Richard M. Alderman received a B.A. in psychology from Tulane University in 1958. He graduated first in his class from Syracuse University Law School with a Juris Doctorate degree. He also holds a Masters of Law degree from University of Virginia Law School. Professor Alderman has been a professor at the University of Houston Law Center since 1973. He also serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Consumer Law, a community outreach arm of the Law Center. Professor Alderman is the author of 14 books and numerous articles. His most recent publications include Alderman’s Texas Consumer and Commercial Laws Annotated,  Texas Consumer Law: Cases and Material, and The Lawyers Guide to the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. He also recently authored Know Your Rights, and Your Texas Business, for the layperson. Professor Alderman also appears regularly as "The People's Lawyer" on radio and televisions.

Warnell Brooks
ASUW President

Warnell Brooks is President of the Associated Students of the University of Wyoming.  He is currently a senior majoring in Criminal Justice with a minor in African American Studies.  He is a native of Cheyenne, Wyoming and served as senior class president of his graduating class in 1998 from Central High School in Cheyenne.  During Brooks' tenure at the University of Wyoming, he has served as President of the Association of Black Student Leaders, Ex-Officio to ASUW for the United Multi-Cultural Council, Director of the B.A.S.I.C. Fellowship Chorale, and finally ASUW President for 2001-2002.

Beth Givens received a master’s degree in communications management from the Annenberg School for communications, University of Southern California in 1987. She is founder and director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a non-profit advocacy, research, and consumer education program located in San Diego, California. The Clearinghouse was established in 1992 with funding from the California Public Utilities Commission’s Telecommunications Education Trust. It is a project of the Utility Consumers’ Action Network, a non-profit organization which advocates for consumers; interests regarding telecommunications, energy and the Internet. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse is a 2000 award recipient from the Foundation for Improvement of Justice for its work in assisting victims of identity theft. Givens is a recipient of the 2000 Privacy International Brandeis Award. She also has co-authored The Privacy Rights Handbook: How to Take Control of Your Personal Information, and Citizens’ Utility Boards: Because Utilities Bear Watching,  and Privacy Piracy: A Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft.

 She is co-author of The California Channel: A New Public Affairs Television Channel for the state, a feasibility of a C-SPAN- like network for state government.

Click here for her presentation "Privacy in the 21st Century: Fears and Expectations in a High Tech  world"

Hoke MacMillan is Wyoming's Attorney General.  He graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1967. He obtained his Juris Doctorate from the University of Wyoming College of Law in 1970.  While attending school at the University of Wyoming, MacMillan was elected president of the student body and served in that capacity from 1969 - 1970. MacMillan served as a Captain in the United States Army Judge Advocate General Corps between 1970 and 1974.  MacMillan joined the Laramie law firm of Pence and Millett in 1974. The firm became Pence and MacMillan, with MacMillan as the senior partner from 1982.  MacMillan is listed in Martindale-Hubbell as a preeminent lawyer. He is licensed to practice law in all Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska courts, the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Military Appeals and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. MacMillan was sworn in as Wyoming's 32nd Attorney General on June 27, 2001. As Wyoming's Chief Law Enforcement Officer, General MacMillan oversees the Law Office, which consists of 57 attorneys, and includes the Consumer Protection Unit and the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. He also oversees the Division of Criminal Investigation, the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy, the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, the Governor's Planning Council on Developmental Disabilities, and the Victim Services Division. 

Phil Nicholas is currently an attorney in private practice in Laramie, Wyoming.  He received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Wyoming’s College of Law in 1979.  He is also a member of the Wyoming House of Representatives, House District 14, and a member of the Judiciary Committee.  Nicholas has an extensive legal work history, which includes serving as an Assistant Attorney General for Wyoming.  Nicholas has served on multiple professional committees, and has been admitted to practice before the Wyoming, Colorado, and Oregon Supreme Courts.  In 1979, Nicholas was admitted to practice before the United States District Court, District of Wyoming.  He is an active member of the American Bar Association, the Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association, and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.

Chris Petrie is a Wyoming Assistant Attorney General.  He graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1990, with a Bachelor's degree in Political Economy.  He received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Wyoming College of Law in 1993 and is admitted to practice in Wyoming and Oregon.

Petrie is in charge of the Consumer Protection Unit (CPU) within the Wyoming Attorney General's Office. The CPU enforces the Wyoming Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits fraudulent and deceptive trade practices, regulates telemarketing, promotional advertising of prizes and multilevel marketing.  The Attorney General is authorized to take legal action to restrain unlawful trade practices, and may obtain civil penalties and/or restitution for victims in some circumstances.  The CPU is also responsible for enforcing Wyoming's antitrust statutes.

 Dee Pridgen is a Professor of Law, at the University of Wyoming’s College of Law, where she has taught since 1982.  Her subjects include Consumer Protection, Contracts, Antitrust, Communications Law, Constitutional Law, and Internet Law.  She received her Juris Doctorate in 1974, from New York University, and a B.A. in 1971, from Cornell University.  She is a member of the Order of the Coif and Phi Beta Kappa. Pridgen has been a Fulbright Scholar/Lecturer, at Tokyo University; Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, the University of Maryland School of Law, and the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law.  She also served as Staff Attorney, for the Federal Trade Commission, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Washington, D.C. Pridgen's publications include two treatises aimed at practicing attorneys, Consumer Protection and the Law, and Consumer Credit and the Law, both published by West Group.  She is also a coauthor of a law school casebook entitled Consumer Law: Cases and Materials (West 2d ed.). She has written articles and reports on consumer law, and has given presentations at international consumer law meetings in Helsinki, Finland and Auckland, New Zealand.  Click for her presentation, "Consumer Privacy Protection on the Internet."

Virginia Vincenti is a Professor of Family and Consumer Sciences in the University of Wyoming’s Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, College of Agriculture.  Her subjects include Consumer Issues and Family Decision Making (family resource management).  She received her Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University in 1981 and her M.S. in 1975, also from Penn State.  She did graduate work at Michigan State University and the University of Minnesota-St. Paul.  Her B.S. was from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania in 1968.  In 1994 Vincenti spent a semester in Washington, D.C. working on public policy.  She has also been a faculty member and teacher educator in the Department of Consumer Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  Vincenti's publications include articles on University Teaching and International Education, and entries for a number of encyclopedias on home economics/family and consumer sciences.  She has also co-edited a book entitled Rethinking Home Economics: Women and the History of a Profession.

Vincenti first conceived of the idea of the consumer issues conference as providing an opportunity for her students to identify real issues of concern in Wyoming.  Since the first conference it has grown into a regionally and nationally advertised interdisciplinary gathering of people interested in consumer concerns and finding ways to address them.  The conference also provides education for students, the public and professionals as well as networking opportunities that could lead to advocacy for improved consumer protection.  Click here for her presentation "Credit Cards and Overbuying: The Problem of Affluenza."