SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Stephen D. Villavaso is a land use/zoning attorney and a city planner specializing in smart growth, comprehensive planning, land use law and zoning with over thirty-nine years of experience.   His firm is currently working on several master plans and zoning codes across the State of Louisiana -- the towns of Covington, Folsom,  Livingston, and Sulphur to name a few.  Steve is an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Planning and Urban Studies at the University of New Orleans teaching Land Use Law, Development Practices and Grant writing.  He is the immediate Past-President of the Louisiana Chapter of the American Planning Association and a national Fellow of the College of the American Institute of Certified Planners. 

Stephanie Showalter is the Director of the National Sea Grant Law Center at the University of Mississippi. Ms. Showalter has served as the director of the Law Center for over four years. Stephanie received a B.A. in History from Penn State University and a joint J.D./Masters of Studies in Environmental Law degree from Vermont Law School. Ms. Showalter oversees a variety of legal education, research, and outreach activities, including providing legal research services to Sea Grant constituents on ocean and coastal law issues. Ms. Showalter holds adjunct positions at the University of Mississippi School of Law teaching such courses as Ocean and Coastal Law and Wetlands Law and Regulation. Ms. Showalter’s research on natural resources, marine, and environmental law issues has been published in a variety of publications. Recent works include Will California Law Apply to Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute’s Offshore Aquaculture Demonstration Project? An Analysis of the Extraterritorial Application of State Aquaculture Laws published in the West-Northwest Journal of Environmental Law and Policy. Ms. Showalter’s duties also include the supervision of law student research and writing projects and providing assistance to organizations and governmental agencies with interpretation of statutes, regulations, and case law. Ms. Showalter is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania and Mississippi.

Niki L. Pace is a staff attorney with the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program in Oxford, Mississippi where she works on environmental law issues related to coastal and marine environments. She provides legal research and analysis for Sea Grant projects and her work often focuses on coastal land use and climate resiliency. She serves as editor of Water Log, a quarterly legal newsletter. She also teaches climate change law and energy law as an adjunct professor at the University of Mississippi School of Law. She holds a B.S. from the University of Southern Mississippi and both a J.D. and an LL.M. in Environmental and Natural Resources Law from Lewis & Clark Law School. She is a Mississippi native and grew up on the waters of the Mississippi Gulf coast.

Benjamin E. Griffith is a partner in the Cleveland, Mississippi firm of Griffith & Griffith and enjoys a multistate civil litigation practice with emphasis on Voting Rights Act litigation, civil rights defense, environmental law and public sector insurance defense. He earned his J.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1975, has served as Board Attorney for the seventeen (17) county Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Joint Water Management District since 1989 and served 21 years as Board Attorney for the Bolivar County Board of Supervisors. He is chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Election Law and a member of the ABA House of Delegates. He also serves as International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA) State Chair for Mississippi, and has served as past-chair of IMLA’s Counties and Special Municipal Districts Department, recipient of the IMLA Distinguished Public Service Award, and chair of the IMLA’s International Committee. He is past chair of the American Bar Association Section of State and Local Government Law and is a member of its governing Council. He is also a member of Defense Research Institute’s Governmental Liability Committee and Past President of the National Association of County Civil Attorneys, an American Bar Foundation Fellow, an IMLA Local Government Fellow, a Fellow of the International Society of Barristers, and since 1994 Board Certified in Civil Trial Advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. He has authored many publications, including America Votes! A Guide to Modern Election Law and Voting Rights (ABA 2008, Supp. 2009), and has been invited to speak on legal issues within his expertise at over 90 seminars and conferences throughout the country and internationally.  He is married to the former Kathy Lee Orr of Batesville, and they have two children, Clark and Julie.