Jesse Ruhl

Responsible Officer

Jesse is an attorney in private practice who specializes in representing colleges, universities, K-12 schools and international students. He was formerly the Assistant General Counsel and Associate Dean of Students at Westminster Theological Seminary where he also served as the seminary's PDSO/RO. He has more than 20 years of experience representing individuals and organizations and has developed an expertise advising institutions of higher education on regulatory compliance impacting their academic and broader institutional policies. His legal practice focuses not only on immigration law associated with F-1 and J-1 regulations including exchange programs, OPT, STEM and COS, but also other areas of federal and state law compliance. While he was at Westminster Theological Seminary, he served as the Seminary's Responsible Officer and was primarily responsible for all of the Seminary's J-1 programs and regulatory reporting. He is also an instructor at IETS Training in New York, NY, where he trains A/ROs in all aspects of the J-1 Exchange Visitor Program, particularly students and scholars. In addition, he serves as the PDSO at Bank Street College of Education in New York, NY and as the PDSO at Gwynedd Mercy University near Philadelphia, PA. He is also a frequent contributor to NAFSA's ISSS listservs.