Alan & Gwen Nelson Lifetime Student Award History and Art History

Veronica studied evolutionary biology as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania and then as a Ph.D. candidate at UCLA before changing direction and earning her law degree at Villanova University.  She was an antitrust litigator in Washington, D.C. for more than twenty-five years.  She represented clients in private practice (she is particularly proud of having been a partner at WilmerHale).  She also had the honor of "wearing the white hat" while representing the public interest as an assistant director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition.  None of this left much time for structured study of the humanities, however, so when she retired from full-time law practice, she became a student at George Mason University.  She thanks the faculty of the Department of History and Art History for nurturing her intellectual curiosity, making travel (especially time in Italy) much more than a "check-the-box" experience, and allowing her to regale her friends with tales of Romans, Vikings, and artists working in western Europe.