Welcoming Remarks
Honorable Barbara J. Vigil
Chief Justice of the New Mexico Supreme Courts
 |
Justice Barbara J. Vigil was elected to the New Mexico Supreme Court in November, 2012, and took the oath of office on December 7, 2012. In 2014, she was unanimously elected by her colleagues to serve as Chief Justice, and has served in that capacity since April 4, 2014. Prior to her election to the high Court in 2012, Justice Vigil served as a district judge, and then chief judge, on the First Judicial District Court. The First Judicial District is comprised of Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and Los Alamos counties.
Justice Vigil served on the district court bench for over 12 years and presided over 16,000 court cases in the areas of complex civil litigation, family and domestic relations matters, child abuse and neglect cases, juvenile delinquency cases, criminal proceedings and appeals of administrative decisions. Justice Vigil is respected across the state of New Mexico as being a fair, dedicated and experienced judge.
As a licensed lawyer for over 28 years, Justice Vigil has served on numerous community and legal boards, committees and commissions, including the New Mexico Drug Court Advisory Board and the New Mexico Chief Judges Council. She also served as Chairperson of the Disproportionate Minority Contact Blue Ribbon Panel between 2006 and 2008.
Prior to being elected to the bench, Justice Vigil owned and operated her own law office in Santa Fe, handling a cross spectrum of cases for individuals and institutions. As a judge and lawyer for nearly three decades, Justice Vigil has extensive legal experience in both the public and private sectors in virtually every area of the law. Justice Vigil earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from New Mexico State University and her law degree from the University of New Mexico School of Law. Justice Vigil was raised in Santa Fe, and has resided in New Mexico her entire life
Keynote Speaker
Honorable Edward L. Chávez
Justice of the Supreme Court
 |
Justice Edward L. Chávez, born in Santa Fe, was appointed to the Supreme Court by Governor Bill Richardson and has served since March 10, 2003. Justice Chávez graduated from Eastern New Mexico University in 1978 with a B.B.A. degree. He went on to attend the University of New Mexico School of Law and received his Juris Doctor in 1981.
Throughout his 22 years in private practice, Justice Chávez was committed to people. He served as President of the Legal Aid Society of Albuquerque, Chairman of the UNM Mental Health Center and Chairman of the Disciplinary Board. In addition, he was a member of numerous civic and professional organizations. His dedication to higher education afforded him the opportunity to teach at the UNM School of Law as an Adjunct Instructor, and he also taught at the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. Justice Chávez is listed in Best Lawyers in America, and he is a Fellow in both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.
Faculty
Lisa Dignan
Lisa Dignan, M.Ed., CI and CT, is the Director of Communication Access and Development with the New Mexico Commission for Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Albuquerque. She directs the New Mexico Mentoring program for signed language interpreters and administers several contracts and programs focused on interpreter professional development. She previously served as Coordinator of Disability Services at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyoming for 13 years. Ms. Dignan is a nationally certified interpreter with over 20 years of interpreting experience in a broad range of community, post-secondary, video relay, legal, and coordinating capacities, and has long been involved with the Independent Living movement. She is the vice-chair of the New Mexico Council for Purchasing from Persons with Disabilities and chair of the Literacy Challenges Workgroup for the New Mexico Language Access Advisory Committee. She holds a Master of Arts in Adult Education from the University of Wyoming.
Paul Kippert
After spending some years in academia, Mr. Kippert began working for the State of New Mexico with the Department of Public Safety. Following several years there, he became the Contracts Attorney for the Department of Finance and Administration for eight years, then spent a year and a half working for the State Purchasing Division of the General Services Department. Currently, Mr. Kippert serves as an Assistant General Counsel for the Department of Finance and Administration. His career in state government has been focused primarily upon transactional law and procurement.
Deborah Mason
Deborah Mason is the Executive Director of Human Resources for the National Center for State Courts and has been with the NCSC since 1998. Additionally, she serves as faculty for the Institute for Court Management (ICM) and is an instructor at the University of Richmond. Prior to joining the NCSC staff, Ms. Mason worked for Virginia state government for 22 years in both the executive and judicial branches.
A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, Ms. Mason earned a Master’s degree in Public Administration and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Education. She also completed post baccalaureate work at the University of Richmond in Human Resources Management. She has worked in the human resources field as a practitioner for 30 years and is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) by the Human Resources Certification Institute.
Jonathan D. Mattiello
Jonathan D. Mattiello was appointed as the Executive Director of the State Justice Institute (SJI) in 2010, after serving three years as Deputy Director. SJI was established by federal law in 1984 (42 U.S.C. 10701 et seq.) to award grants to improve the quality of justice in the state courts. Prior to joining SJI, he served at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as a Budget Analyst working on resource management issues. Earlier in his career, he served as a Program Analyst at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and was detailed to the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations/Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee.
Mr. Mattiello is the recipient of numerous awards for service to SJI, DOJ, and DEA, including a Special Act Award for coordination and management of DOJ’s response to budgetary issues related to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He began his federal career as a Presidential Management Intern in 2001, and served six years in the U.S. Army National Guard. He holds a Masters in Public Affairs and B.A. in Communications from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; a Certificate in Legislative Studies from Georgetown University; and Certified Court Manager and Certified Court Executive credentials from the National Center for State Courts/Institute for Court Management.
Michele Oken
Michele Oken is an Administrator in the Central Civil Division, Los Angeles Superior Court, responsible for managing multiple units, including the Records Department, which maintains records for approximately 100 courtrooms. From 2006-2011, she was assigned as the Administrator for Interpreter Services, responsible for overseeing the assignment and supervision of 400 court interpreters in more than 100 languages in 50 court locations. While holding this position, Ms. Oken served on local and statewide committees that focused on employee relations as well as limited English proficiency. Prior to that, she held the position of Managing Court Reporter, assisting in the management of approximately 650 court reporters. Ms. Oken spent 22 years as an official court reporter for both Municipal and Superior Courts in Los Angeles and was a board member and officer of local and state court reporting associations. She has been a member of the National Court Reporters Association since 1978.
Ms. Oken is the current President of the National Association for Court Management. She was elected to the NACM Board as General Jurisdiction Director from 2008-2011 and has played an active role on many permanent and standing committees. From 2009-2011, she served as Membership Services Committee Chair and was instrumental in overseeing the creation of the Mentor Program, Hardship Program, and NACM Recruitment and Marketing Videos. For five years, she was chair of the hosts and reporters subcommittee of the Conference Development Committee. Ms. Oken served as Secretary-Treasurer 2011-2012, Vice President 2012-2013, and President Elect 2013-2014. As Vice President, she was responsible for chairing the Finance Committee, State Associations Subcommittee and acted as co-chair of the Forum on the Advancement of Court Technology (FACT). This past year, Ms. Oken chaired the Conference Development Committee and was responsible for overseeing the planning of the 2014 Midyear and Annual Conferences. In 2005, Ms. Oken founded an auxiliary fundraising chapter of the City of Hope Medical Center, The Hope Connection, which primarily raises money for pediatric cancer research.
Kimberly Papillon
Kimberly Papillon is a nationally recognized expert on the subject of decision-making in law, education, business and medicine. She has served as regular faculty at the National Judicial College since 2005. She has delivered over 200 lectures nationally and internationally on the implications of neuroscience, psychology and implicit association in the analysis of decision-making. She has lectured to medical students and medical school faculty, as well as physicians nationwide and in Australia on the neuroscience of decision-making in differential diagnosis and treatment. She has provided presentations to multiple audiences including Kaiser Permanente, Health Care Partners, California Association of Physician Groups, and Michigan State University School of Medicine. She has been appointed to the Georgetown University “think tank” for physician education at the National Center for Cultural Competence.
She has provided presentations to the judges of the High Court of New Zealand, the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia, the U.S. National Council of Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeal, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, the D.C. Court of Appeals, the United States Courts for the Ninth Circuit, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and numerous other national judicial organizations. She has delivered lectures to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the United States Department of Justice, the United States Department of Education, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the judiciaries of New York, California, Texas, Idaho, Louisiana, Arkansas, Indiana, Tennessee, Utah, Nebraska, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, Washington, Ohio, Arizona, Alaska and New Mexico. She regularly lectures to attorneys in private firms and corporations. She lectures to state bar associations nationwide as well as prosecutors, public defenders and police officers throughout the U.S.
She has been appointed to the National Center for State Courts, National Training Team on Implicit Bias a “think tank” for national judicial education. She has produced documentaries on neuroscience and judicial decision-making which have received national recognition. Her documentary on neuroscience and implicit association was made the centerpiece of the American Bar Association’s implicit bias education program for the Litigation Section. She is a member of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society.
Ms. Papillon is an attorney who previously served as a Senior Educator for the California Judicial Council. Prior to that she worked as an attorney in large law firms representing Fortune 500 Companies, government entities and tech start-ups. Kimberly has a BA degree from U.C. Berkeley and a JD degree from Columbia University School of Law.
Roger Robb
Roger Robb is the Training and Development Coordinator at the New Mexico Commission for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (NMCDHH). Mr. Robb’s responsibilities include developing and updating presentations and providing presentations and trainings. He has provided presentations to 911 dispatchers, Social Security Administration offices, Assisted Living facilities, New Mexico Game and Fish, Domestic Violence shelters, Albuquerque Police Department, and the police cadets at Albuquerque Police Academy. The presentations he has provided include topics such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, Effective Communication, Emergency Preparedness, HIV Awareness, and Deaf Sensitivity. Mr. Robb is currently developing videos for NMCDHH covering a variety of topics in American Sign Language with English captions. He is an Albuquerque native who relocated back to New Mexico from Atlanta, Georgia.
Judge Paul Van Grunsven
Paul Van Grunsven has been a circuit court judge for Milwaukee County since 2004 where at present he presides in the civil division. He graduated from Marquette University’s Pre-Med Program with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. Judge Van Grunsven graduated from Marquette University Law School in 1986 and in 1995, received his LL.M. in Health Law from De Paul University’s Health Law Institute.
Prior to taking the bench he practiced civil litigation for 17 years, taught as an adjunct professor at Marquette University Law School, and published articles in legal and medical journals on health law and litigation. Judge Van Grunsven co-authored Health Care Law which was published by ALI-ABA in March 2001 and has lectured extensively on health law, health care issues and trial practice. He is the past President of the Milwaukee Trial Judges Association and serves as current faculty for the Judicial College. He is a former member of the Committee to Improve Interpreting and Translation in the Wisconsin Courts. In September 2009, Judge Van Grunsven was a scholarship recipient for the Sir Richard May seminar on International Law and International Courts in The Hague, Netherlands.