Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law Welcomes Four New Faculty Members

Mark C. Alexander, The Arthur J. Kania Dean of the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, has appointed four new faculty beginning in the 2020-21 academic year. Itay Ravid and Emily Stolzenberg will begin their tenures as Assistant Professors of Law during the fall 2020 semester. Stephanie Sena will join Villanova Law as an Anti-Poverty Fellow, and Gilat Bachar is a new Visiting Assistant Professor of Law.

“I am thrilled to once again welcome new faculty to Villanova Law,” said Dean Alexander. “Itay Ravid, Emily Stolzenberg, Stephanie Sena and Gilat Bachar are all are simultaneously accomplished scholars, as well as innovative professors. They will bring their impressive credentials and global experience of legal practice and advocacy into the classroom for our students. I have no doubt they will all make a positive impact on our Villanova Law community.”

Itay Ravid, Assistant Professor of Law, joins Villanova Law from Stanford Law School where he was a Lecturer in Law and Teaching Fellow for the Stanford Program in International Legal Studies (SPILS). At Stanford, Ravid was responsible for all aspects of the SPILS program, including student advising and teaching. Ravid’s main research interests are criminal law and procedure, focusing on the connections between criminal law, technology, race and society, with particular attention to the accountability of the criminal justice system in an era of digital democracy. His work has been awarded several prizes and was published in journals such as Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy and Southern California Law Review. Prior to Stanford, Ravid worked as an attorney at the Israeli Attorney General’s Office, litigating cases on behalf of all Israeli Government ministries before the Supreme Court. He also served as a senior law clerk to the Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court. 

Ravid holds an LLB in Law and Mass Communication and Journalism from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an LLM in Public and International Law from Northwestern University and Tel-Aviv University, as well as a JSM in Law and a JSD, both from Stanford Law School. At Villanova Law, Ravid will teach Criminal Law, Legal Profession, and Criminal Justice, Race and the Media

Emily Stolzenberg, Assistant Professor of Law, comes to Villanova from the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, where she was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law and a Research Fellow for the Center for Children, Families and the Law. Prior to Hofstra Law, Stolzenberg was an Associate in Law and Lecturer in Law, as well as a Visiting Scholar with the Center for Gender & Sexuality Law, at Columbia Law School. Stolzenberg served as a law clerk to Judge Robert D. Sack of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She also worked with the Legal Aid Justice Center’s JustChildren Program and Elder Law Initiative in Charlottesville, VA, and practiced family law at Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP in Washington, DC. Stolzenberg’s research seeks to reconcile individual autonomy with family obligation, and her work currently focuses on how to define financial obligations for a diverse array of families. Her recent article, “The New Family Freedom,” was published in the Boston College Law Review.

Stolzenberg received her JD from Yale Law School and her AB from Princeton University. She also earned an MPhil in political theory from the University of Oxford. Stolzenberg will teach Property, Land Use Planning, and Advanced Topics in Family Law at Villanova Law.

Stephanie Sena, Anti-Poverty Fellow, has been a member of the Villanova community for 17 years as a long-time adjunct professor in History and the Center for Peace and Justice. Sena is also the founder and executive director of the Student-Run Emergency Housing Unit of Philadelphia (SREHUP), a non-profit anti-poverty initiative involving college students who help to provide shelter, food, housing and community to individuals experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia. She is currently spearheading an initiative which addresses the homelessness crisis in Philadelphia by building villages of tiny homes and community centers for people experiencing homelessness and their pets. She is also crafting the necessary code amendments and working with legislators to allow for these structures in Philadelphia.

In her newly created interdisciplinary role at Villanova Law, she will engage in research and writing on issues of inequality and poverty and will teach courses in poverty law and policy. She will also work to generate proposals to fund interdisciplinary empirical research to support data-driven analysis of poverty-related public policy challenges, as well as plan an annual symposium.

Sena holds an MA in American History from the University of Delaware, an MA in World History and Islamic Civilization from Villanova University, and a BA in History from West Chester University.

Gilat Bachar, Visiting Assistant Professor, joins Villanova Law from Stanford Law School where she was most recently a Fellow at the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession. Bachar also worked as a Legal Fellow (Litigation) at the Center for Justice & Accountability in San Francisco. At Stanford, Bachar was also a Fellow both at the Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation, and at the Haas Center for Public Service. She also served as a Visiting Lecturer at UC Santa Cruz’s Politics department. In Israel, Bachar served as a Legal Clerk for Chief Justice Beinisch, President of the Israeli Supreme Court, and as an Associate at S. Horowitz & Co., one of Israel’s leading law firms, where she specialized in dispute resolution. Her work has been published in such journals as Cardozo Law Review, The Chicago Journal of International Law, University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, SMU Law Review, and Chicago-Kent Law Review. Her primary teaching interests are in Torts; Contracts; Civil Procedure; Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility; and Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Bachar holds a JSD (Doctorate) in Law and a JSM in International Legal Studies from Stanford Law School, as well as an LLB in Law and an MBA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.