Our Global Restoration Project Team consists only of a few people, but we welcome others interested in helping in ways that match your time and energy. Contact us if you want to join the GRP Team or become a GRP colleague: Contact@GlobalRestorationProject.org
John W. Head
JohnHead@GlobalRestorationProject.org
John W. Head holds the Robert W. Wagstaff Distinguished Professorship at the University of Kansas, where he concentrates on international and comparative law.
He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri at Columbia, an English law degree from Oxford University (1977), and his US law degree from the University of Virginia (1979). Before starting an academic career, he worked in the Washington, DC office of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton (1980-1983), at the Asian Development Bank in Manila (1983-1988), and at the International Monetary Fund in Washington (1988-1990).
Both his teaching and his published works concentrate in the broad areas of international law, international business, and comparative law. Mr. Head’s principal books include Deep Agricology and the Homeric Epics; Global cultural reforms for a natural-systems agriculture (2021), A Global Corporate Trust for Agroecological Integrity: New agriculture in a world of legitimate eco-states (2019), Global Business Law: Principles and Practice of International Commerce and Investment (4th ed. 2018), International Law and Agroecological Husbandry: Building legal foundations for a new agriculture (2017), Legal Transparency in Dynastic China: The Legalist-Confucianist Debate and Good Governance in Chinese Tradition (2013, coauthored with Xing Lijuan), Global Legal Regimes to Protect the World’s Grasslands (2012), Great Legal Traditions: Civil Law, Common Law, and Chinese Law in Historical and Operational Perspective (2011, reprinted 2014), China’s Legal Soul (2009), Losing the Global Development War: A Contemporary Critique of the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO (2008), General Principles of Business and Economic Law (2008), The Future of the Global Economic Organizations (2005), Law Codes in Dynastic China: A Synopsis of Chinese Legal History in the Thirty Centuries from Zhou to Qing (2005, with Yanping Wang), and The Asian Development Bank (multiple editions, most recently co-authored with Xing Lijuan). He has also written numerous monographs, articles, and other works relating to international law, some of which have been published in Chinese and Indonesian.
Mr. Head has been awarded Fulbright teaching and research fellowships to China, Italy, and Canada and has also taught in Austria, Hong Kong, Jordan, Mexico, Mongolia, Turkey, and the United Kingdom and has undertaken special assignments in numerous locations for international financial institutions and development agencies.
Mr. Head is married to Lucia Orth, who is a lawyer, teacher, and novelist. They split their time between the mixed grasslands of northeast Kansas, the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and the Columbia Gorge in Washington.
Lijuan Xing
Dr. Xing Lijuan is a legal scholar who grew up in Dalian, China and currently holds a faculty position at Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, after having lived and worked for several years in the USA and Canada. She earned her Bachelor of Laws (2001) and Master of Laws (2004) from Dalian Maritime University (China), Ph.D. in Economics (International Trade Policies, 2007) from Dongbei Finance and Economics University (China), and Doctor of Judicial Science (S.J.D.) (International and Comparative Law, 2012) from the University of Kansas (the U.S.). She possesses earlier experiences of law teaching and legal research at Dongbei Finance and Economic University School of International Economics and Trade (2005-2008, China), University of Manitoba Robson Hall Faculty of Law (2012, Canada), and City University of Hong Kong School of Law (2013-2019, Hong Kong SAR). Her teaching and research center on the areas of international economic law, international trade law, Chinese law, comparative law, and maritime law. She has published monographs, book chapters, and journal articles, presented her works, and delivered guest lectures in diverse jurisdictions including the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, Hong Kong SAR, Korea, the U.K., Australia, and mainland China.
Emily Otte
Emily is an attorney holding a J.D. degree from the University of Kansas where she was involved in Women in Law and serves as the Executive Comments Editor for the Kansas Law Review. Prior to law school, she graduated from the University of Kansas with degrees in economics and mathematics and worked for a healthcare technology company. She has worked extensively in the U.S. District Courts system and in private law practice. Her special legal interest involve environmental law and justice. In her spare time, Emily bakes bread, reads fantasy novels, and doomscrolls.
Chloe Ketchmark
Chloe graduated from the University of Kansas School of Law in May 2022 with a J.D. degree. Prior to law school, she graduated from Boston University with a degree in pure and applied mathematics. She also worked as a research assistant, leading pipeline data management, in a neuroscience lab. At KU Law, she was a teaching assistant for the Lawyering Skills course, an Articles Editor for the Kansas Law Review, and a member of the Moot Court Council. Now, Chloe has worked in the U.S. District Courts system and is currently in private practice of law, where her interests include international environmental law. In her sparetime, Chloe walks her dogs, runs, teaches yoga, and likes to sew.
Margy Stewart
Together with Ustaine Talley, Margy Stewart helped to found Prairie Heritage, Inc., a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to preserving the prairie, sharing its stories, and highlighting links between ecology and social justice (prairieheritage.org). Margy grew up in Wisconsin, earned an A.B. from Radcliffe/Harvard, and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. She has held teaching jobs in various places—Algeria, Colorado, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Kansas. She is currently Emerita Professor of English at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. She and her husband are the proprietors of Bird Runner Wildlife Refuge in the Flint Hills of Kansas, where, in addition to preserving 260 acres of upland native prairie, they are restoring 70 acres of former cropground to bottomland tall grass prairie.
Melinda Foshat
graduated from the University of Kansas School of Law in May 2022 with a J.D. Prior to law school, she graduated from Wagner College with a degree in English Literature and Theatre Studies. After graduating college Melinda created magic as a Walt Disney World photographer for several years. At KU Law, Melinda was a finalist in the 2020 In-House Mock Trial Competition and served two years (one as manager) on KU’s Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court team. She served as the Symposium Editor for the Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy. In her free time, Melinda enjoys hiking, blogging, writing poetry, and watching films. She is also a dog mom to her four-year old pup, Carrie.
Danny Volin
Danny Volin is J.D. candidate at the University of Kansas School of Law. Before law school, he graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a MFA in creative writing, Creighton University with a MA in English, and Rockhurst University with a degree in English and philosophy, and worked as a marketing writer. In his free time, Danny enjoys biking, hiking, reading, and running.
David Halliwell
David Halliwell graduated from the University of Kansas School of Law in May 2022 with a J.D. degree and certificates in environment, energy, and natural resources law and international trade & finance. Prior to law school, he graduated from the University of Kansas with degrees in history and political science. While at KU Law, he was the president of the International Law Society, an Article Editor for the Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy, and on the Jessup Moot Court team. He currently works as an Associate Attorney at Barber Emerson in Lawrence, Kansas. In his free time, David plays violin in a string quartet and aquascapes aquariums.