Biography
Professor Wells began her career as a tax attorney in Boston at Touche-Ross (now Deloitte & Touche). She subsequently practiced law at a firm that afforded her the ability to specialize in banking and tax law. While at the law firm of Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas, Professor Wells drafted and negotiated multi-million dollar private activity bond documents and negotiated purchases and sales of multi-million dollar businesses in addition to other banking, corporate, estate, and real estate work. After moving to Pennsylvania, Professor Wells became a full-time faculty member at Alvernia University in Reading, serving as Chair of the Business Department for seven years. She has been actively involved in program development and creating new course offerings throughout her career at Alvernia, including the development of our Ph.D. in Leadership and our certificate program in Fraud Examination.As a faculty leader, she has chaired the Rank and Tenure, Academic Standards, and Handbook Committees and has served as a member of the Honors and Awards, and Curriculum Committees. As president of the Faculty Council during 2020-2021, she was instrumental in proposing, garnering faculty support, and finalizing the four-college structure that includes the College of Business, Communication and Leadership. Professor Wells combines her community connections with her dedication to Alvernia. From 2017 to 2019, she served as one of only two faculty appointed to the Board of Trustees' strategy task force charged with exploring new strategic initiatives for the University. She was the one Alvernia faculty member involved in presenting initial plans for Alvernia's anchor institution status to community leaders. From 2020 to 2022, she drew on that experience to lead the faculty and staff committee that worked with Alvernia's Senior Leadership Team members to finalize the strategic pillars of the Alvernia Advantage, adding objectives and measurable initiatives. Professor Wells also serves the community through her active participation as a Board member of both The Friends of the Reading Hospital and the Berks County Public Library. As a member of the Finance Committee of the Berks County Public Library, she is responsible for budgetary oversight.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW, Boston, Massachusetts,LL.M. in tax, May 1991
BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW, Boston, Massachusetts, J.D., May 1987
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS, Amherst, Massachusetts, Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting, May 1984
BUS 342 Business Law
BUS 304 Federal Taxation
BUS 205 Fraud Examination
BUS 290 Changing the World with Your Entrepreneurial Endeavor
BUS 420 Employment Law
MBA 610 Legal Environment,
MBA 518 Corporate Communication
MBA 675 Strategy Formulation & Implementation
PhD 801 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
Professor Wells has maintained a dual focus on traditional academic scholarship in her field and on applied work that draws on her teaching and community service. Her legal scholarship focuses on the protection of speech, as well as employment, marketing, and corporate law. She has authored several papers, including two co-authored papers published in the American Business Law Journal, the premier journal for business law, a triple-blind, peer-reviewed journal listed on Cabell's, with a less than five percent acceptance rate. She has also co-authored a book on strategic planning.
Robert Sprague (University of Wyoming) and Mary Ellen Wells. 2021. The Great Deplatforming: Can Digital Platforms Be Trusted As Guardians of Free Speech? ProMarket: the publication of The Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, January 29. Retrieved from https://www.promarket.org/2021/01/29/deplatforming-parler-twitter-free-… Palmer (Albright University) and Mary Ellen Wells. 2014.
Self-Regulation of Business Programs as Influenced by Higher Education Reform Proposals, National Proceedings for the 89th International Academy of Legal Studies in Business Annual Conference, Vol. 45.Robert Sprague (University of Wyoming) and Mary Ellen Wells. 2012.
The Supreme Court as Prometheus: Breathing Life into the Corporate Supercitizen. American Business Law Journal, 49, (3), 507-556. Scott Ballantyne, Beth Berret, and Mary Ellen Wells. 2011.
Planning in Reverse: A Viable Approach to Organizational Leadership. Rowman & Littlefield Education.Robert Sprague (University of Wyoming) and Mary Ellen Wells. 2010.
Regulating Online Buzz Marketing: Untangling a Web of Deceit. American Business Law Journal, 47(3), 415-454.Robert Sprague (University of Wyoming) and Mary Ellen Wells. 2009.
Regulating online commercial speech: Oh, what a tangled web. National Proceedings for the 84th International Academy of Legal Studies in Business Annual Conference, Vol. 40.Robert Sprague (University of Wyoming) and Mary Ellen Wells. 2008.
The Growth of Online Buzz Marketing In a Time of An Expanding Commercial Speech Doctrine. Regional Proceedings for the International/Midwest Academy of Legal Studies in Business.Robert Sprague and Mary Ellen Wells. 2008
21st Century Commercial Speech: A Mix of Buzz Marketing, Immunity, and Deceptive Trade Practices. National Proceedings for the 83rd International Academy of Legal Studies in Business Annual Conference, Vol. 39. Mary Ellen Wells. 2007.
Purchasing the Right to Pollute: Economic marvel, ethical minefield or both? National Proceedings for the 82nd International Academy of Legal Studies in Business Annual Conference, Vol. 38.Mary Ellen Wells. 2007.
Abrogating public employees' right to dissent: free speech in the public sector after Garcetti v. Ceballos. Business Law Review, North Atlantic Regional Business Law Association, Vol 40.
Paper Presentations:
Integrating Service-Learning into a Business Curriculum, presented at the 88th Annual International Academy of Legal Studies in Business conference, August 2014, Boston, Massachusetts.
Self-Regulation of Business Programs as Influenced by Higher Education Reform Proposals, co-authored and co-presented with Suzanne Palmer; presented at 89th Annual International Academy of Legal Studies in Business conference, August 2014, Seattle, Washington
Comparing the Intensity of Student Attitude and Perception ChangesToward Foreign Countries co-authored with Scott Ballantyne, Beth Berret and Robert Gannon; presented at the Eastern Educational Research Association 34nd Annual Conference, February 2011, Sarasota, Florida
Regulating online commercial speech: Oh, what a tangled web Co-authored with Robert Sprague, University of Wyoming; National Proceedings for the 84th Annual Academy of Legal Studies in Business conference, August 2009, Denver, Colorado
Investigating the Need for Contingent Faculty Inclusion in Shared Collegiate Governance to Maintain Faculty Leadership in the Academy presented at the Eastern Educational Research Association 32nd Annual Conference, February 2009, Sarasota, Florida
Purchasing the Right to Pollute: Economic marvel, ethical minefield or both? Presented at the international 82nd Annual Academy of Legal Studies in Business conference, August 2007, Indianapolis, Indiana
Abrogating public employees' right to dissent:free speech in the public sector after Garcetti v. Ceballos presented at North Atlantic Regional Business Law Association March 2007, Salem State College, Salem, Massachusett
Protecting children from video game sex and violence: what constitutes narrow tailoring of the sales legislation? Entertainment Software Association, et al. v. Blagojevich presented at the regional meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Academy of Legal Studies in Business, March 2007, St. Michaels, Maryland
Whistleblowing by public employees after Garcetti v. Ceballos presented at the international 81st Annual Academy of Legal Studies in Business conference, August 2006, St. Petersburg,Florida
Purchasing the Right to Pollute: A review of issues attendant to the creation of pollution rights presented at the regional meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Academy of Legal Studies in Business, March 2006, Baltimore,
Maryland
Responses and Results of Middle/Junior High School and High Schools Under the Parental Involvement Guidelines of the No Child Left Behind Act paper presented at the Eastern Education Research Association annual conference, February 2005, Clearwater, Florida
Presentations:
Free Speech, Hate Speech and Academic Freedom, Presented at Academy of Legal Studies in Business, August 2017
Business School Curriculum in the United States, Beifang University of Nationalities, Yinchuan, China, June 2016
Financial Accounting Course Presentation, Beifang University of Nationalities, Yinchuan, China, June 2016
Getting Back in or Changing the Game. Presented at the Berks County Women2Women Spring Exposition, April 26, 2016
Ethics, Negotiation and the Impact of Gender. Co-presented with Daria LaTorre, Esquire to Berks County Women2Women, February 11, 2014.
Implementing planning-in-reverse in corporate entities that have recently completed mergers and acquisitions. Co-authored and co-presented for Red Lion Controls, Inc. York, PA. Presentation adapted from our book "Planning in Reverse" published in February 2011 by Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. February 2012
Attended Aspen Wye Fellows Leadership Seminar, Queenstown, Maryland, July 2010 and co-presented a faculty discussion regarding the seminar at the August 2010 faculty seminar at Alvernia.
Ethics in Business, day seminar presented to Focused, LLC leadership forum, July 2009
Ethics in Business, day seminar presented to SFS Intec, Inc. in conjunction with the Business Management Leadership Program at Alvernia College, Reading, PA, October 2006 and March 2007
The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship, An Alvernia College Faculty Forum presentation at Alvernia College, Reading, PA: September 2005
How to be Good, An Alvernia College Faculty Forum presentation at Alvernia College, Reading, PA, March 2005The Impact of Corporate Scandals on American Business: Corporate Structure and American Equity Markets; An Alvernia College Faculty Forum presentation at Alvernia College, Reading, PA, March 2003
Offices:
Chair - Rank and Tenure Committee - 2022-2023
Faculty Council President - 2020-2021
Faculty Council Vice President - 2019-2020
Faculty Council Treasurer - 2018-2019
Chair – Educational Technology Task Force 2017-2018
Chair – Rank and Tenure 2010-2011 academic year
Chair – Alvernia University Business Department 2006 - July 2013
Articles Reviewer – American Business Law Journal – September 2013 - Present
Articles Editor – Atlantic Law Journal – 2008 - Present
President and Program Chair – 2008-2009 – Mid Atlantic Association of Legal Studies in Business
First Vice President 2007-2008 – Mid Atlantic Association of Legal Studies in Business
Second Vice President 2006-2007 - Mid Atlantic Association of Legal Studies in Business
Chair - 2005-2006 – Academic Standards Committee, Alvernia College
Secretary-Treasurer - 2005-2006 - Mid Atlantic Association of Legal Studies in Business
Academy of Legal Studies in Business
Berks County Bar Association
American Inns of Court
Mid-Atlantic Academy of Legal Studies in Business
Berks County Public Libraries Trustee