FHSU University Relations and Marketing

Deanell Reece Tacha, attorney, former judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals, professor and now a university administrator, will speak on “The Minerals, the Courts, and Me” at 3 p.m. Thursday, April 13, in Fort Hays State University’s Albertson Hall, room 169.

Her appearance is sponsored by the Department of Geosciences in FHSU’s Peter Werth College of Science, Technology and Mathematics.

Tacha, a Kansas native, has been a practicing attorney and a professor as well as a federal judge and university administrator. She is currently the Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean of the School of Law at Pepperdine University, Malibu, Calif.

“Our students identified her as someone who could inspire them by talking about her personal successes as a woman, as a Kansan, and as someone who grew up in a small town,” said Dr. Grady Dixon, chair of the Department of Geosciences.

“She also has history of working in the legal areas of oil and gas, which relate to our department,” he said.

She was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in 1986, a position she held to 2011. From 2001 to 2007, she served the 10th Circuit as chief judge. The 10th Circuit oversees the federal court districts of Colorado and Kansas.

Tacha earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Kansas in 1968 and her juris doctorate from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1971.

For more information, contact Dixon at [email protected] or by phone at (785) 628-5389.

More information on Tacha is available at law.pepperdine.edu/faculty-research/deanell-reece-tacha/.