Lateef Mtima is the Founder and Director of IIPSJ; he is also a Professor of Law at the Howard University School of Law where he regularly teaches courses in intellectual property law and commercial law. Professor Mtima is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School.

He has published numerous articles on copyright, publicity rights, and diversity in the legal profession, and is the editor of Intellectual Property, Social Justice, and Entrepreneurship: From Swords to Ploughshares (Edward Elgar 2015), and a co-author of Transnational Intellectual Property Law (West Academic Publishing 2015).

Tashia Bunch is the Program Director of IIPSJ. She began working with the Institute in 2009 and has worked on various projects over the years including speaking at and co-chairing the annual CLE program.

Tashia is a 2006 graduate of Howard University School of Law, which is how she first learned about IIPSJ. She currently works as an Interlocutory Attorney with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Previous positions at the USPTO included serving as a Legal Policy Attorney, the Acting Trademarks Chief of Staff and as a trademark examining attorney. Tashia has also worked in private practice as an attorney in the Trademark and Copyright groups at Fish & Richardson, P.C., and with Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC.

Victoria Hicks Fisher is the Program Assistant and Administrator at IIPSJ. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, and began her career in intellectual property at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), where she works as a Primary Patent Examiner specializing in biomedical device technology. She is also currently serving as a USPTO Intellectual Property (IP) Champion, supporting the education outreach efforts of the USPTO Council for Inclusive Innovation (CI²) Community Outreach Campaign. Victoria is a Department of Commerce Women in STEM (DOC STEM) Ambassador, and was honored as the 2024 Ambassador of the Year.

Dr Metka Potočnik is the Associate Director (International Programmes) of IIPSJ. She is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Wolverhampton (UK), a holder of research degrees from King’s College London (LLM) and Queen Mary University London (PhD), and a Member of the Slovenian Bar (EU) (2008 – current). Dr Potočnik is on the Arts and Humanities Research Council Peer Review College (UK AHRC PRC) with research and teaching affiliations at several UK Higher Education Institutions (University of London, University of Aberdeen, …).

Dr Potočnik is a published author in intellectual property, alternative dispute resolution and foreign direct investment. In recent years, she combines her feminist research on the role of intellectual property in perpetuating the existing inequalities of women and gender expansive musicians, with her activism at The F-List for Music CIC (UK), which is committed to gender equality in the music industries. Dr Potočnik is an F-List Director and the lead of the F-List Gender in Music Research Hub, an interdisciplinary collective of feminist researchers in music.

Steven D. Jamar is the Associate Director for Scholarly Initiatives. He was previously the Associate Director of IIPSJ from 2002 through 2012, and the Associate Director for International Programs from 2012 through 2022. He is a Professor of Law Emeritus at the Howard University School of Law where he regularly teaches constitutional law and copyright law. He is a graduate of Carleton College, earned his J.D. from Hamline University School of Law, and his LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center.

He has published numerous articles on copyright and on international human rights.