in Las Vegas. Most recently, on February 24, 2020, following 7 trial months, he obtained an acquittal for Ernesto Gonzalez on all counts (two federal murder counts and a 12 year plus RICO conspiracy charge) arising from the Department of Justices’s failed attempt to prove that the Vagos Motorcycle Club is a criminal RICO enterprise engaged in racketeering activity.
Mr. Kennedy has been selected for inclusion in the Nevada Super Lawyers, and recognized nationally by the National Academy of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the National Trial Lawyers Association, for the practice of criminal defense. He began his career in 1988 as an associate with Holland & Hart in Denver, Colorado after graduating from the University of Minnesota Law School cum laude and is an active member of the Colorado, California and Nevada state bars.
Terence Kindlon
Emeritus Faculty
Thomas Klein
Director, Homicide Practice Group; Bronx Defenders
Biography
Tom is a co-director of the Homicide Practice Group at Bronx Defenders. He joined BXD in January, 2019, after 36 years as a trial lawyer at the Legal Aid Society in Manhattan. During his career at Legal Aid he was a staff attorney, supervising attorney, co-head of the Manhattan trial office, Director of Litigation, and Senior Homicide Attorney. He has also trained on trial and suppression issues for public defender offices throughout New York State.
He is a member of the faculty of the New York State Defenders Association Basic Trials Skills Program, the BXD Defenders’ Academy, and the National College of Criminal Defense. He co-authored the Legal Aid Society manual, “Expanding the Scope of Cross-Examination”; a two-volume publication (Volume One: suppression Hearings; Volume Two: Trials). He was given NYSDA’s Service of Justice Award in 2012 and NYSBA’s Award for Outstanding Achievements in Promoting Standards of Excellence in Mandated Representation in 2017.
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Recent Teaching History
Christine Koehler
Christine A. Koehler, Atty. at Law
Biography
Since graduating cum laude from Georgia State University College of Law in 1995, Christine has dedicated her career to vigorously defending people accused of crimes. Her unyielding dedication to her clients led to the three month halt of jury trials in Gwinnett County, Georgia, after she successfully challenged the compilation of Gwinnett’s jury system in a death penalty case.
For 17 years Christine’s peers have voted her a Georgia Super Lawyer. She has been named “Best of Gwinnett” by Gwinnett Magazine, multiple times. Christine is a founding member of the Georgia Innocence Project and a life member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Christine is the past President of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Stonewall Bar Association. She is the past Chair of the Investigative Panel of the State Bar of Georgia. She served on the State Bar Investigative Panel for eight years. Christine is a member of the Defense of Drinking Drivers Network of Georgia and she is a founding member of The DUI Defense Lawyers Association.
Christine has been an instructor with GACDL’s Bill Daniel Trial Advocacy Program since 2000. She is on faculty at the National Criminal Defense College and is a frequent lecturer at criminal defense seminars nationwide.
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A.J. Kramer
Federal Public Defender
Biography
A. J. KRAMER has been the Federal Public Defender for the District of Columbia since 1990. He was the Chief Assistant Federal Public Defender in Sacramento, California, from 1987-1990, and an Assistant Federal Public Defender in San Francisco, California, from 1980-1987. He was a Law Clerk for the Honorable Procter Hug, Jr., United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Reno, Nevada, from 1979-1980.
Mr. Kramer received a B.A. from Stanford University in 1975, and a J.D. from the School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley in 1979. He taught Legal Research and Writing at Hastings Law School from 1983-1988.
He is a permanent faculty member of the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia; and, was a permanent faculty member of the Western Trial Advocacy Institute in Laramie, Wyoming.
He is Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is a member of the Department of Defense Advisory Committee on the Investigation, Prosecution, and Defense of Sexual Assault Cases in the Military; and, the ABA Criminal Justice Section Council. He was a member of the United States Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules, 2012-18; and, the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Scientific Approaches to Understanding and Maximizing the Validity and Reliability of Eyewitness Identification in Law Enforcement and the Court, 2013-14. In December 2013, he received the Annice M. Wagner Pioneer Award from The Bar Association of the District of Columbia.
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Recent Teaching History
Bridget Krause
Deputy Trial Division Director, WI-Office of the State Public Defender
Biography
Bridget Krause graduated from Marquette Law School in May 2000 and began working at the Milwaukee Public Defender’s Office, Trial Division, after graduation. Bridget briefly left the Public Defender’s Office for two years to work in private criminal defense. After two years, she rejoined the Milwaukee Public Defender’s Office as a Local Attorney Manager. In 2018 she was promoted to Deputy Regional Attorney Manager in the Milwaukee Trial Office. As a Deputy Regional Manager, Bridget worked with younger attorneys to increase the litigation in the Milwaukee Trial Office and brainstorm motion and trial issues. She also set up training in the Milwaukee Trials Office for new attorneys and experienced attorneys. Bridget was recently promoted to Deputy Trial Division Director in the WI Public Defender’s Office in August 2020.
Bridget has been an Adjunct Professor at Marquette University Law School since 2009. She has taught Trial Advocacy 1 and the Public Defender Workshop. Bridget is faculty on the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Trial Skills Academy, New Jersey Public Defender’s Program, and the National Criminal Defense College. She also presents on topics dealing with criminal defense work at the WI Public Defender Conference, Florida Public Defender Conference, Oregon Public Defender Conference and numerous NACDL programs.
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Recent Teaching History
La Mer Kyle-Griffiths
Assistant Department Head; Santa Barbara County Public Defender’s Office
Biography
La Mer Kyle-Griffiths is the recently appointed Assistant Public Defender of the Santa Barbara Public Defender’s Office. Before that she was the Director of Training and Complex Litigation with Still She Rises in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
She has been a lifelong public defender amplifying the voice of the poor in Kentucky, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Washington and now California.
In Seattle, she was responsible for designing, organizing, and facilitating trainings for the over 400 team members of the Department of Public Defense. There she gained an appreciation for the need for defense teams to actively engage with their own implicit bias. She became certified with King County to teach and facilitate on issues of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Before that she practiced for over 17 years as a public defender in both Kentucky and Boston. In Kentucky, she was part of the Capital Defense Unit and litigated several death penalty cases.
She has sat on many case reviews on death penalty cases and continues to teach nationally and at various state programs on capital litigation, voir dire, and mitigation. She has taught investigators, attorneys, mitigation specialists, and law students across the country in the areas of capital litigation, litigation with a racial and gender lens, investigation, sentencing, trial skills, and forensics. She has litigated juvenile, capital, felony, and misdemeanor cases as well as arguing two cases to the Kentucky Supreme Court. She has been an adjunct professor at the Seattle University College of Law, the Iowa University of Law, Boston College and currently teaches at the Darrow Baldus Death Penalty College, the National Criminal Defense College, Gideon’s Promise, and Harvard Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop. She has taught in various organizations in the areas of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging as well as leadership and supervision with an inclusive lens.
A graduate of the University of Dayton School of Law she has been a lifelong advocate and is looking forward to her continuing adventure with Tom, her Chucks-wearing, crusading, capital defender husband and three young women who all learned to crow “Acquittal” early!
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Recent Teaching History
2019 Trial Practice Institute in Bristol (July Session)
2018 Trial Practice Institute in Macon (July Session)
L
Christian Lamar
Deputy Director of Litigation of the Georgia Capital Defender
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Michele LaVigne
Emeritus Faculty
Biography
Until early 2020, I was a long time Clinical Professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School. I retired just in time. I began my career as a public defender in Wisconsin, first in Eau Claire and then in Madison. I have a particular interest (practice and research) in the special issues presented by clients who are deaf/hard of hearing or language impaired.
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Recent Teaching History
Jeff Lee
The Law Office of J. Jeffrey Lee
Biography
Jeff Lee is a Certified Criminal Trial Specialist in Memphis, Tennessee. He began his career as a state public defender, and currently has a private practice with a number of appointed cases. He has studied at the National Criminal Defense College, the Trial Lawyers College, and the Tennessee Criminal Defense College. Jeff recently obtained an LL.M. in Advocacy and is working toward licensure as a clinical mental health counselor. He lives in Memphis with his wife, Lindsey, and their pug, Biscuit.
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Recent Teaching History
John Lentine
Partner, Sheffield & Lentine, P.C.
Biography
John received his B.A. with honors from the University of West Florida and his J.D. from Cumberland Law School in 1987. He practices exclusively criminal defense work on the trial and appellate levels throughout the State of Alabama and in a variety of Federal trial and appellate courts. He is a Past President of the Alabama Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, the Greater Birmingham Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, and the Legal Aid Society of Birmingham. He is a Life Member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and he has been Board Certified as a Criminal Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy and has served as the Board’s State Coordinator in Alabama. He was the CJA Panel Representative and Resource Counsel for the United States District Court of the Northern District of Alabama for ten years and also served as the 11th Circuit’s Representative to and for 3 years. He served as the Chief CJA Panel Representative in the United States to the Defender Services Advisory Group for the Administrative Office of Courts in Washington.
He has been appointed by the Alabama Supreme Court to serve on the Alabama Criminal Rules Committee and the Alabama Pattern Criminal Jury Instructions Committee and was appointed by the President of the Alabama State Bar in 2013 to serve as the Chair of the newly restored Criminal Justice Section of the State Bar and as Vice Chair of the Appointed Counsel & Indigent Representation Committee. He has also served on the Executive Committee of the Birmingham Bar Association and Birmingham Bar Foundation.
He is a faculty member of the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia, and the Georgia Criminal Defense Association’s Bill Daniel Trial Advocacy Program. He is an adjunct faculty member at Cumberland School of Law where he teaches trial advocacy and the Birmingham School of Law where he teaches criminal law, criminal procedure and the death penalty. He has also been an adjunct professor at Miles Law School and has lectured at Faulkner and the University of Alabama schools of law.
He has been a Fellow in the American Board of Criminal Lawyers and is a Fellow in the American Academy of Criminal Defense Attorneys. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America specializing in Non-White Collar and White Collar Criminal Defense, Alabama’s SuperLawyers in the area of criminal defense, and The Birmingham Magazine’s and The Birmingham Business Journal’s Best Lawyers in Birmingham and acknowledged by The National Trial Lawyers as one of the top 100 trial lawyers in Alabama and by the American Society of Legal Advocates as one of the Top 100 criminal defense lawyers in Alabama.
He is the 2010 recipient of the Judge Walter P. Gewin Award from CLE Alabama for his contributions to the development and presentation of CLE programs. The Best Lawyers in America has selected him as Birmingham’s “Lawyer of the Year” for 2012 in Non-White Collar criminal defense and in 2018 as Birimingham’s“Lawyer of the Year” in White Collar criminal defense.
In 2012 he received the “Lawrence B. Sheffield, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Greater Birmingham Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. In 2013 he was selected as a Master Bencher in the inaugural group of Masters of the Bench in the Judge James Edwin Horton Inn of Court at Cumberland School of Law. Also John has recently been listed in the Top 50 Alabama Super Lawyers for 2013-18 and listed in the Top 10 criminal defense attorneys in Alabama by the National Academy of Criminal Defense Attorneys. In March of 2014 he was named to membership in the National Association of Distinguished Counsel in the area of criminal defense. In May of 2014, he received the “Roderick Beddow Sr. Award” from the Alabama Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. The Beddow Award is the ACDLA’s highest honor and recognizes a lifetime achievement and service in the field of criminal defense.
John has spoken at numerous CLE programs over the last 30 years in Alabama and across the country devoted to the teaching and training of criminal defense lawyers.
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Recent Teaching History
Ernie Lewis
Executive Director, National Association for Public Defenders
Biography
Ernie Lewis received his undergraduate degree from Baylor University in 1969, a Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt University in 1973, and a Juris Doctoris (J.D.) from Washington University in 1977. He was a VISTA Volunteer in Minnesota in 1970. He was with the Department of Public Advocacy from 1976 until 2008 in several different capacities, including appellate lawyer, local assistance branch manager, directing attorney of the Richmond Trial Office, and Regional Manager for the Central Kentucky Region.
He was appointed Kentucky Public Advocate in 1996, overseeing the statewide public defender system, and served in that capacity until 2008 when he retired from state government. From 1985 until 2015, he taught at the National College of Criminal Defense located at Mercer Law School in Macon, Georgia. He served for two years as Chair of the American Council of Chief Defenders from 2006-2007. He has worked on indigent defense issues with various groups in Georgia, North Carolina, Minnesota, Texas, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, and Louisiana. In 2000, he was named Outstanding Lawyer by the Kentucky Bar Association. In 2007, he was given the Champion of Indigent Defense Award by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. In 2008, he was given the Chief Justice’s Special Service Award. He received the Department of Public Advocacy’s Professionalism and Excellence Award in 2003 and the Nelson Mandela Award in 2009.
He served as Legislative Agent for the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers from 2009-2015. He was one of the founding board members of KACDL and served as the President of KACDL in 2016. He is active in teaching public defenders and consulting. Since January of 2014, he has been serving as the Executive Director of the National Association for Public Defense, an organization with over 22,000 members, including 130+ organizations.
Stephen Lindsay
Faculty Emeritus
Biography
Steve is a graduate of Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina where he graduated with Honors in Criminal Justice. Attending on both a football and baseball scholarship, Steve was also the recipient of a Dana Scholarship for academic excellence. Steve attended law school at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where he graduated with Honors. While in law school, Steve was a member of the Holderness Moot Court and was one of the directors of the Braxton Craven National Moot Court Competition.
Steve began his law career as an associate with the law firm of Elmore and Powell in Asheville where he lasted an incredible 10 months. With a hand-full of cases, and a positive attitude, Steve started his own law firm and has been running things that way ever since. He is presently in practice with Kerry Sutton and they have offices in Durham and Asheville, North Carolina.
Steve has been involved in several noteworthy cases over the years. Prior to law school he worked with lawyers in Raleigh on US v. McDonald, a well-known case concerning a military doctor who was convicted of murdering his wife and children. Not long after that, Steve worked in the Guilford County District Attorney’s Office while the Klan/Nazi trial was going on. This involved a march in the streets of Greensboro that erupted into a violent gun battle. In one of his earliest cases, Steve was trial and appellate counsel in United States v. Ross & Silvers, 844 F.2d 187 (4th Cir. 1988) used as Key Case for “What Constitutes ‘Counterfeit’ Obligation or Security of United States Within Statutory Provisions Setting Forth Criminal Penalty for Uttering or Dealing in Counterfeit Obligations or Securities,” 99 A.L.R. Fed. 243 (1990).
In more recent years, Steve has handled several high-profile murder cases. State v. Lippard involved two youngmen who murdered six people including two grandparents, two parents and a young child. Through the efforts of Steve and his co-counsel, Mr. Lippard avoided death sentences. Steve worked with Judy Clark on the Eric Rudolph case involving multiple bombings in the southeast, with Kerry Sutton on the Mike Peterson murder case in Durham (an author accused of bludgeoning his wife to death), and on US v. Locust, a federal trial in which the defendant was tried for the murder of a Park Ranger (government sought death but withdrew request at sentencing phase). Steve and Kerry Sutton successfully argued for the removal of the elected District Attorney in Durham, North Carolina. Tracy Kline, who replaced Mike Nifong of the infamous Duke Lacrosse cases, made numerous disparaging remarks about a local judge which triggered the action. Only once before in North Carolina history has an elected district attorney been ordered out of office.
Steve devotes between six and eight weeks a year to training programs, lectures and keynote addresses. He is a faculty member at the National Criminal Defense College (since 1996), at the Defender Advocacy Institute (University of Dayton law school since 1998), at the Federal Defender Trial Skills Institute (Case Western Law School since 2008), at the Institute for Criminal Defense Advocacy, and for Bill Daniels Trial Skills College (annual training for Georgia Academy of Criminal Defense Attorneys). Steve has published several articles including “Cross Examination in Capital Cases: May I have some … uh … sprinkles. Yes, some sprinkles,” THE CHAMPION (April 2001); “Storytelling: Why We Do It and How To Do It Better,” THE CHAMPION (December 1999); “Do You Hear What I Hear? Demonstrative Evidence Makes A Difference,” THE CHAMPION (June 1998); “Prosecutorial Abuse of Peremptory Challenges in Death Penalty Cases,” Campbell University Law Review, Fall, 1985 (cited by United States Supreme Court in Gray v. Mississippi, 481 U.S. 648, n. 19 (1987). Steve and his law partner are presently working on a book that focuses on the representation of college students accused of sexual misconduct under Title IX. They hope to publish this book in the near future; Steve is a Life Member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys (NACDL); and a Life Member of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys (GACDL).
He is a member of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice and the North Carolina Bar Association. He is admitted to practice in North Carolina, in the United States District Courts for Western, Middle and Eastern Districts of North Carolina, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. A father of three (Nicholas age 29, Harper age 17 and Carter who is 13), Steve enjoys spending his spare time being a good father/mother, reading good books, fishing, listening to good music, watching good movies, and cooking good meals.
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Recent Teaching History
Mark Loudon-Brown
Senior Attorney, Southern Center for Human Rights
Biography
Mark Loudon-Brown is a senior attorney in the Capital Litigation Unit of the Southern Center for Human Rights, where he represents people facing a death sentence at trial, on appeal, and in post-conviction. Prior to that, Mark was a public defender in the Criminal Defense Practice at The Bronx Defenders. While there, Mark served as a Supervising Attorney for two years and the Forensic Practice Supervisor, overseeing the office’s Forensic Practice Group and consulting on cases involving DNA evidence. After earning his J.D., he completed two years as a Prettyman Fellow at Georgetown Law, representing indigent clients charged with crimes and supervised third-year law students doing the same. He teaches a forensic science seminar at Georgia State College of Law.
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Recent Teaching History