Written by: WSCL Marketing Team
From Libraries to Legal Education: Sarah Eggleston’s Mission to Transform the MLS Program
Sarah Eggleston never set out to become a practicing attorney. What drew her to the legal field was something broader: the law’s capacity to empower communities and create lasting change. Now serving as Director of the Master of Legal Studies (MLS) program with a specialization in Healthcare Compliance at Western State College of Law, she brings this guiding principle to everything she does. “I find aspects of the law really interesting and curious,” Director Eggleston says, “but what drew me to it was its ability to empower people and help them make a difference in their communities.”
Director Eggleston’s career journey reflects that mission. With a background as a librarian, she began her career in public law libraries to help people access justice and understand the legal system. Her path led her to Western State in 2011, where she initially joined as the Associate Director of the Library before becoming Director and eventually an adjunct faculty member. Over time, her passion for teaching and student support led her to develop and now lead the MLS program.
Designing a Student-Centered MLS Program
When asked what sets Western State’s MLS apart, Director Eggleston points to the program’s deep commitment to student engagement, professional development, and academic rigor. “Compliance is built around the ideas of understanding the law, anticipating risk, protecting people, and doing all of those things ethically,” she explains. The MLS program in Healthcare Complinance, she says, builds on that foundation by connecting legal knowledge to students’ real-life professional and community experiences.
A distinctive feature of the program is its student-centered capstone, which integrates both practical and academic components. This way, students can apply their legal knowledge to real-world situations while also developing critical thinking skills. Students are encouraged to pursue interests like designing a compliance framework for their employer or creating a nonprofit initiative. “I want them to take risks in a supportive environment that will showcase their skills,” Director Eggleston emphasizes, “but also provide them some personal satisfaction and make it really meaningful.”
Building with Purpose
When Western State decided to develop its MLS program in Healthcare Compliance, Director Eggleston was a natural choice to lead the effort and help build the program from the ground up. Having taught a variety of writing-based courses over the years, she brought both experience and a clear vision to the task. Reminiscing on her experience in a previous iteration of the program, she said, “It was such a pleasure to meet all my students, hear about their lives and what they wanted to do with their degrees, and just watch them grow professionally.” As a result, she eagerly accepted the position as the director of the new MLS program in Healthcare Compliance.
Director Eggleston brought her expertise in instructional design and educational theory. She holds a master’s in instructional design and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in education. She plans to use it to reimagine the program with a more rigorous and meaningful structure.
A Curriculum Built for Working Professionals: Flexibility and Real-World Relevance
Translating these educational principles into practice, the MLS curriculum is designed for working professionals, offering a balance of doctrinal instruction and practical application. Courses integrate real-world examples, such as HIPAA compliance and Medicare billing, to ensure immediate relevance and applicability.
“This program is built to evolve and change as student and industry needs change,” Director Eggleston explains. “The examples we use are drawn from real-life situations. Students reactively and proactively respond to those situations and examine current issues.” Students will also be encouraged to bring their own real-life professional experiences into the classroom. “Nothing beats reality,” she says. “You can’t make this stuff up.”
A New Kind of Legal Education
Director Eggleston is deeply critical of the gatekeeping tendencies in traditional legal education. “The law is intimidating by design. It’s meant to keep people out,” she says. “That’s really why I got into the legal field.” The MLS program addresses this by creating an inclusive environment. This way, students from diverse professional backgrounds can learn how to apply the law to their careers.
Her philosophy is simple but radical: knowledge doesn’t come only from the professor. “Students bring their own sources of knowledge from their workplaces. This program is built around capitalizing on that.” Director Eggleston hopes to create a more communal atmosphere, where the professor is not the only source of knowledge, but the students also offer their experiences to learn from.
In this spirit, collaborative learning is central to the MLS experience. Director Eggleston rejects the idea that success means going it alone. “Neoliberal education is built around the concept that individualism is the only way to succeed. You have to pull it all from your core, and you have to stand alone and do it all by yourself. But that’s not how the world works,” she explains. “In the real world, you have to know how to work cooperatively in a team.”
Support Beyond the Classroom
Director Eggleston’s commitment to her students extends beyond curriculum design. As program director, she sees mentoring as a full-circle responsibility, often reaching out to students to check on their well-being and offering tailored academic and professional guidance. “My approach is to see it as a 360-degree task,” she explains. “That means academic assistance and professional assistance. Eventually, I’d like to incorporate a mentoring program into the MLS as well.”
Her proactive outreach has made a lasting impression. “I would reach out to my students and just ask, ‘How are you doing?’” By checking in, she let her students know she genuinely cared about their mental health. Director Eggleston’s plans include integrating more mental health check-ins, online resources, and asynchronous support for working professionals. The goal is to make the MLS program not only rigorous but truly accessible.
Creating a Lasting Community
At the heart of Director Eggleston’s vision is community. She envisions students not only succeeding academically but also forming networks that outlast the program itself. “I want them to walk away thinking, ‘That was worth it. I have the knowledge and skills I need to make a difference.’ I want them to feel they have created a community they can rely on after they graduate.”
She’s working to further embed MLS students into the wider Western State law community, from shared guest lectures to symposia and even on-campus organizations. “I want my students to start a health law society, to have a group that’s on campus,” she explains. “I want to integrate them and make them part of the community within Western State.”
Why It Matters
What motivates Director Sarah Eggleston most is the program’s transformative potential for working professionals. It is designed to be flexible, helping individuals with careers pursue the MLS while maintaining their professional commitments. “A high percentage of these students are going to be working professionals,” she says. “Being mindful of this means, for example, our policies may include flexible deadlines when needed. We will also encourage our students to feel comfortable asking for help with coursework.” Her vision of the program is to effectively support these individuals in completing the MLS Program in Healthcare Compliance while maintaining their responsibilities.
She closes with a simple hope for her students: “I want them to think critically, to ask the right questions.” In Director Eggleston’s class, it’s not just about the answer. It’s about learning to ask the right questions.