Keynote Speakers

General Counsel, Counseling Compact Commission

Nahale Freeland Kalfas is a solo practitioner specializing in administrative law. For the past 19 years, she has been responsible for prosecutorial hearings, settlements, rulemaking, and legislative matters as General Counsel for the North Carolina Board of Examiners for Speech and Language Pathologists and Audiologists. She received her JD from Duke University School of Law in 1997. Ms. Kalfas is Legal Counsel to the National Center for Interstate Compacts at The Council of State Governments and is General Counsel for the Interstate Compact Commissions for Counseling, Occupational Therapy, Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology and Physician Assistants. She provides legislative review and testimony for the aforementioned compacts and additional compact projects sponsored by the United States Department of Defense. She is a legal consultant for the Interstate Compact for Nurse Licensure Compact Administrators (ICNLCA) and provides annual governance training for the ICNLCA and the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact Commission. Ms. Kalfas has provided guidance regarding best practices for state regulatory boards and licensure compact agencies as a faculty member on the Panel of Experts for the Occupational Licensing Consortium sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor in conjunction with Council of State Governments (CSG), National Governor’s Association, and the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Ms. Kalfas is the past chair of the Administrative Law Council of the North Carolina Bar Association and previously served on the board of the National Council of State Boards of Examiners for Speech and Language Pathologists and Audiologists (NCSB) from whom she received the 2022 Honors of the Association award. Ms. Kalfas is a course planner, trainer, and frequent speaker at the NCSB Annual Conference and the North Carolina Occupational Agencies Annual Best Practices Seminar and has served as a planner, presenter, panelist, moderator, or trainer at the American Bar Association Administrative Law Conference, Federation of Associations of Regulatory Boards Regulatory Law Seminar, Council of State Government’s Summit on Interstate Compacts, CSG/U.S. Department of Labor Best Practices Webinar, Kentucky Public Protection Cabinet Occupational Licensure Best Practices Seminar, the North Carolina Bar Association Continuing Legal Education Seminars, and multiple professional association conferences.

Special Counsel, National Center for Interstate Compacts (NCIC)

Rick Masters has served as Special Counsel to the National Center for Interstate Compacts (‘NCIC’), affiliated with the Council of State Governments (‘CSG’), providing legal guidance on the law and use of interstate compacts, their application and enforcement and bill drafting guidance in conjunction with the various NCIC compact projects. He has been a primary drafter of many compacts including multistate licensure compacts for the professions of Nursing, Medicine, Physical Therapy, Emergency Medical Services and Psychology. He also provides legal advice to a variety of compact governing boards and agencies and testifies before state legislatures about compact legislation as well as testimony to the U.S. Congress. Rick provided guidance to the Federal Trade Commission concerning the use of interstate compacts as a means of streamlining occupational licensing across state lines at the FTC’s Economic Liberty Task Force Roundtable. His comments and published work on interstate compacts were relied upon in the FTC White Paper “Options to Enhance Occupational License Portability” published in September 2018. He is also a member of the panel of experts to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Licensure Learning Consortium in a three (3) year project to: 1) ensure existing and new licensing requirements don’t create unnecessary barriers to employment and 2) improve license portability for occupations across state lines. Rick continues to engage in extensive research and writing in the field of interstate compacts including co-authoring the largest compilation of laws and commentary on the subject published by the American Bar Association in 2016 entitled The Evolving Law and Use of Interstate Compacts 2nd Edition. He received his Juris Doctorate from the Brandeis School of Law of the University of Louisville and served as a Kentucky Assistant Attorney General after which he was General Counsel to CSG. He also served a four (4) year term as a member of the Kentucky Executive Branch Ethics Commission.

Compact Administrator, Physical Therapy Compact

Jeff Rosa joined the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy as its Managing Director for Post Licensure Services in August 2015. He previously served for 12 years as the Executive Director of the Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Athletic Trainers (OTPTAT) Board in Ohio. Prior to joining the Ohio OTPTAT Board, Rosa worked for the Ohio Board of Nursing and as a Budget Analyst with the Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Rosa received a Bachelor of Arts in history from Yale University and a Master of Public Policy from the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.