Professor appointed director of academic excellence

As a child, Professor Kelly Gamble wrote that she wanted to be “maybe a lawyer, maybe a teacher, maybe both.”

At Willamette Law, she’s made her musings a reality.

“It is really fun and rewarding to see that dream come to life and to be able to make change for other people,” she says.

Gamble was appointed director of academic excellence for Willamette Law in the Fall of 2022.

Gamble’s appointment is the culmination of her devotion to building communities that

support students both in the classroom and as they prepare for a legal career. The Academic Excellence Program centers on the principle that the twin pillars to student success are belonging and ability. Gamble’s appointment allows her to continue to strengthen and build up the program.

Following a seven-year long career as a high school English teacher, Gamble made the decision to change careers and attend law school. Now, as a professor of law, she focuses her teaching on 1L legal writing. Gamble was surprised to find herself teaching first-year students as she remembered how difficult her start was as a law student. However, this was, in many ways, what launched her desire to build strong, supportive communities for 1L students.

“I wanted to demystify the law school experience, particularly for first-year students,” Gamble explains. “My goal was to make it more transparent so they could develop confidence.”

As she began teaching at Willamette Law, she started to implement people-development and community-building concepts into her curriculum to better prepare students for a legal career. Her goal was to “support law students, make the entire law school experience easier, and to build a stronger community amongst 1Ls,” she says.

When Gamble heard the positive feedback from students in her classes, she thought about what it might mean to bring these experiences and practices to the entire Willamette Law community.

It is “connecting people with people that makes this a better place,” she shares.

The Academic Excellence Program was formed in 2021 with 2L and 3L students applying to be fellows. A group of faculty members review applications and select about 12 students to serve as leaders.

Since the program began, the fellows have developed an orientation week, created a 1L Field Guide, run the Dean’s Series (a regularly scheduled set of support seminars aimed at first-year students), and generally made themselves available for coffee, lunch or a listening ear. The impact the program has had on the 2L and 3L students is just as profound as the impact on 1L students, Gamble says. This is evident in the nearly 50% increase in fellow applicants for the next academic year.

One Academic Excellence fellow, Teddy Krolczyk JD’23, was inspired to apply because she loves being involved and wanted to be a part of the outreach to incoming students. After joining Willamette Law in the midst of the pandemic, Krolczyk “felt disconnected from the community and wanted to be the person who builds connections for others during their law school experience.”

“I hope the program makes people feel welcome and heard,” Krolczyk says. “Law school can be a scary experience, especially if you don’t have a support system. The work Professor Gamble is doing is so important. She is very approachable, and it helps to have someone like that here to make law school less intimidating.”

For her part, Gamble says that her mission is for students to feel like they have the ability to succeed academically but also to belong in a community. As the program director, she wants to “make [the College of Law] a better place and continue to think each year about how to make the experience better.”

The program started as a leap of faith, and now it is growing and will continue to impact more people, she hopes.

“People want to make a difference, and I get to help them do that,” she says. “I get to train up the next generation of lawyers who will fight for justice.”

Krolczyk would like to see the program expand and become a part of the College’s identity.

“It makes such a big difference for people, and you don’t see that in other places,” Krolczyk says.