The Military Spouse JD Network is a volunteer-run organization dedicated to supporting military families in the legal profession. An active Board of Directors oversees all of MSJDN’s programs and engagements that are then put into action by our committee leadership. Our Board and Committee volunteers work hard to keep the organization moving forward, meeting the needs of our members, and improving the lives of military families. MSJDN is very pleased to introduce our new leadership for the 2017-2018 year:

President: Libby Jamison

Libby Jamison has been an active member of MSJDN since 2012, including two years on the Board as Communications Director from 2013-2015. In addition to her work with MSJDN, Libby has volunteered with Junior League, Hire Heroes USA, legal aid, and her local spouse groups. In 2014, Libby was recognized by Jacksonville Area Legal Aid for Outstanding Pro Bono service and by the Jacksonville Junior League with their Community Service award; in 2015, she was named as the AFI Military Spouse of the Year for Naval Station Newport. Libby works with the Department of Veterans Affairs as counsel at the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. She is married to a Navy helicopter pilot; his career has taken them to California, Florida, Rhode Island, and Virginia. Libby is admitted to practice in California, Washington State, and before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Immediate Past President: Josie Beets

Josie Beets served as the 2016-2017 President and previously balanced President-Elect duties with her role as the State Licensing Coordinator. Josie has been involved with MSJDN as a member since late 2011, including the launch of Justice for Military Families program, which was the first national military program to serve not just the servicemember but the families as well. Josie is passionate about supporting underserved communities, grassroots organizing, and public service. She previously served as Public Policy Coordinator for the Tennessee Bar Association, managing development of legislation and public policy positions affecting law and the legal profession. She is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, Tennessee Bar Association, American Bar Association, National Association of Bar Executives, Women’s Bar Association of DC, and an attorney member of the National Association of Women Judges. She is married to an Army Officer stationed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and is mom to two energetic children.

President Elect: Katherine Goyette

Katherine Lee Goyette prosecuted in southern Colorado as a Deputy District Attorney for two years under a military spouse law license prior to PCS-ing to Fort Sill, OK in the summer of 2017. Katherine is currently appointed as an Associate Editor of the American Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division Affiliate Blog Team. She has previously worked as a legislative attorney for the Kansas Legislature for five years. Katherine has served as co-chair of the Diversity Committee of the Kansas Bar Association and is actively involved with MSJDN, having previously served on the board as Treasurer-Elect and helping with rule change efforts in Kansas, Missouri, West Virginia, Missouri and New Mexico. Katherine is an avid cyclist and has completed multiple long-distance races, including an Ironman 70.3 and Ironman-distance (140.6) triathlons.

Governance Director/Secretary: Erin Noble

Erin Noble has practiced federal sector employment law for 15 years.  She is a member of the Virginia bar.  She has been married for 12 years and has two children.  Her husband serves on active duty in the U.S. Army.  Her father retired from the U.S. Navy after over 20 years of service.  After a successful cross-country move in 2016, her family currently lives in Washington State where her husband is stationed at Joint Base Lewis McChord. Erin is serving in her second year as MSJDN’s Governance Director.

Treasurer: Alyn Beauregard

Alyn B. Beauregard has been involved with MSJDN since 2012, when she was a first year law student in San Diego.  She currently works in Washington, DC, as an attorney at a federal agency regulating the banking industry.  She previously worked as a law clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.  Alyn is a Fellow to the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section, and is actively involved in the Business & Corporate Litigation Committee and the Banking Law Committee.  She is admitted to practice law in California, Delaware, and North Carolina.  In addition to her professional involvement, Alyn is also active in the UNC Alumni Association and the Daughters of the American Revolution, and volunteers through her church.  In 8 years of marriage to a naval aviator, Alyn and her husband have experienced 3 PCS moves, 2 deployments, 14 months of geo-baching, and 3 bar exams.  Alyn previously served as the MSJDN Pennsylvania State Licensing Director.

Treasurer Elect: Kelley Scrocca

Colleen “Kelley” is licensed to practice in 6 states (and took the bar in ALL of them).  She graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School and then went on to get her LLM in Estate Planning from the University of Miami.  She started practicing law for a boutique firm in Philadelphia where she specialized in small estates and estate administration. She then moved to a big firm in Wilmington, Delaware, where she worked with high net-worth clients, provided document drafting and review to large banks and trust companies specifically to take advantage of Delaware’s favorable trust laws, and worked on a myriad of other estate and tax related projects. A few years later she met her military husband.  She quit her law job and moved with him to Korea.  Since then she has moved 5 times, travelled to 16 countries, and had 3 kids.  Currently she is living in northern Minnesota with her 3 kids while her husband is deployed in Kuwait.  In Fall 2017, they will move to Ft. Bragg, where he will continue stateside in his current role as Director of Public Affairs for XVIII Airborne Corps; she hopes to find employment or legal volunteer opportunities.  Kelley is active in community chorus and loves hiking, geocaching, and reading

Communications Director: Johanna Thibault

Johanna Thibault has been actively involved with MSJDN since January 2015 working on state licensing efforts in Tennessee. In July 2015, she took over as Tennessee State Licensing director, and further stepped into the role as MSJDN Blog Manager in November 2015.  Johanna is an environmental and energy law attorney that grew up in the military with a father in the Air Force for 20 years, and then married her law school sweetheart ten years ago before he joined the Army JAG Corps. Johanna is barred in Vermont and Virginia and has clerked for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in D.C. and served as a legal assistance attorneyfor nearly two years at Fort Lee in Virginia. During her husband’s tour in Germany, she obtained her LL.M. in Environmental Law, and currently teaches energy law at Vermont Law School and Tulsa School of Law for their online degree programs. She is also Of Counsel for a solo practitioner in Vermont and a Volunteer Associate for Plains Justice, a not for profit organization that provides a legal and scientific voice for northern Great Plains communities. Her husband recently resigned from active duty, and they relocated back to Vermont where he continues to serve in the reserve corps.

Community and Events Director: Allison Chersicla

Allison Chersicla is passionate about using her law degree in the public service.  She started her legal career on active duty in the United States Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps at Fort Benning, Georgia and Fort Bliss, Texas.  She served in various roles including: administrative law attorney, special assistant US attorney, chief of legal client services, claims attorney and field screening officer.  Allison hails from New York and is a graduate of SUNY Buffalo Law School and Fordham University, where she met her husband, an active duty Army Infantry officer.  She is honored to serve her fellow military spouse attorneys as MSJDN’s Community and Events Director and looks forward to fostering community amongst the members and building on the tremendous foundation that MSJDN has established.

Homefront to Hired Director: Alex Spisak

Alex is an attorney at a large DC law firm where his practice involves mass complex tort litigation with a focus on product liability. He works with a team of attorneys serving as national counsel for a fortune 100 company in the defense of its nationwide litigation docket. Alex maintains an active pro bono practice, representing clients seeking asylum in the United States and volunteering at the Washington DC Landlord-Tenant Resource Center.

Membership Director: Dawn Gile

Dawn Gile has been a member of MSJDN since 2012 and has served on the Justice for Military Families committee, the pro bono initiative of the Military Spouse JD Foundation. She has been in private practice for approximately ten years and is presently an attorney with MacDonald Law Group, LLC, where her practice focuses on complex civil litigation, toxic torts, and insurance defense. She is the proud spouse of an Army soldier, with whom she has two girls. Originally from Illinois, she and her family now reside in Maryland. Dawn also volunteers her time by serving as a director on the Rockford University alumni association board. In the past, she has also served as the leader of her husband’s unit’s family readiness group. Dawn is admitted to practice law in Illinois, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.

Pro Bono Director: Tricia Petek

Tricia Petek is a native of Montana and a graduate of the Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana. She began volunteering with MSJDN and Justice for Military Families in June 2015 as an Intake Coordinator, and became the program’s Lead Intake Coordinator in March 2016. Tricia is licensed in Kansas, Missouri, and Montana, and previously practiced Family Law in Kansas and Missouri. Tricia’s spouse is an Air Force officer and they have two young children. Her family is currently stationed in Germany, where Tricia also volunteers with a spouses’ organization and the parent-teacher association at her son’s school.

State Licensing Director: Karen Scanlan

Karen is an attorney licensed in Illinois and is a native of Chicago.  She is married to a (retired) Army Simulations Officer. Before becoming an Army wife, Karen  practiced law with several small firms in and around Chicago.  Karen has been involved with MSJDN since 2011 and is committed to its mission of improving the lives of military spouses in the legal profession. Most recently, Karen has served as the Co-State Director for Florida for MSJDN’s State Licensing Committee, overseeing the efforts to enact a military spouse attorney licensing rule in the Sunshine State.  She is also a board member with the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations.  Karen and her husband have four little boys and reside near Miami, Florida.

At-Large: Lindsey Savage

Lindsey Savage has been an active member of MSJDN for several years, including her positions on the Board as the Membership Chair from 2014-2015, and more recently as the Governance Director from 2015-2016. She is an attorney, Navy spouse, and  mother of three. In the last ten years, Lindsey has lived and worked in New York, Japan, California, and Washington State. Lindsey also donates her time to her community by volunteering with Junior League and providing pro bono legal services to military families through our Justice for Military Families program and other non-profit organizations led by milspouses, such as Military Spouses of Strength. She is admitted to practice law in NY, CA, and WA, and before the U.S. Supreme Court.

At-Large: Rachael Brant

Rachael Brant has been involved with MSJDN since 2015 and is committed to its mission of supporting military spouses in the legal profession.  She is an attorney who focuses on health care law with experience in both the public and private sectors.  In addition to her civilian practice, Rachael is a Captain in the Army Reserve JAG Corps where she focuses on military justice/criminal law.  Her spouse is an active duty Army officer currently assigned to the Pentagon.  She is a member of the Florida bar (inactive) and the District of Columbia bar.

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MSJDN proudly welcomes this new Board of Directors to lead our many efforts into the next year. If you are a member interested in volunteering, please visit the committees page for more information and then reach out to the committee leader to get started. Our successes are only possible thanks to volunteer power!