Speaker Bios
Tyler Deaton: American Unity Fund
Tyler Deaton is the Senior Advisor to American Unity Fund. He works at the state and federal levels to advance nondiscrimination legislation by working with Republicans. Tyler’s first experience in the movement for LGBTQ freedom was in New Hampshire, where in 2011-2012 he helped lead the successful lobbying and electoral efforts to protect the freedom to marry in New Hampshire and preserve New Hampshire’s nondiscrimination laws. Tyler and his husband James split their time between Concord, New Hampshire and Washington, D.C.
Senator Doug Ricks: Idaho State Senate
For the past two years, Senator Ricks has served in the Idaho House of Representatives for District 34. It has been a humbling experience for him, and he has enjoyed serving his constituents with his fellow representatives. He watched Senator Pro Temp Brent Hill give many years of his life to serving his fellow man, so when he decided it was his time to retire Senator Ricks was prompted to try and follow in his footsteps. He is grateful for the opportunity to be representing District 34 in the Idaho Senate.
Kim Clark: Legal Voice
Kim Clark (she/hers) serves as serves as Senior Staff Attorney for Reproductive Rights, Health and Justice at Legal Voice, a legal advocacy organization that seeks to advance the rights of women and the LGBTQ community throughout the Pacific Northwest, especially those who experience multiple intersecting systems of oppression and discrimination.
Ritchie Eppink: ACLU Idaho
Ritchie Eppink started work for the ACLU of Idaho in May 2012. He was previously the Justice Architect for Idaho Legal Aid Services and, before that, a Fulbright Fellow. He graduated from the University of Idaho and the University of Virginia. Ritchie manages all aspects of the ACLU of Idaho’s litigation program.
Mistie Tolman: Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest and Hawai'i
Mistie Tolman is the Idaho State Director for Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest and Hawai‘i. A Political Science graduate of Boise State University, she has worked for a decade within the coalition working to add the words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the Idaho Human Rights Act, and was Co-Chair of Add the Words, Idaho for five years before coming to Planned Parenthood. Mistie was a back-to-back, two-time Pride Foundation Scholar and was awarded the Pam Day Baldwin Idaho Activist of the Year award in 2014, as well as a Boise Pride Elm Award in 2016. She has served on a national board of advocacy with Planned Parenthood Foundation of America, lifting patient voices and lived experiences, as well as the board of ITHAC (Idaho Transgender Health Advocacy Coalition) and is passionate about her work in reproductive rights and justice, particularly as they intersect with LGBTQ+ justice. She lives in Meridian, Idaho with her wife and an ever-rotating group of her children.
John Rumel: University of Idaho College of Law
John moved to Idaho in 1993, where he initially practiced law with a firm emphasizing products liability, professional malpractice, education and employment law. For the next sixteen years, he served as in-house General Counsel for the Idaho Education Association, the statewide teachers union. John represented the IEA, its local education associations and members in for a ranging from local school board hearings to the United States Supreme Court. His practice predominantly involved employment and labor law litigation and appeals in state and federal court. During that time, John lectured and wrote extensively on topics related to his practice and served as an adjunct instructor in both the University of Idaho's College of Law and College of Education.
John joined the College of Law as a full-time faculty member in 2011. He has primarily taught courses related to civil litigation, including Civil Procedure, Evidence, Remedies and Lawyering Process, as well as Law of the Workplace (employment, labor, employment discrimination and wage and hour law) and Education Law. John has also written and spoken extensively concerning these subject areas, having published numerous law review and other works and presented papers at statewide and national conferences. He also serves as a member of the Idaho Supreme Court’s Evidence Rules Advisory Committee.
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John received tenure at the College of Law in 2016 and was promoted to full Professor in 2018. He has received the University of Idaho Alumni Award for Excellence three times. In 2015, he received the Distinguished Lawyer Award, an award given by the Idaho State Bar “to an attorney (or attorneys) each year who has distinguished the profession through exemplary conduct and many years of dedicated service to the profession and to Idaho citizens.”
Brian Grim: Religious Freedom & Business Foundation
Brian Grim, Ph. D., is Religious Freedom & Business Foundation president, a corporate trainer, and the leading scholar on the socio-economic impact of faith and religious freedom. He is a TEDx speaker at the Vatican and a speaker at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos. Brian’s recent research finds that religion contributes $1.2 trillion to the U.S. economy annually, more than the combined revenues of companies including Apple, Amazon and Google. He is recent chair of the World Economic Forum’s faith council and he works closely with the United Nations Business for Peace platform. He is an affiliated scholar at Baylor University, Boston University, Georgetown University, and the Freedom Forum Institute. Brian is a Penn State alumnus and author of numerous works including The Price of Freedom Denied (Cambridge), World Religion Database (Brill), World’s Religions in Figures (Wiley) and Yearbook of International Religious Demography (Brill).
Rebekah Cudé: University of Idaho College of Law
Rebekah Cudé has been with the College of Law since 2013, and has been the Director of Student Affairs – Boise, since 2014. Ms. Cudé earned her law degree from the University of Idaho and was admitted to the Idaho State Bar in 1995. Following law school, Ms. Cudé clerked for two Second District Judges, Hon. Ida Rudolph Leggett and Hon. Ron Schilling. Ms. Cudé then served as the Tribal Prosecutor for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, before moving on to serve as a Deputy Attorney General for the Office of the Attorney General of Idaho, in the Criminal Division Appellate Unit. After a three-year stint as a Latah County Deputy Prosecutor, Ms. Cudé returned to the Criminal Division Appellate Unit of the OAG, ultimately serving as a Deputy Attorney General for the State of Idaho for more than ten years. Ms. Cudé has also practiced appellate criminal defense as a solo practitioner under contract with the Idaho State Appellate Public Defender, as well as worked with area family practitioners to provide them appellate research and writing support.
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Ms. Cudé is a member of several professional organizations including the American Association of Academic Support Educators, the National Association of Law Student Affairs Professionals, Attorneys for Civic Education (including two years as Co-Chair), and the Government & Public Sector Lawyers Section of the Idaho State Bar.