Online Graduate Programs Honor Practitioner Faculty

September 07, 2023

Albany Law School honored four practitioner faculty members teaching in its Online Graduate Programs. Two were honored with a Distinguished Teaching Award and two were honored with a Distinguished Practitioner Award.

The Distinguished Teaching Awards recognize contributions to the programs’ goals or aspirations; elevating the student learning experience; providing exceptional student engagement, support or guidance; or offering career-ready practical learning experiences that go beyond expectation.

The Distinguished Practitioner Awards recognize for raising the stature of the program by actively engaging in one’s field through research, scholarship, or measurable commitment to improving society through advocacy, policy change, or legal action.
Faculty members are nominated by students, staff, and colleagues.

“Our practitioner faculty are the foundation of Albany Law School’s Online Graduate Program offerings. Their expertise, experience, and real-world approach guides students to be prepared and knowledgeable throughout their program and later, when they advance in their chosen field,” said Tom Rosenberger, Assistant Dean and Director for Online Programs. “Our programs are successful because of our practitioner faculty’s commitment to the growth of each student through engaging lectures, timely examples and assignments that model real-world work product, and their expansive knowledge base and professional networks.”

The distinguished teaching honorees are:

Professor Amy Apostol

Professor Apostol teaches in the Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Program. She serves as a Managing Director for the Intelligence and Security Academy, LLC, where she leads the company’s Education and Training practice, provides strategic consulting services with a special emphasis on legal, policy, and governance matters, and supports the company’s compliance and transactional activities. Apostol is a seasoned attorney with experience serving the federal government in both the executive and legislative branches. Her federal government career includes time spent at the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and the Government Accountability Office.

In her nomination, students and colleagues said:
“Prof. Apostol fostered a great sense of community in the class discussions and was actively engaged. The course material was highly relevant and just the right amount of work load.”
“The course was very organized. The lectures were phenomenal and very, very informative!”
“I also loved the discussion questions…the questions/topics she chose were well thought out and I appreciate the way they aligned to current events. This certainly opened my eyes to things I had never seen before.”

Professor Melissa Zambri ’98

Professor Zambri teaches in the Health Law and Healthcare Compliance program. Zambri is a Partner at Barclay Damon LLP. She focuses her practice on enterprise development and regulatory guidance for the health care industry. She provides counsel to individual practitioners, owners, administrators, executives and employees of health care and health care-related facilities. She also assists health care clients with certificate of need applications, compliance programs, audits, investigations and self-disclosures, HIPAA compliance and licensure issues.

She also helps health care clients obtain approval to operate various types of health facilities and to complete significant transactions. Melissa provides advice and counsel on federal anti-kickback and self-referral requirements, regulations governing federal and state funded health care programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, and other regulatory requirements applicable to health care providers.

In her nomination, students and colleagues said:

“Melissa has been one of the most dedicated, flexible, and continuously positive adjuncts I have ever known. She lectures with a smile on her face. She is deeply committed to the growth of each individual student.”

“Professor Zambri is the quintessential professor...with her deep understanding and ability to stay up to date on pertinent trends and issues, her goal to prepare the student for the real world is obvious.”

“Professor Zambri has ignited my desire to learn more about this area in health care. She taught us with enthusiasm and made assignments very interesting.”

“She…gives the best constructive criticism without making anybody feel lower about themselves.”

The distinguished practitioner honorees are:

Professor Adam Katz

Professor Katz teaches in the Health Law and Healthcare Compliance program. Katz is an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York, where he coordinates the Affirmative Civil Enforcement and Civil Health Care Fraud programs for 32 counties in upstate and central New York.

In that role, he is responsible for overseeing investigations and litigation involving fraud committed in connection with federal health care programs, contracts, and grants.

In his nomination, students and colleagues said:

“Adam has helped the OGP Program by teaching two courses, serving on the OGP Board and organizing a symposium. He has distinguished himself professionally and has performed many professional services for the community.”

“The professor is an expert in the field of Fraud, especially False Claims Act, and did a great job sharing his knowledge. He pulled in experts in the field and shared excellent examples in class which made understanding each weekly topic much easier.”

“I appreciated the different guest speakers that were incorporated into the lectures. That was extremely valuable. I felt that we were able to get different perspectives on monitoring, investigations and seeing how others do their job, their scope of practice.”

Professor John Toy ’92

Professor Toy teaches in the Human Resources: Law, Leadership, and Policy program. Toy’s experience includes serving as the chief ethics and sustainability officer at GlobalFoundries, a global leader in feature-rich semiconductor manufacturing. In this role, he was the global leader of the company’s Ethics & Compliance program, which he designed and implemented, in addition to GF’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) functions. He previously held several HR leadership roles within the company.

Before his corporate roles, Toy was previously engaged in private legal practice with a focus on labor and employment matters. He has appeared before state and federal courts and several administrative bodies, including the NY Division of Human Rights and the National Labor Relations Board.

In his nomination, students and colleagues said:

“Professor John Toy has been extremely valuable to my experience at Albany Law School…his lectures were very informative with practical steps that can be immediately applied to the workplace…John Toy’s course is the epitome of higher education as it encourages students to engage in critical thinking as they apply legal concepts to real-world scenarios.”

“John is an exceptional professor and Albany Law School is lucky to have him.”

“The hypotheticals presented as a part of the discussions were helpful in analyzing real-life scenarios and applications.”

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