Meet some of the new faculty members at the Mandel School and the School of Law
The students in Case Western Reserve University’s undergraduate Class of 2029 aren’t the only new faces on campus this semester. We also welcomed new faculty members across the university, including at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences and the School of Law.
Read on to get to know some of those new faculty members, who shared their thoughts on their careers and research endeavors.
Answers have been lightly edited for length.
Liliane Windsor
Lillian F. Harris Professor of Social Work
Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences
Before joining Case Western Reserve University, Windsor was a professor of social work and associate dean for research at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where she also co-led the Behavioral Health Working Group at the Institute for Government and Public Affairs. She is an active member of the Society for Social Work Research, the National Association of Social Workers and the Council on Social Work Education.
1. What are your specific teaching and/or research areas and interests?
I am a behavioral health intervention scientist who partners with community members and research participants to develop multi-level and community-based interventions in the fields of substance use disorders, criminology and infectious disease (HIV and COVID-19). I teach research methods, substance-use disorders, and community engagement and social change.
2. What do you look forward to at Case Western Reserve University?
I am very excited to extend my research to the Cleveland area and build new knowledge with community members, faculty, service providers and students at Case Western Reserve.
3. Do you have any personal goals, hobbies, family or interests that you would like to share?
I moved to Cleveland with my husband, 11-year-old son, two labradors and one horse. I am very excited that I started learning to play the piano!
4. What’s one piece of advice you have for students?
Remember to balance work, family and fun. College is a very special time of your life when you are making the choices that will lead to your future. Take it seriously, but do not forget to have fun and nourish the relationships that matter most in your life!
Yaron Covo
Assistant Professor, Law-Medicine Center
School of Law
Prior to joining CWRU School of Law, Covo served as a senior academic fellow at the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, and was a fellow for the Harvard Law School Project on Disability.
1. What are your specific teaching and/or research areas and interests?
This academic year, I am teaching disability law and contracts, but my areas of research also include health and sports law.
2. What do you look forward to at Case Western Reserve University?
I look forward to collaborating with physicians and bioethicists on complex dilemmas at the intersection of law and medicine.
3. Do you have any personal goals, hobbies, family or interests that you would like to share?
My in-laws met when they both attended CWRU School of Law, so joining the law school as a professor carries a personal meaning for me.
4. What’s one piece of advice you have for students?
Stay curious, and keep asking good questions.
Stacey Bergstrom
Assistant Professor of Lawyering Skills
School of Law
Prior to entering academia, Bergstrom was a state and federal prosecutor, serving as an assistant United States attorney in the Southern District of Florida and the Eastern District of Virginia. She was also assistant attorney general for the Commonwealth of Virginia and investigative counsel for the New York State Offices of the Inspector General. Bergstrom taught “Legal Writing” and “Criminal Justice Drafting” at the University of Alabama School of Law and “Legal Research and Writing” as an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law School.
1. What are your specific teaching and/or research areas and interests?
I teach “Legal Writing, Leadership, Experiential Learning, Advocacy and Professionalism” 1 and 2, “Criminal Law” and “Pretrial Criminal Practice.” My research interests include the Fourth Amendment and federal sentencing.
2. What do you look forward to at Case Western Reserve University?
I'm from Cleveland, so I'm really looking forward to being back in the area and in the heart of Cleveland's cultural district.
3. Do you have any personal goals, hobbies, family or interests that you would like to share?
I'm a certified group fitness instructor, so I'd love to develop some kind of wellness program for the CWRU School of Law students (and faculty!).
4. What’s one piece of advice you have for students?
One piece of advice I have for students is to practice kindness, both to yourself and to each other.
Jenna Hosier
Visiting Professor of Lawyering Skills
School of Law
Hosier joined the Case Western Reserve law faculty in 2025 after three years of serving as director of bar preparation at Cleveland State University College of Law. For 15 years before joining CSU, she served as an appellate clerk for Ohio’s Twelfth District Court of Appeals while also serving as an adjunct instructor at University of Dayton School of Law, her alma mater.
1. What are your specific teaching and/or research areas and interests?
I teach “Legal Writing, Leadership, Experiential Learning, Advocacy and Professionalism” for first year law students. Next year, I will also be teaching a legal writing course for LLM students, as well as “Family Law.” I am interested in children and the law, as well as academic support and bar passage.
2. What do you look forward to at Case Western Reserve University?
I look forward to working with law students as well as helping them build their legal legacy and understanding of the bedrock legal principles that make up their future legal career.
3. Do you have any personal goals, hobbies, family, interests that you would like to share?
I am an avid supporter of our Cleveland football and baseball teams. I also enjoy doing all that I can to ensure that my English bulldog, Princess Penelope, lives her best life after I rescued her from a puppy mill. My loving family, now spread out across the country, remains close and provides constant joy and support.
4. What’s one piece of advice you have for students?
Don’t be afraid to fail. Failure is a magnificent way to understand what we don’t know yet and how to fix it moving forward. Your education is a chance to explore, suggest, try, flail, fail and then succeed. Not only is the satisfaction of success greater when you earn it through struggle, but you’ll also build confidence in yourself that you cannot otherwise achieve if you’re never tested in that way. So, try to embrace a setback and look at it as a genuine opportunity to grow.
Jim Madigan
Visiting Assistant Professor
School of Law
Madigan spent two years as the Harry A. Bigelow Teaching Fellow at University of Chicago Law School before becoming an adjunct lecturer there. Madigan was a commercial litigation attorney in Chicago at the law firms of Goldberg Kohn (associate) and Greenberg Traurig (partner). He served as a staff attorney at Lambda Legal, where he focused on civil rights impact litigation and public education. Madigan recently spent two years as a federal judicial law clerk in the Northern District of Ohio.
1. What are your specific teaching and/or research areas and interests?
I will be teaching “Property, Legislation and Regulation.” My research interests are contract law and the First Amendment.
2. What do you look forward to at Case Western Reserve University?
I was an undergraduate at CWRU, and I enjoy being back here.
3. Do you have any personal goals, hobbies, family or interests that you would like to share?
I'm a childless cat person, and happily so. I believe extraterrestrials exist, and I don't consider that nutty or naive.
4. What’s one piece of advice you have for students?
Read it again. Whether it's an assignment, a test question or something you wrote, you'll be better served by giving it another read.
