[{"id":3242,"date":"2026-02-12T07:32:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T13:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/lawreview\/?page_id=3242"},"modified":"2026-02-16T14:37:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T20:37:01","slug":"2026-ben-j-altheimer-symposium-panelists","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/lawreview\/2026-symposium\/2026-ben-j-altheimer-symposium-panelists\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Ben J. Altheimer Symposium Panelists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Panel 1: Advancing a More Effective Juvenile Justice System<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\"Justice<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Justice Rhonda K. Wood<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Justice Rhonda K. Wood is in her twentieth year on the judicial bench.  She was elected and served six years as a circuit judge, she was elected and served two years on the Arkansas Court of Appeals and was elected to the Arkansas Supreme Court in 2014 and reelected in 2022. She is in her twelfth year as an Associate Justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice Wood serves many legal organizations. Justice Wood has been Chair of the Supreme Court\u2019s Commission on Children, Youth, and Families since 2014. She presided over a Juvenile Drug Court and Teen Court. She has served in many judicial leadership roles both in Arkansas and nationally. Justice Wood has focused the last twenty years on juvenile justice and child welfare reform and automation reform. She co-hosted a national podcast Lady Justice: Women of the Court and she contributes annually to the Green Bag Annual Almanac on Exemplary Legal Writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice Wood earned her B.A. with distinction in politics, magna cum laude, from Hendrix College, and her J.D. from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Bowen School of Law with highest honors. She received the highest score on the Arkansas Bar Exam. She was the 1st<\/sup> recipient of the Bowen School of Law\u2019s Dean\u2019s Distinguished Certificate of Service by serving 300 hours of community service during law school.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Drew<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Drew Shover, M.S. M.S.H.E.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Drew Shover is currently the chief juvenile probation Officer for Benton County, with over 30 years of experience in juvenile justice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout his career, Drew has worked with incarcerated youth and the court system in various roles, including detention administrator, juvenile probation officer, and intake officer. He currently serves on the Arkansas Supreme Court Commission for Children, Youth, and Families as the data chair and as the county Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) coordinator through the Annie E. Casey Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While with the juvenile court, Drew conducted three years of research on youth detained for domestic violence at the juvenile detention center and wrote a grant to convert part of the center into the first nationally recognized state-licensed residential shelter within a juvenile justice complex. Placement in this facility provides an alternative to detention, as well as case management for community re-entry and aftercare services. Drew is approaching the completion of his Doctor of Education at Purdue University to further support his work in juvenile justice through data collection, research, and development.   <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Brenda<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Brenda Stallings<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Attorney Brenda Stallings is a 1993 cum laude graduate of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) and a 1996 graduate of the William H. Bowen School of Law. She is licensed to practice law in Arkansas, Michigan, and Tennessee and has practiced for 30 years, with her entire career grounded in community service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She previously served as a staff attorney for the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court Division 1 and The Center for Arkansas Legal Services. She currently works for the Pulaski County Public Defender\u2019s Office, representing Arkansas\u2019 most vulnerable populations. In 2025, Stallings prevailed in a federal racial discrimination lawsuit against the Arkansas Public Defender Commission, reaffirming her longstanding commitment to justice and equity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stallings is an adjunct professor and mentor at William H. Bowen School of Law and a certified law enforcement instructor at the Criminal Justice Institute. She is also certified as both a Dependency-Neglect and Domestic Relations Attorney ad Litem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stallings serves as President of the W. Harold Flowers Law Society and the UAPB\/AM&N Pulaski County Alumni Chapter. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.\u00ae, Full Counsel Metro Church, a Life Member of the Arkansas Democratic Black Caucus, and a PRIDE member of the UAPB\/AM&N National Alumni Association. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Panel 2: Transforming Juvenile Justice Through Law, Policy, and Practice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Ken Schmetterer<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Ken<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ken Schmetterer is a litigation attorney at DLA Piper.\u00a0Ken maintains a significant pro bono practice, most recently in matters involving prisoner rights, reentry and clemency efforts, federal civil rights claims, mental health support, and sexual exploitation. He consistently serves on or assists non-profit organizations and boards, including those advancing youth defense and youth justice (including the Gault Center), reentry and mentoring support, education equity, social\/emotional learning, and restorative practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among his other policy advocacy efforts, Ken served as a leader of DLA Piper\u2019s large-scale signature Juvenile Justice Project. As part of this effort, he served as the senior editor of From Juvenile Court to the Classroom: The Need for Effective Child Advocacy<\/em>, a substantial policy study assessing and working to improve the transition of children from the juvenile court system back to school. Ken has authored other policy studies on topics involving policing in schools and bail for children. He has co-authored four amicus briefs for the American Bar Association before the United States Supreme Court supporting youth in the criminal justice system, and he recently served as a guest lecturer at Lewis University\u2019s Corrections class.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Caren Harp<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Caren<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Harp was appointed by President Donald J. Trump to serve as Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, in the U.S. Department of Justice, from 2018 to 2021. Harp is a former director of the National Juvenile Justice Prosecution Center at the American Prosecutors Research Institute, and she served as Chief of the Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit in the Family Court Division of the New York City Law Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her career, Ms. Harp spent 20 years on the prosecution side of the court system, either prosecuting cases or training prosecutors, and five years as a public defender. As a deputy prosecutor in Arkansas, she prosecuted a variety of cases including sexual assault, robbery and murder. As the current deputy public defender in Columbia County, Arkansas, she defends indigent clients charged with all major felonies, drug offenses and murder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Harp also served for five years as an Associate Professor at Liberty University School of Law where she taught writing courses, legal methods, basic and advanced trial advocacy and professional responsibility. Ms. Harp is admitted to practice in Arkansas and New York.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Jennifer Brinkman<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Jennifer<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jennifer Brinkman is an Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Children\u2019s Law Center Clinic at Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College of Law. She teaches and writes in the areas of child and family law, juvenile justice, and trauma-informed legal practice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before entering academia, she served as a judicial law clerk to Justice Michelle M. Keller of the Kentucky Supreme Court and spent years representing children and adults as a public defender. Her work focuses on improving advocacy for children through ethical practice, policy development, and experiential legal education.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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