Jacksonville University College of Law welcomes five new faculty members for the 2026–27 academic year, adding experienced teachers, scholars and practitioners to its growing faculty. Mary Adkins, Ky’Eisha Black, Krista Bordatto, Theophilus Coleman and Jessica Moellerjoin the College of Law faculty, bringing a broad range of experience as teachers, scholars, practitioners and legal education professionals. Their backgrounds and scholarly interests span areas including legal writing and experiential education, employment and labor law, international and commercial law, constitutional history, and student development.
“An exceptional law school begins with an exceptional faculty,” said Nick Allard, the Randall C. Berg, Jr., Founding Dean of the Jacksonville University College of Law. “Each of these professors brings distinctive experience, perspective and a commitment to students that will strengthen our academic community. We are proud to welcome them and add these five stars to the outstanding faculty of the Jacksonville University and to the College of Law.”
Mary Adkins
Professor Mary Adkins joins JU Law as a Visiting Professor of Law following a distinguished career at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where she is an Emeritus Master Legal Skills Professor. Her teaching has focused on legal writing, appellate advocacy and Florida constitutional history, and she has held national leadership roles in legal writing education, including serving as chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research.
Adkins also brings significant expertise in Florida constitutional history. She is the author of Making Modern Florida: How the Spirit of Reform Shaped a New State Constitution and Chesterfield Smith, America’s Lawyer, which received the Rembert Patrick Award from the Florida Historical Society. She has also published articles on Florida constitutional history and constitutional revision and co-authored a casebook on Florida Constitutional Law titled Florida Constitutional Law: Cases in Context.
Adkins earned her B.S., M.A., and J.D. from the University of Florida.
Ky’Eisha Black
Professor Ky’Eisha Black joins the College of Law as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, bringing experiences in movement lawyering, civil rights advocacy, education justice and legal education.
Before joining JU Law, Black served as Assistant Director of Student Affairs at Howard University School of Law, supporting students’ academic and professional development. Her recent scholarship examines the use of policing, surveillance and other legal and policy mechanisms in Florida schools and their role in perpetuating the school-to-prison pipeline.
Black earned her M.S. from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and her J.D. from Howard University School of Law.
Krista Bordatto
Professor Krista Bordatto joins JU Law as an Assistant Professor of Law after serving on the faculty of Campbell University School of Law, where she taught Legal Research and Writing as well as courses in workplace and employment law.
A retired U.S. Army veteran, Bordatto began her legal career as a litigator handling labor and employment, civil and appellate matters. Her teaching and scholarship draw on those experiences, with scholarly work examining issues involving the military justice system and its relationship to the civilian legal system. Her recent scholarship includes law review articles, and she has contributed to an open-source textbook on legal analysis, reasoning, research and writing. Her 2025 scholarship includes work examining appellate review of public-trial violations and the relationship between sexual violence, the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Feres doctrine.
Bordatto earned her M.S. and J.D. from St. Thomas University.
Theophilus Coleman
Professor Theophilus Coleman joins the College of Law as an Assistant Professor of Law after serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo School of Law. His research spans contract law, international commercial law, conflict of laws, employment and labor law, comparative law, business law and African jurisprudence.
Coleman brings an international perspective to his teaching and scholarship, shaped by academic and professional experience in Africa, Europe and the United States. His scholarship focuses in part on inequality in private international law, including the intersection of private international law, employment and artificial intelligence. He has also taught at the University of Ghana School of Law and served in research roles at the University of Johannesburg.
Coleman earned his LL.M. and LL.D. from the University of Johannesburg.
Jessica Moeller
Professor Jessica Moeller joins JU Law as an Assistant Professor of Law, bringing experience in experiential legal education, law practice and academic administration.
Before joining Jacksonville University, Moeller served as Assistant Dean of Experiential Learning and Visiting Professor of Law at Charleston School of Law. In that role, she helped advance opportunities for students to connect classroom learning with the practice of law through clinics, externships and other experiential programs.
Moeller also brings an active scholarly agenda. Her recent work has addressed access to effective legal representation in rural communities, including the challenges facing indigent clients in juvenile delinquency and termination-of-parental-rights proceedings.
Moeller earned her B.A. from Wisconsin Lutheran College and her J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Building the Faculty for JU Law’s Next Chapter
The additions broaden the academic expertise, professional experience and scholarly interests represented on the JU Law faculty while expanding the College’s capacity to provide students with close faculty engagement and preparation for practice.
“We are thinking about more than filling courses. We are thinking about the kind of legal education we want our students to experience and the kind of lawyers we want them to become,” said Courtney Barclay, Associate Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs. “This group brings an impressive combination of excellent teaching, meaningful scholarship, professional experience and a genuine commitment to students. Their contributions will strengthen our classrooms, our faculty and the intellectual life of JU Law.”
The five new professors join JU Law as the College continues to build its academic program and faculty and deepen its connections with Jacksonville’s legal community.
