Prof. Ryan Fortson and
Prof. Kristin Knudsen have joined the Justice Center faculty as of the Fall 2012 semester and will be teaching courses in the Justice and Legal Studies-Paralegal programs.
Ryan Fortson, Ph.D., J.D., joins the faculty as an Assistant Professor. He is a past adjunct faculty member with the Justice Center and the Political Science Department. Most recently he worked for the Alaska Legal Services Corporation (ALSC) as a staff attorney dealing primarily with family law, landlord/tenant relations, and public benefits cases. He is a partner of the Northern Justice Project, the only private civil rights law firm in Alaska. Prior to his ALSC work, Prof. Fortson was a senior associate with the law firm of Dorsey & Whitney LLP. His legal experience there included regulation of public utilities. Prof. Fortson received a J.D. from Stanford Law School, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities.
Kristin Knudsen, J.D., joins the faculty as an Assistant Professor and is a past adjunct faculty member for the Justice Center. She is the past Chair of the Alaska Workers' Compensation Appeals Commission where she presided over appeals hearings and drafted decisions and regulations. Prior to that Prof. Knudsen was a member of the Special Litigation Section of the Alaska Office of the Attorney General. She is currently in the judicial studies graduate program at the University of Nevada, Reno/National Judicial College. Her research concerns the role of lay members of mixed (lawyer and non-lawyer) administrative tribunals in Alaska compared with lay assessors of European mixed courts. Prof. Knudsen received a J.D. from Santa Clara University.
