Faculty | Program Name | SIU

Valery Christiansen Behan, was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA. She graduated as the Valedictorian of both her High School class (Penn Wood 1986) and her undergraduate class at Brigham Young University (College of Social Sciences, 1991). She also served an 18-month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Viña del Mar, Chile, S.A., which she loved, and there became fluent in Spanish.

Keith H. Beyler has been a member of the SIU law faculty since 1982. He grew up in Carbondale, Illinois, graduated from Princeton University in 1969 (magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) and graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1974 (cum laude and Order of the Coif). He then clerked for Justice James Cobey of the California Court of Appeals and was in private practice for seven years at O'Melveny and Myers in Los Angeles. While there he worked primarily on antitrust and commercial fraud cases. He also had the honor of trying a case for King Vidor, one Hollywood’s most famous old-time film directors.

An assistant clinical professor since 1996, John F. Erbes brings a varied practice background for his role as teacher, supervisor, and mentor to students enrolled in the Legal Clinic Elderly Program and in his classroom courses. John has twenty-one years of law practice and ten years of teaching experience. His practice areas have included general civil law, school law, local government law, administrative hearings, and criminal defense at the trial, appellate, and supreme court level as well as in the military courts. Prior to teaching in law school, John taught undergraduate law courses in the SIU Finance Department and College of Technical Careers.

Professor Parsons joined the faculty of SIU School of Law in September 2016 to restart the Veterans’ Legal Assistance Program. Prior to that, he worked for a small firm in Carbondale specializing in employment law and business and transactional work. He now owns a small law firm in Carterville, IL that assists small businesses and nonprofits. 

Dr. Marsha Ryan is an assistant professor of general surgery at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, with an office in Carbondale.

Julie A. Thompson is a Williamson County public defender, serving as Guardian ad Litem for minor children in juvenile court since 2005, and representing minors who are abused, neglected, delinquent, truant, dependent, and who require authoritative intervention. Her private practice includes family, criminal defense, including capital murder litigation, probate and adoption law throughout the First and Second Judicial Circuits in Illinois, as well as appellate practice in the Illinois Appellate Court, Fifth District.