Blog
Shelby Blankenship, Joye Beth Spinks serve as summer associates
by Mandy Hicks
Two law students returned to the Bowling Green area this summer to serve as summer associates at ELPO. Shelby Blankenship and Joye Beth Spinks worked at the firm this summer.
Shelby Blankenship began her second year of law school at the University of Kentucky College of Law in August 2018. She is pursuing dual Juris Doctor and Master of Health Administration degrees which she expects to complete in 2021. She attended the University of Kentucky and earned a Bachelors of Science in Human Nutrition in 2016. She previously served as a staff assistant at ELPO from May 2016 to July 2017. Shelby has extensive experience in a clinical healthcare setting, participating in the University of Kentucky Professional Education Preparation Program. In that program, she spent about 50 hours shadowing medical professionals at the University of Kentucky HealthCare system. She received training in HIPPA and information about safety regulations and compliance while working at U.K. HealthCare. She gained hands-on experience while learning how to interact with other professionals and patients. Her medical experiences include phlebotomy, laboratory services, nutrition and dietetics, NICU, Labor and Delivery, ICU, and general surgery. She also has extensive experience volunteering in the Ronald McDonald House Family room located in the NICU in Kentucky Children’s Hospital. Shelby is a native of Scottsville.
Joye Beth Spinks is entering her third year of law school at the Boston University School of Law. Joye Beth grew up in Bowling Green and graduated from Western Kentucky University, majoring in Biology and Science Education. Joye Beth spent four years teaching Biology and Environmental Science at Ohio County High School. As a teacher, she grew to appreciate how education laws and regulations impacted what she did in the classroom on a day-to-day basis. This sparked an interest in policymaking, leading to her eventual decision to go to law school. Joye Beth has melded her passions for science, education, and the law into her law school experience. She served as the President of BU Law’s Education Law Association and spent a semester working for a congressman on environmental legislation in the Massachusetts State House. Joye Beth has been able to use her science and education backgrounds at ELPO the past two summers, working on both education law and environmental law cases. She has also had the opportunity to learn about other practice areas, working with attorneys on personal injury, occupational safety and health, and employment discrimination matters. She has enjoyed the chance to work on cases affecting people in her community and looks forward to returning to Kentucky after law school.
