Donors Create New WVU Law Fellowships to Empower Promising Faculty

At the West Virginia University College of Law, donor-powered support keeps the academic lightbulb burning bright.

In August 2026, Interim Dean Susan Brewer and Associate Dean for Faculty Matt Titolo announced the creation of the WVU Law Faculty Fellowship Program. Awarded to tenure-track professors whose scholarship, teaching, or service show great promise, the fellowships are renewable for up to three years.

“For several years now, the WVU College of Law has had more endowed professorships than tenured professors to receive them,” Brewer and Titolo said in a joint statement. “The result was that donor funds had gone unused. After much consultation with various parties around the University, we worked with the donors to develop the Faculty Fellowship Program.

“By recognizing and retaining excellent professors who have not yet gained tenure, we intend to advance the WVU College of Law’s academic reputation and ensure that the next generation of Mountaineer lawyers learns from the best.”

The six professors honored with faculty fellowships are:

Cody Corliss – Robert Lemley Shuman Faculty Fellow

As a former war crimes prosecutor at The Hague, Associate Professor Cody Corliss brings a global perspective to his home state’s law school.

“Sometimes international law is seen as a niche program, but it’s part of our Constitution,” Corliss said. “Treaties are named in the Constitution as part of the supreme law of the land, and the Supreme Court has said that international law is part of our law. International law has an important role to play in the United States, and I hope to bring an understanding that the law doesn’t always stop at state and national boundaries."

Corliss speaks about international law as both a scholar and practitioner, teaching students about courtroom procedure through interactive components including a mock trial, where they use fictional evidence to determine how to cross-examine witnesses.

He also continues to advance the field of international law through his research, which has recently focused on the war crime of spreading terror as well as the language used to justify atrocity crimes.

“Ultimately, the goal of an academic is to bring their research to a wider audience,” Corliss said. “There’s a lot of work to be done with international law, and I hope that my scholarship can change policies and ideas. Fellowships like these enable faculty to tell our scholarly story so people know the good work that’s happening on Law School Hill.”

Amy Cyphert – Steptoe & Johnson Faculty Fellow

For Associate Professor Amy Cyphert, WVU Law is the lynchpin of West Virginia’s legal system.

“As goes WVU Law, so often goes justice in the state,” Cyphert, a Morgantown native, said. “Being the only law school in West Virginia is both a privilege and a huge responsibility.”

That responsibility demands research that addresses the region’s unique needs. Cyphert’s research and teaching focuses on machine learning, the intersection of artificial intelligence and the law, and how AI is changing the modern legal system.

“My forthcoming article examines the advantages generative AI gives to cybercriminals,” Cyphert said. “It’s changing the field of cybersecurity, and I predict it may change the way courts look at plaintiffs’ standing in data breach litigations. I always write with an eye toward being pragmatic and helping people who face difficult choices, like lawyers, judges, and lawmakers.”

That pragmatism is ultimately rooted in what Cyphert feels she can do to support the Mountain State as it faces a new chapter.

“AI development affects all of us. It’s trained on our data. It impacts our privacy and information security. It might impact our national security. It’s the technology of our era, with upsides and downsides, and it’s important that everyday citizens know enough to advocate for themselves and their communities. States like West Virginia need to have a seat at the table.”

Jerry Edwards – John W. Fisher Faculty Fellow

A former staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Associate Professor Jerry Edwards joined WVU Law in 2025. Now beginning his second year of teaching, he already recognizes the value of his fellowship.

“Multiple people have already told me how much John Fisher meant to them when he was their dean at WVU Law,” Edwards said. “It means a lot to me that I’m getting to carry his name in my title and hopefully continue his legacy.”

A First and Fourteenth Amendment scholar, Edwards teaches courses on constitutional law and constitutional litigation. His upcoming research focuses on perceptions of federalism before and after the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment.

For Edwards, the John W. Fisher Fellowship is an affirmation of his work as a professor just beginning his academic career.

“Receiving this fellowship tells me I’m in the right place,” Edwards said. “It tells me I’m succeeding and can keep improving. I want to make a positive impact with John Fisher’s name attached to the work I’m doing.

“The students are amazing and I love their enthusiasm for the law. I get to watch them grow as writers and as lawyers-to-be. Everyone at WVU Law wants to serve the state of West Virginia and address its legal needs, so anything I can do to move us towards that goal makes me feel fulfilled.”

Y.S. (Steve) Lee – Arthur S. Dayton Faculty Fellow

Born and raised in South Korea, Associate Professor Y.S. (Steve) Lee sees similarities between modern West Virginia and his home country at an earlier stage of its development: the mountains, the economy, and the potential waiting to be unlocked.

“50 years ago, South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world,” Lee said. “Then it became an advanced and prosperous economy. We can’t copy what happened there, but if we understand what helped that country, we can try to adapt those insights.”

A specialist in business law with over 130 academic publications, Lee is currently editing the Cambridge Handbook of Law and Development, leading an international team of 28 authors. He’s been invited to give lectures by institutions including Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, and New York University School of Law. His own research agenda includes economic development in the Mountain State.

“A state’s legal and institutional policies either attract investments or drive them away,” Lee said. “Economic development can’t solve every problem, but a strong economic foundation can help solve other issues. I want to see how West Virginia organizes its state resources to support innovation and development, whether our laws are effectively implemented, and whether the political will to implement them exists.”

A scholar at heart, Lee views his fellowship as an investment in his work. “A fellowship like this is a critically important resource and has helped me continue my research. It tells me that the school understands my work and has decided to recognize it, and I’m deeply grateful for that.”

Stephanie Miller – Charles H. Haden II Faculty Fellow

Stephanie Miller is an associate professor of law, but she might be better known by her other title: director of the George R. Farmer Law Library at WVU. The largest library of its kind in West Virginia, it provides critical scholarly resources for students, faculty, professionals, and members of the public.

“What really appeals to me is the public service mission of a land-grant institution,” Miller said. “We’re creating access to legal information and information literacy. Service to the community is the ethos of librarianship, and that makes WVU Law a really satisfying workplace.”

That focus on service led her to study the impact of open access to legal scholarship, scholarly communication, and how libraries can determine the effectiveness of academic research.

“As librarians, we advocate for open access to legal scholarship, but do our tools work?” Miller said. “My current project evaluates the effectiveness of tools like the University’s Research Repository and tracks the number of citations a work receives 5, 10, 15 years after it was first published.”

The impact of Miller’s work may reach far beyond the WVU Law Library thanks to the Charles H. Haden II Faculty Fellowship.

“A fellowship like this creates a lot of opportunities for me that may have been out of reach financially,” she said. “I hope my work can be beneficial for other libraries as they make choices about what tools they use.”

Sarah Wagner – Thomas R. Goodwin Faculty Fellow

Associate Professor Sarah Wagner has a personal stake in West Virginia’s law school: it was where she learned to be an attorney.

“I love WVU,” Wagner said. “I only wanted to be a professor at WVU Law. If this didn’t work out, I was going to remain a prosecutor.”

Formerly an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, Wagner’s experience as her office’s civil rights coordinator led her to study jury nullification in the context of law enforcement officers who are accused of using excessive force.

“If there’s proof that a law enforcement officer committed a crime, they should be held to the same standard as an ordinary citizen,” Wagner said. “But it is often difficult to convince jurors to agree.”

Thanks to her fellowship, Wagner plans to conduct a focus group experiment with the assistance of a WVU Political Science Ph.D. student.

“I didn’t know how we were going to pay for the mock jury experiment,” Wagner said. “This fellowship is important to me because it’ll go directly toward my research. It means a lot that WVU Law is doing this. I want us to continue attracting great students, and I want to be part of that – I want to help educate them to become great lawyers.”

“In working with these donors to create the WVU Law Faculty Fellowship Program, we were struck by the passion they all have for helping the next generation of professors as well as lawyers,” Brewer and Titolo said. “Their dedication to creating opportunities for our professors and students is truly inspiring. Our gratitude for their support can’t be overstated, and we look forward to seeing how the WVU Law community benefits from their generosity.”

MEDIA CONTACT:

Andrew Marvin

Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing, WVU College of Law

andrew.marvin@mail.wvu.edu