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Tonya M. Evans is an adjunct professor at Penn State Dickinson Law. She was selected to receive the 2023 EDGE in Tech Athena Award for Academic Leadership and is a member of the invitation-only Northwestern University Alumni C100, and is a 2020-21 Professor of the Year nominee, 2021 Forbes Over 50 Listee (Investment category) and 2021 awardee of the Fastcase 50 list.
She is a member of numerous national and international boards and committees, including the World Economic Forum/Wharton DAO Project Series co-led by the WEF Crypto Impact and Sustainability Accelerator (a research initiative focused on the evolving blockchain phenomenon), as well as Senior Advisor to Black NFT Art and Advisor to Maxwell Frost, U.S. congressional candidate in the 10th district of Florida.
Professor Evans has substantial expertise in the areas of intellectual property, new technologies (including blockchain and distributed ledger technology), entrepreneurship & innovation, entertainment law, trusts & estates, and municipal finance. She writes, speaks, and teaches primarily about the intersections of copyright and new technologies as well as estates law issues.
Professor Evans’ service on International Boards, Task Forces and Committees includes:
Prior to UNH Law, she served as Associate Professor of Law and Associate Dean of Inclusion & Equity at Widener University Commonwealth Law School. Professor Evans also served as Visiting Associate Professor of Law at UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law during the summer of 2016 and also served as Adjunct Professor of copyright, publishing and licensing at York College of Pennsylvania in Spring 2007.
Professor Evans speaks and consults regularly in the United States and abroad about the legal implications of new technologies and innovation for startups, entrepreneurs and creatives. Professor Evans has delivered presentations across the globe, including at the IBM Cloud Forum, Annual Meeting of Licensing Executives Society (LES) — Thailand (IP issues in fintech and blockchain), the New England Chapter of the Copyright Society of the USA (copyright & succession laws), the Association for American Law Schools Annual Meeting (copyright & succession laws), the annual South by Southwest (SxSX) interactive, film, and music industries Festival (copyright & new technologies), the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit: Crypto, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for an internal blockchain presentation to over 150 lawyers and staff.
Her press appearances include Yahoo Finance News, CNBC, Cheddar TV, Bloomberg TV, The Tammi Mac Show, FoxSoul and many quotes in print media including Sports Illustrated, Bloomberg News, Protocol, and the LA Times.
Information on additional publications is available online at https://proftonyaevans.com/publications/.
Information on additional events and media is available online at https://proftonyaevans.com/presentations/.
Contributor, United States GAO Study: Technology Assessment–Emerging Technology Offers Benefits for Some Applications but Faces Challenges (2022).
The Genesis of Creative Justice: Disintermediating Creativity, 26 Lewis & Clark Law Review 3 (2022).
De-Gentrified Black Genius: Blockchain, Copyright & the Disintermediation of Creativity, 49 Pepperdine L. Rev. 101 (2022).
The Role of International Rules in Blockchain-Based Cross-Border Disputes, 65 Wayne State Law Rev. 1 (2019)
CryptoKitties, Cryptography, and Copyright (August 2019, BYU Copyright and Trademark Symposium Issue of the American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal, 47 AIPLA 2, 2019)
User "Safe Harbor" from Statutory Damages: Remixing the DOC’s IP Task Force White Paper. San Diego Law Review. 54:79-116. 2017
Statutory Heirs Apparent?: Reclaiming Copyright in the Age of Author-Controlled, Author-Benefiting Transfers. West Virginia Law Review. 297-343. 2016
Hip Hop and the Law 2015
Reverse Engineering IP. Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review. 17:61-101. 2013
Safe Harbor for the Innocent Infringer in the Digital Age. Willamette Law Review. 50:1-42. 2013
Sampling, Looping, and Mashing Oh My: How Hip Hop Music is Scratching More than the Surface of Copyright Law. Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal. 21:843-904. 2010
Contracts companion for writers 2007
Copyright companion for writers 2007
Intellectual property law institute. 2007
Literary law guide for authors: copyright, trademark, and contracts in plain language 2005
FYOS literary law primer: from writer to literary entrepreneur 2003
In the Title IX Race Toward Gender Equity, The Black Female Athlete is Left to Finish Last: The Lack of Access for the “Invisible Woman". Howard law journal. 42:105-128. 1998
A Call to Action: The Time Has Come to Revisit and Reform the Law of Ideas. Intellectual Property Law Newsletter (ABA Intellectual Property law Section).
CryptoKitties, Cryptography, and Copyright. American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal.
Works in Progress
Decode the Future (course and companion book)
NFT Law Guide to the Future of Creativity (course and companion book)
Inheriting Digital Scarcity: Planning for a Bitcoin Estate
Managing Digital Scarcity: Blockchain Use Cases for Digital Rights Management
The Building Block(chains) of the Orphan Works Solution
Digital Currency Group’s Board of Directors
Member
2021 Forbes Over 50 Listee (Investment category)
2021 awardee of the Fastcase 50 list
American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Resource Center Women of Legal Tech list
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated
Member
American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Resource Center’s Women of Legal Tech 2022 list
Maker DAO’s Maker Ecosystem Growth Foundation
Chairperson (2020-2021)
World Economic Forum/Wharton DAO Project Series Working Group
Member (2022-present)
United States GAO Study on Blockchain
Contributor (2022)
NFT Black Art
Senior Advisor, (2021-present)
Maxwell Frost (2022 U.S. Congressional Candidate, CD Florida 10)
Advisor
Bermuda Global FinTech Advisory Board
Member (2018-present)
Global Blockchain Business Council
Observing Member
Emerging Impact
Advisor (2021-present)
The Pinkwellchick Foundation, Inc.
Founding member and founding Chair
Co-host, television special at Consensus 2023: Banking on Crypto
Speaker, Financial Literacy Education Commission’s digital asset group at CFTC, online (October 31, 2022)
Speaker, FUTURELand Cleveland with US Rep. Shontel Brown (fireside sponsored by Circle), online, (October 28, 2022)
Keynote, Blockchain for Social Good, San Francisco, California (October 20-21, 2022)
Speaker, Black Enterprise, Future of Financial Services Summit Panel, New York, New York (July 21, 2022)
Keynote, HUBSPOT, online (July 20, 2022)
Speaker, Society of Corporate Governance, Chicago, Illinois (June 22, 2022)
Keynote, RL Bank/Cayman Keynote (virtual) (June 8, 2022)
Discussant, Senator Cory Booker Virtual Assets Roundtable with Black and LatinX Industry Leaders, online (May 18, 2022)
Panelist, NFTs, Blockchain Technologies, and the Metaverse, Licensing Executives Society (LES)-NY (April 27, 2022)
Panelist, “Blockchain Arbitration and the Resolution of Cryptocurrency Disputes,” Paris Arbitration Week, Paris, France (April 1, 2022)
Speaker, ABA Business Law Section Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia (March 31, 2022)
Speaker, Harvard Blockchain Conference, Boston, Massachusetts (March 26-27, 2022)
Keynote, Program on Information Justice & Intellectual Property, American University Washington College of Law (March 25, 2022)
Keynote, Washington Heads of Office Leadership Council meeting (March 17, 2022)
Speaker, “Metaverse Streaming House”, Piksel, Austin, Texas (March 13, 2022)
Speaker, Crime, Cryptocurrency, and the Revolution to Confront Colonialism, Revolt.tv Black News with Eboni K. Williams, Esq. (December 9, 2021)
Panelist, What the Future Holds for NFTs, American Bar Association Blockchain and Digital Currency Institute (September 15, 2021)
Athena Award — Academic Leadership
EDGE in Tech Symposium (2023)
