Senior Fellows and Staff


KATHEE E. BAKER is the Communications and Events Coordinator for The Free State Foundation. She previously served as Director of Communications & Public Relations for the National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD), where she oversaw branding, membership communications, public and media relations, publications, advertising, and web content development. Previously, Ms. Baker was an account executive for an association management firm, serving several national trade and professional associations in various capacities including strategic planning, communications, events management, administration, and membership recruitment and retention. Ms. Baker received a B.A. degree from Athens State University (formerly Athens College). 

SETH L. COOPER is Director of Policy Studies and a Senior Fellow at The Free State Foundation. He is the author of numerous articles and essays on federal telecommunications and technology policy, regulatory reform, and intellectual property. Mr. Cooper’s work has appeared in such publications as the Washington ExaminerThe Washington TimesThe Tennessean, and the San Jose Mercury News. He previously served as the Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force Director at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), as a Washington State Supreme Court judicial clerk, and as a state senate caucus staff counsel. Mr. Cooper was a 2009 Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute.

RICHARD A. EPSTEIN is a Distinguished Adjunct Senior Scholar at The Free State Foundation. He is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at New York University. He has also been the Peter and Kirstin Bedford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution since 2000. Prior to joining the University of Chicago Law School faculty, Professor Epstein taught law at the University of Southern California from 1968 to 1972. He served as Interim Dean from February to June, 2001. He received an LL.D., h.c. from the University of Ghent, 2003. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985 and a Senior Fellow of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago Medical School, also since 1983. He served as editor of the Journal of Legal Studies from 1981 to 1991, and of the Journal of Law and Economics from 1991-2001. At present he is a director of the John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics. Professor Epstein is the author of numerous books, including Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Case for Classical LiberalismPrinciples for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty with the Common GoodMortal Peril: Our Inalienable Rights to Health CareSimple Rules for a Complex WorldBargaining With the StateForbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination LawsTakings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain; and Modern Products Liability Law. He has written numerous articles on a wide range of legal and interdisciplinary subjects. Professor Epstein has taught courses in civil procedure, communications, constitutional law, contracts, corporations, criminal law, health law and policy, legal history, labor law, property, real estate development and finance, jurisprudence, labor law; land use planning, patents, individual, estate and corporate taxation, Roman Law; torts, and workers’ compensation. He earned undergraduate degrees from Columbia College and Oxford University and received his LL.B. from Yale University.

DONNA COLEMAN GREGG is an Adjunct Senior Fellow with The Free State Foundation. Ms. Gregg is a former member of the faculty of the Columbus School of Law of The Catholic University of America, where she was affiliated with the Institute for Communications Law Studies. Prior to entering academia, Ms. Gregg had a distinguished career in both public service and private practice. Most recently, she served at the White House Office of Science and Technology as Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to the 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference. She has served as Chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau and as Vice President of Legal and Regulatory Affairs and General Counsel of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Ms. Gregg is a current co-chair of the Federal Communications Bar Association Law Journal Committee. She earned a B.A. degree with High Distinction from the University of Michigan and a J.D. degree from Duke University School of Law, where she is a member of the Board of Visitors. 

ANDREW LONG is a Senior Fellow at The Free State Foundation. Previously he served as Vice President & Assistant Chief Counsel, Regulatory, at Time Warner Cable, handling policy and compliance matters affecting the company’s consumer-premise equipment, video, and broadband offerings. He is a former Associate Chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau, where he oversaw agency efforts to advance the DTV Transition and ensure the availability of competitive video navigation devices (e.g., set-top boxes) at retail. Most recently, he was a telecommunications law and technology consultant for Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. Mr. Long received a B.A. from the University of Delaware and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he served as Associate Editor of the Law Review.

KATE M. MANUEL is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at The Free State Foundation. She most recently served as an Associate Legal Advisor for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Department of Homeland Security. Prior to that position, Ms. Manuel served as a Legislative Attorney at the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. She served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland University College; Assistant Professor & Instruction Coordinator at New Mexico State University; and Assistant Professor & Physical Sciences Librarian at California State University. Ms. Manuel received her B.A. degree at the University of Notre Dame, M.L.S. from Catholic University of America, and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law.

LAURIE J. MAY is Secretary-Treasurer of The Free State Foundation and an Adjunct Senior Fellow. From 2004-2012, Ms. May served as a Project Director at various organizations, including The Intelligent Transportation Society of America and the National Academy of Public Administration. Her Academy projects focused on management effectiveness and efficiency studies primarily at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the National Institutes of Health. Prior to her management consulting work, Ms. May served as the Director of the Organizational Management and Integrity Staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As the Program Management Officer for the Superfund, solid waste, Brownfields, chemical emergency preparedness and prevention, oil spill, and underground storage tank programs, Ms. May directed a staff and provided organizational leadership and policy direction for the full range of management issues, including financial integrity, fraud prevention, organizational and management improvement, human resources management, audits, and ethics. She has served as a confidential management advisor to numerous Presidential appointees across EPA, and she received EPA’s Excellence in Management Award. Ms. May is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Duke University.

RANDOLPH J. MAY is President of The Free State Foundation. Prior to founding The Free State Foundation, he served as a Senior Fellow and Director of Communications Policy Studies at the Progress and Freedom Foundation from October 1999-May 2006. From 1978 to 1981,  Mr. May served as Assistant General Counsel and Associate General Counsel at the Federal Communication Commission, and he subsequently practiced communications and administrative law. He has held numerous leadership positions in bar associations. He is a past Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Mr. May also has served as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States and currently is a Senior Fellow at ACUS. He is the author of a book on communications policy reform, co-author of a book on intellectual property, and the editor or co-editor of four other books on communications law and policy, and he has published more than two hundred articles and essays on communications, administrative and constitutional law topics. In the past, Mr. May wrote regular columns on legal and regulatory affairs for Legal Times and the National Law Journal, leading national legal periodicals. Mr. May served as an adjunct professor of law at George Mason University School of Law. He received his B.A. from Duke University and his J.D. from Duke Law School, where he serves as a member of the Board of Visitors. He has a long list of publications in the legal and public policy fields. A list of Mr. May’s earlier long-running series of Legal Times and the National Law Journal columns on various constitutional, regulatory, and administrative law topics is here. Mr. May was featured in the January 2021 issue of FCBA NEWS, the newsletter of the Federal Communications Bar Association, in the “Get to Know an FCBA Member” section at page 14. He has also been profiled recently by Law360 here and in the National Academy of Public Administration’s “Management Matters” newsletter here.

MICHAEL O’RIELLY is an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Free State Foundation. He is a member of APCO’s International Advisory Council, principal at MPORielly Consulting, LLC, a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for the Economics of the Internet, and a senior fellow at the Media Institute. Mr. O’Rielly served as a commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission from 2013 through 2020. Before being unanimously confirmed to the FCC, Mr. O’Rielly held a variety of leading staff positions during twenty years on Capitol Hill in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, ending as policy advisor in the Office of the Senate Republican Whip, then led by U.S. Senator John Cornyn. He previously worked for the Republican Policy Committee in the U.S. Senate as a policy analyst for Banking, Technology, Transportation, Trade, and Commerce issues, as legislative director to Senator John Sununu. Before his tenure as a Senate staffer, he served as a professional staff member on and telecommunications policy analyst to the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the United States House of Representatives. He began his career as a legislative assistant to U.S. Congressman Tom Bliley. Mr. O’Rielly received his B.A. from the University of Rochester.

Harris Van Pate is an Adjunct Research Fellow for the Free State Foundation and a Policy Analyst at the Maine Policy Institute. Mr. Van Pate has previously worked at public policy think tanks nationwide, including a Legal Clerkship at the Beacon Center of Tennessee and public policy research for the Cascade Policy Institute. His previous work has focused on constitutional liberties, economic policy, and state authority. He has a B.A. from Michigan State University’s James Madison College, and a J.D. from Florida State University’s College of Law, where he received an award for outstanding Pro Bono Legal Service.