Institutional systems fail in predictable ways.
TAAPD was built by people who know where to look.
The Association for Academic and Professional Development works with law firms, colleges and universities, and professional organizations whose workforces are adopting AI faster than their policies, supervision structures, and verification standards can keep up.
Our experience spans local, state, and federal courts, all three levels of government administration, and institutional leadership at public and private universities. We have prosecuted public corruption, advised governors, directed campus conduct systems, and built policy infrastructure in high-stakes settings.
Every program we build is designed to deliver real change and hold up under real scrutiny. That standard comes from the fact that the people building them have led through uncertainty and defended executive work in court.
Paul Heddings, Co-Founder & Executive Director
Paul Heddings spent the early part of his career in places where the stakes were unambiguous. As Chief Prosecutor for the White Collar Crime and Public Corruption Unit in Kansas City, he worked alongside the FBI on cases involving fraud, embezzlement, and public corruption, the kind of work where a weak argument or a missed detail has real consequences for real people. Before that he served as Assistant Legal Counsel to the Missouri Governor and Legal Counsel for the Missouri Department of Corrections, contributing to the state’s Justice Reinvestment Initiative.
That background shapes how Paul approaches institutional work. Prosecution at that level requires understanding not just what the rules say but how systems fail, where the pressure points are, and what it takes to build something that holds up under scrutiny. He brought that orientation to West Virginia University, where he has served as Director of Academic Integrity across WVU’s three institutions, including the flagship R1 campus in Morgantown, WVU Tech, and WVU Potomac State College. Under his leadership, WVU has set record lows for recidivism, appeals, and case processing times.
Paul’s earlier career included work in education policy, civil rights compliance, and disability advocacy through internships with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Alphapointe, a nonprofit that empowers people who are blind or visually impaired. His writing on academic integrity and AI has appeared in Inside Higher Ed.
Education: JD with Certificate in Dispute Resolution, University of Missouri. BA in History and BA in Political Science, University of Missouri.
Bar admissions: West Virginia, Missouri, District of Columbia.
Steve Smith, Co-Founder & Director of Legal Strategy
Steve Smith’s career has moved between two worlds that rarely talk to each other: campus administration and the law. That combination is unusual on its own, and it is what makes his perspective genuinely useful to the institutions TAAPD works with.
On the campus side, Steve spent more than a decade in higher education administration across public, private, and religious institutions, including leadership roles at Lycoming College, Alfred University, Elizabethtown College, and King’s College, before joining West Virginia University as Assistant Director of Student Conduct. At WVU, he managed complex conduct investigations, handled Title IX and harassment cases, and worked to align institutional practice with federal requirements. That kind of work requires equal parts legal fluency and operational judgment, and Steve did it for years before he ever set foot in a courtroom.
On the legal side, Steve earned his JD from WVU College of Law, then clerked in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia. He then worked at Kay, Casto, and Chaney as an Associate Attorney, where he handled cases in General Litigation, Municipal Law, Insurance Defense, and Employment Law. He now serves as Assistant Litigation Counsel at West Virginia University Medicine Legal Services, where his practice focuses on healthcare law and litigation.
For institutions trying to understand how their policies and practices would hold up if challenged, that combination of courtroom experience and years of hands-on administrative work is a rare thing to find in one person.
Education: JD, WVU College of Law. MBA (Healthcare Management), Youngstown State University. M.Ed. in Higher Education Administration, Northeastern University.
Bar admissions: West Virginia, Pennsylvania.
Current Work
TAAPD’s faculty AI literacy module has been adopted by Point Park University as part of its institution-wide AI training. The student AI literacy module is distributed nationally through VitalSource, including Barnes and Noble College campuses. TAAPD’s CLE program is built by Paul Heddings, who has authored and presented CLE trainings accredited by the Missouri Bar and the Texas Bar. Additional courses are in development.
We are actively expanding our work with law firms, bar associations, and higher education institutions preparing for the next phase of AI adoption.