Skip Links

Find an Expert View All Stories

Topic: Law

David Heska Wanbli Weiden

By

David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Ph.D.; JD, an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota nation, is a professor of Native American Studies and Political Science at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

His academic scholarship involves Native American issues, law and political science, and he’s an attorney, licensed to practice in all Colorado state courts. Weiden is an alumnus of Vona, a Tin House Scholar, a 2018 MacDowell Colony Fellow, and a 2019 Ragdale Foundation resident. He received the 2018 PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship. He is the fiction editor for Anomaly, journal of international literature and arts (www.anmly.org), and he teaches writing at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver.

Weiden novel Winter Counts is forthcoming August 2020 from Ecco/HarperCollins, as is the second book in the series, Wounded Horse. Winter Counts is the story of a local Native American enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation who becomes obsessed with finding and stopping the dealer who is bringing increasingly dangerous drugs into his community. It’s a Native thriller, an examination of the broken criminal justice system on reservations and a meditation on Native identity. Both novels will be published in France by Gallmeister Editions.

He’s published or has work forthcoming in Shenandoah, Yellow Medicine Review, Transmotion, Criminal Class Review, Tribal College Journal and other magazines. His children’s book, Spotted Tail, will be released in 2019.

A first-generation college student, he received his MFA in creative writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts, his J.D. from the University of Denver Strum College of Law and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Lorenzo Trujillo

By

Lorenzo A. Trujillo, Ed.D., J.D., is an affiliate professor in the Department of Music at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He is also the director and founder of the mariachi ensemble and the mariachi program called Los Correcaminos de MSU Denver.

Trujillo began playing mariachi and traditional southwest Hispanic music as a teenager with the Mariachi Alegre and the Southwest Musicians. He is now the director of the Southwest Musicians and was appointed to Direttore della Musica Sacra Ispanico of the Conservatory of Music for the Cathedral/Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver in 2016. Trujillo began teaching at MSU Denver in 2015 and became the first professor to teach a mariachi program at the University. He is also a practicing attorney at his own firm, Trujillo Legal, specializing in estate planning and business nonprofit and education law. Trujillo has received several awards over the years, with the most recent ones being inducted into the Colorado Chicano Music Hall of Fame in 2009; and was presented with the Tesoro Cultural Center’s Tesoro de Oro Award in 2011.

Trujillo has presented thousands of concerts and lecture demonstrations and has published extensively about traditional music and dance of the southwestern United States over the past 40 years. He has also published work on education policy, such as “Education of Latino Youth: Early Childhood Education, K-12, Access to Higher Education.” “Dream Act: Discussion and Testimony before the U.S. Senate Democratic Hispanic Task Force.” In addition, he has recorded and performed for television and radio and on numerous CDs, with his most popular CD being “The Golden Age of the Southwest: From 1840 to Hollywood.”

Trujillo received his juris doctorate from the University of Colorado Law School in 1993 and his doctorate in education from the University of San Francisco in 1979.

Whitney Traylor

By

Whitney Traylor, J.D., is an retired associate professor in the Department of Management at Metropolitan State University of Denver. His areas of expertise include corporate law (employment, civil rights, business, litigation), race issues, work/life balance and workplace issues. Traylor taught Legal Environment of Business and Employment Law during his time as an MSU Denver professor.

He has taught numerous other courses at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, including Race and the Law, Employment Discrimination and Higher Education and the Law. Traylor in 2003 founded his practice, the Traylor Law Group, where he works as the managing principal. His experience includes a diverse spectrum of civil litigation, specializing in civil rights and employment matters. Traylor has earned a high success rate at trials, winning more than 95% of his cases. In 2007, the Traylor Law Group secured one of the largest non-class-action employment-discrimination verdicts in the history of Colorado when the jury awarded his two clients $3,225,000.

He is often called on by local and national media to provide commentary on various legal matters in Colorado and throughout the nation. During the past 10 years, Traylor has been featured over 100 times locally, nationally and internationally in print and on radio and television to provide legal, political and social commentary on a wide variety of topics. He is also the author of the parenting book “Dad Under Construction.”

Traylor earned his Doctor of Law degree from Emory School of Law in 1996 and his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Morehouse College in 1993.

Cory Tipton

By

Cory Tipton, J.D., is an affiliate faculty in the School of Hospitality at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She teaches courses on alcohol beverage law and hospitality law.

Tipton has been the vice president of The Tipton Law Firm since 2007. She has nearly 15 years of experience practicing law and extensive expertise with clients in various administrative fields including all areas of liquor licensing and alcohol beverage regulation, as well as casino gaming licensing in the state of Colorado. Tipton specializes in assisting new breweries, wineries, distilleries, beverage distributors, and retail liquor stores. She has also assisted related trade organizations in the legislative and governance aspects of the alcohol beverage industry.

Prior to law, Tipton pursued a career in aviation as a commercial pilot for the airlines and still holds a pilot license. She continues to work in aviation on the administrative side of aviation law. She is also the current chair of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Colorado Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Tipton received her juris doctor from University of Denver and a bachelor’s summa cum laude in aerospace science from Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Alexandre Padilla

By

Alexandre Padilla, Ph.D., is the chair and professor of the Department of Economics at Metropolitan State University of Denver. His areas of expertise include insider trading, business economics, stock exchanges, securities and regulation, economic analysis of political decisions and business ethics. He is currently teaching Principles of Microeconomics.

Padilla has taught at MSU Denver since 2002. He serves as the director of the Exploring Economic Freedom Project at MSU Denver, which educates students and the general public about the role of economic and political freedom in promoting entrepreneurship, economic growth, prosperity and peace.

He has published several academic papers on insider trading in the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, Commentaries in Law & Economics and Florida State Business Review. His current research involves studying how insider trading is perceived among academics and nonacademics. Other research interests include studying self-governance mechanisms in nontraditional industries and economic policy related to immigration.

Padilla earned his doctorate, master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Economics from the University of Law, Economics and Science of Aix-Marseille III in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Denise Mowder

By

Denise Mowder, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Metropolitan State University of Denver where she currently teaches classes in criminal justice ethics and victimology. Mowder has worked as an attorney and for more than 10 years as prosecutor in Oregon, where she has prosecuted cases involving domestic violence, child abuse and sexual assault. She specializes in trail practice, investigations and victim advocacy, and her research areas involve the impact of current immigration law, undocumented battered Latina women and the wrongful conviction of factually innocent.

Mowder received her Ph.D. in criminal justice from Washington State University in 2010, her J.D. from Willamette College of Law in 1994 and her bachelor’s from the University of Colorado Denver.

Elizabeth McVicker

By

Elizabeth McVicker, Ph.D., J.D., is a professor in the Department of Management at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

She serves as an advisor for student internships, independent studies, individualized degree program majors; and provides academic advice to management majors, MBA students and students interested in pursuing a study of law. McVicker was instrumental in the creation of MSU Denver’s One World One Water Center (OWOW) and the Water Studies curriculum. She also has her own practice.

Her service to the community includes serving on the boards of a water conservancy district, a water enterprise authority, a nation-wide water consortium serving coalitions and collaborations focused on water quality and restoration after major fires and floods and a state-wide basin roundtable. In 2011, McVicker received the Outstanding Women Award from the Institute of Women’s Studies and Services at MSU Denver, as well as the College of Business Dean’s Award for Overall Faculty Excellence.

Her research interests include legal issues surrounding constitutional law, employment and labor law; and water law within the context of regional, national and international perspectives.

McVicker received her juris doctorate from University of Denver, doctorate in Spanish language and literature from New York University, master’s from Johns Hopkins University and bachelor’s from University of Texas. She is a licensed attorney in the state of Colorado in good standing and is current with all required continuing legal education classes.

Chris Jennings

By

Chris Jennings, Ed.D. is chair and professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Production at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

He has over two decades of experience in the media education field. Jennings has held positions as training analyst, instructional designer, director of digital media services, digital media producer, consultant and adjunct teaching faculty. He worked as education program specialist at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. In addition to teaching, Jennings was assistant director for An Adventure of the American Mind Grant at MSU Denver. He is a member of several professional organizations including e-Learning Consortium of Colorado, American Society of Training and Development, International Society of Performance Improvement and Society of Technical Communications. Jennings received the Humanitarian Service Medal, Expeditionary Medal (Panama), Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal and the National Defense Medal for his service in the U.S. Army.

His research interests include interactive realities, virtual realities, streaming media, usability testing and human factors with technology. Jennings has authored and co-authored several books with the most recent one in 2010 titled “Educational Virtual Environment Methodologies: Second Life as an Instructional Tool” a textbook for the University of Wyoming. He has given many presentations around the country and on a few occasions in China about the use of media and technology in education.

Jennings received his Doctor of Education in instructional technology from the University of Wyoming in 2010, a master’s in multimedia technologies from Regis University in 2002 and a bachelor’s in speech communication from MSU Denver in 1996.

Gregory Clifton

By

Gregory Clifton, JD, is the chair of the Department of Accounting at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He earned his law degree at Thomas M. Cooley Law School and an LLM in Taxation from the University of Denver. Clifton is licensed to practice law in Colorado and federal courts of Colorado and Georgia. He has also practiced in the US Tax Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Clifton continues to operate a small private practice advising small businesses and individuals on tax matters.