Helix Advisory Committee

B. Afton Cavanaugh joined the University of Baltimore School of Law faculty as an Assistant Professor of Law in 2024 after serving for over seven years as a Service Professor of Law and Assistant Dean at St. Mary's University School of Law, where he led bar and academic success initiatives and taught courses in legal writing and bar preparation. At St. Mary’s, he helped develop an innovative curriculum for online and in-person J.D. programs, focusing on improving legal education accessibility and effectiveness. Professor Cavanaugh’s scholarship examines estate law and legal education reform, with work published in the UMKC Law Review, Hofstra Law Review, and The Scholar.

Erin Crist is the Assistant Dean for Academic Achievement, Program Assessment, and Bar Preparation and an Assistant Clinical Professor at University of Chicago (UIC) School of Law. Prior to joining UIC, Dean Crist was the Director of Academic and Bar Success and Adjunct Professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law.

She received her Juris Doctorate from Loyola University Chicago School of Law and bachelor’s degree from Colorado College.

Keri Foster has been a member of the Helix Advisory Committee since its inception and is currently the Director of Academic Success and Bar Preparation at Howard University School of Law. She has worked in the academic support and bar preparation space for nearly 15 years. Before moving into law school education, she practiced corporate law at a large law firm.

Marsha Griggs is a Professor of Law at Saint Louis University, and she is the president of the Association of Academic Support Educators (AASE). Professor Griggs is an impactful scholar whose publications address regulatory licensing and the legal profession. Her recent articles, Bar Examination: A Verb, Not a Noun (Washington University Journal of Law and Policy) and Outsourcing Self-Regulation (Washington and Lee Law Review), examine new pathways to attorney licensure and the regulatory impact of outsourcing bar exam oversite to private parties. Her other works Building a Better Bar Exam, An Epic Fail, and Race Rules and Disregarded Reality examine key failings in law school education and bar licensure.

Professor Griggs is a graduate of Northwestern University and Notre Dame Law School. She is admitted to practice in Colorado and Texas. She also serves actively on the executive boards of the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT), CASA of St. Louis, the Mound City Bar Association, and the Association of American Law Schools Section on Professional Responsibility.

Associate Dean Hinds-Glick has 19 years of experience in preparing students for the bar exam. She is proud to have assisted over 3,000 students achieve licensure to date. She has a particular interest in how bar preparation deals with the needs of neurodivergent candidates.

As the Director of Academic Success, Danielle Bifulci Kocal is involved in all aspects of her law students’ academic careers, from pre-orientation to bar exam preparation. In addition to her work at Pace, she is very involved in the national academic support community, having served in leadership positions for both regional and national organizations. 

Antonia ("Toni") Miceli is the inaugural Director of the Bar Exam Success Program at Arizona State University College of Law and a nationally recognized expert on bar exam preparation and legal education. A former president of the Association of Academic Support Educators, she has worked extensively on integrating bar exam and practice-ready skills into the law school curriculum. Professor Miceli is a leading voice on the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam, contributing to national initiatives that develop innovative teaching strategies and curricular resources to help law students prepare for the evolving exam.

Goldie Pritchard currently serves as Assistant Dean of the Academic Success Program at Michigan State University College of Law. Dean Pritchard is most proud of her work with non-traditional and academically at-risk students, and she cherishes the students she helped become lawyers who now serve clients in their respective communities. She embraces the challenge of deciphering how to best support individual students as they prepare to become academically successful and succeed on the bar exam.

Marques Rice is the Director of Bar Preparation and Academic Support Initiatives at University of North Texas Dallas College of Law. He previously worked in academic support at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law, formerly known as The John Marshall Law School ('04). His career in legal academia follows 10 years of civil litigation practice marked by expertise in administrative, appellate, tort, and employment law.

Preyal Shah is the Assistant Dean for Academic Success at South Texas College of Law Houston, where she directs all first-year programming focused on essential law school study skills. With over 16 years of experience, she has developed and managed academic success and bar readiness programs at three other law schools: St. Mary's University School of Law, University of North Texas Dallas College of Law, and New York Law School. Dean Shah is dedicated to fostering student success and finds great fulfillment in working directly with law students.

Tania Shah is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Academic Success Department at Western State College of Law in Irvine, California. Professor Shah owns LawTutors, LLC (a legal education company) and has been a business attorney for almost 25 years. She published The Ultimate Guide to the Uniform Bar Exam in 2021 with Aspen Publishing, and she has published three books through Aspen Publishing related to the bar exam.

Liz Stillman has taught at Suffolk University Law School since July 2000 and is currently an Associate Professor of Academic Support. Professor Stillman also teaches in the LL.M. program and Suffolk University’s undergraduate Political Science and Legal Studies Department.

Before leaning into legal education, she worked as an Assistant Corporation Counsel in the New York City Law Department’s Family Court Division where she tried hundreds of juvenile delinquency cases and ultimately held the title of Assistant Deputy Borough Chief in the Manhattan office.  

Professor Stillman received her J.D. from Northeastern School of Law and her B.A. in Social Psychology from Tufts University.