Mark Tercek is president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy, the global conservation organization known for its intense focus on collaboration and getting things done for the benefit of people and nature. He is the author of the Washington Post and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling book Nature’s Fortune: How Business and Society Thrive by Investing in Nature.

A former managing director and Partner for Goldman Sachs, where he spent 24 years, Mark brings deep business experience to his role leading the Conservancy, which he joined in 2008. He is a champion of the idea of natural capital — valuing nature for its own sake as well as for the services it provides for people, such as clean air and water, productive soils and a stable climate.

Christy Goldfuss serves as Managing Director at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. CEQ helps to develop the Administration’s environmental and energy policies and initiatives and works closely with Federal agencies to implement them. Christy helps oversee implementation of the President’s Climate Action Plan and works with other White House partners on new strategies to tackle this global challenge. She also leads work to advance the President’s agenda for protecting the lands and waters Americans value.

Christy has significant experience as a leader on a range of environmental issues, most recently as a deputy director of the National Park Service where she helped lead efforts to set and meet strategic goals related to conservation and preservation of America’s natural and cultural heritage. In this capacity, she identified ways to make Federal resources more accessible, including by spearheading the Administration’s “Every Kid in a Park” initiative. Prior to joining the Administration, Christy created and directed the Public Lands Project at the Center for American Progress. Previously, she worked as legislative staff for the House Committee on Natural Resources and as a reporter in Richmond, VA, Reno, NV and Redding, CA.

Bill is Founder and Senior Advisor at 350.org. He is the author of a dozen books about the environment, beginning with The End of Nature in 1989, which is regarded as the first book for a general audience on climate change.

Andy Darrell wears two hats at EDF: Chief of Strategy, Global Energy and Finance, and New York Regional Director. Andy develops solutions that combine policy change and private investment, with a particular passion for ways to deliver clean energy and less pollution in large cities. He is developing strategy for EDF’s efforts to remove policy and finance barriers to clean energy in the US, Europe and internationally.

Andy serves as member of New York City’s Sustainability Advisory Board, beginning with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and continuing in that role with Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Before joining EDF, Andy was an associate at Davis Polk and Wardwell and founding executive director of two organizations mobilizing political and financial support for waterfront redevelopment for public space. In 2010, he was recognized as by Environmental Advocates of New York as advocate
of the year.

Andy is a trustee of several philanthropic organizations, including International House (Chair, programs committee and member, audit committee); the Van Alen Institute (Vice-Chair, executive committee); and the New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund. He chairs the board and is President of the Stiftung ProEvolution, based in Switzerland, which expands access to clean energy in developing countries and helps innovative projects in climate and education scale up through networks and marketing.

Francesco Femia is Co-Founder & Director of the Center for Climate and Security, where he leads the Center’s policy development, analysis and research programs, and facilitates the primary forum for climate and security dialogue in the U.S. national security community. He has written, published and spoken extensively on the security implications of climate change, water stress and natural resource mismanagement in Syria and North Africa, including in the seminal report “The Arab Spring and Climate Change,” and in the SAIS Review of International Affairs, among others. He is also a regular commentator on how militaries and intelligence communities address climate change risks. He previously served as Program Director at the Connect U.S. Fund, where he directed programs ranging from international climate policy, to mass atrocity prevention and response. At the Fund, he founded and facilitated the U.S. Climate Leadership Group, a multi-stakeholder effort involving policy institutes and donors in the national security and development sectors. He has over a decade of experience conducting research and policy development on the intersection of climate change, national and international security. Francesco has written for the SAIS Review of International Affairs, Angle Journal, Defense News, the Reuters Foundation, the National Journal, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Climate Progress and e-International Relations, and is frequently-cited climate and security issues, including in the G7-commissioned “A New Climate for Peace” report, the UK Foreign Commonwealth Office’s “Climate Change: A Risk Assessment,” and the Stars and Stripes, the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, CNN, MSNBC, NBC News, the National Review, Foreign Policy, the Christian Science Monitor, the BBC, the New Republic, Slate, the Toronto Star, the Atlantic, Weather, Climate and Society and the Daily Caller, among others. He holds a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he explored EU security and defense policy, including a field study on Cyprus’s stalemated conflict. Francesco also serves on the advisory board of the Nuclear Security Working Group.

Michael B. Gerrard, Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School, teaches courses on environmental law, climate change law, and energy regulation, and is director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. He is also Chair of the Faculty of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. From 1979 through 2008 he practiced environmental law in New York, most recently as partner in charge of the New York office of Arnold & Porter LLP. Upon joining the Columbia law faculty in 2009, he became Senior Counsel to the firm.

A prolific writer in environmental law and climate change, Gerrard twice received the Association of American Publishers' Best Law Book award for works on environmental law and brownfields. He has written or edited eleven books, including Global Climate Change and U.S. Law, the leading work in its field (second edition published in 2014, co-edited with Jody Freeman) and the twelve-volume Environmental Law Practice Guide. Among his other books are The Law of Clean Energy: Efficiency and Renewables (2011), The Law of Adaptation to Climate Change: U.S. and International Aspects (2012) and Threatened Island Nations: Legal Implications of Rising Seas and a Changing Climate (2013). Since 1986 he has been an environmental law columnist for the New York Law Journal.

Rear Adm. Douglas Morton holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University and a master’s degree in civil engineering from The Georgia Institute of Technology, as well as a master’s degree in national resource strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He is currently serving as director of Energy and Environmental Readiness (OPNAV N45) on the Chief of Naval Operations staff. He is also a Seabee combat warfare officer, a registered professional engineer in Georgia, and a member of the Defense Acquisition Corps.

RDML Morton's facilities and acquisition assignments include assistant resident officer in charge of construction, Puerto Rico Area; resident officer in charge, facilities support contracts and assistant public works officer, Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek; executive officer of Naval Facilities Engineering Command Mid-Atlantic; commanding officer of Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southeast; chief of staff, Naval Facilities Engineering Command and commander Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic.

With the Seabees, he has served as a company commander with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 40, deploying to Okinawa, Japan and Rota, Spain; as operations officer of NMCB 133, deploying to Guam and Spain, and Bosnia; as commanding officer of NMCB 133 deploying to Guam and Southwest Asia; and as chief of staff for the First Naval Construction Division.

Morton’s staff assignments include aide to commander, Atlantic Division, Naval Facilities Engineering Command; director, Facilities Planning Academic Division, Naval Civil Engineer Corps Officers School, (CECOS); head of the Seabee Policy and Doctrine Branch, Naval Facilities Engineering Command; a tour on the staff of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Logistics) Facilities and Engineering Division; Civil Engineer Corps detailer and community manager, Navy Personnel Command; and as the deputy for Security Cooperation, Office of the Defense Representative, Pakistan.

Rebecca Patton is the program manager for climate change resilience and water resource management in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations and Environment. Her focus is on the development of integrated policies that consider future impacts of climate change to enable the Defense Department to continue executing its mission. She chairs the DoD Climate Change Adaptation Working Group. Ms. Patton has over 30 years’ experience working with the OSD, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. She holds a B.A. in chemistry from Indiana University and a M.Ed. (chemistry) from George Mason University.

Kassie Siegel, Senior counsel, Climate Law Institute Director, develops and implements campaigns for the reduction of greenhouse gases and other air pollution and for the protection of wildlife and communities threatened by climate disruption. She authored the petition and litigated the cases leading to Endangered Species Act protection for the polar bear, and she has been a leader in the fight to ban fracking and keep fossil fuels in the ground. She was named one of the ten most influential California lawyers of the decade by the Daily Journal in 2010 for her work on global warming and environmental law.

Heather Whiteman Runs Him is a staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder, Colorado, where she focuses on tribal water rights and natural resource issues. She previously served as Joint Lead Counsel for the Crow Tribe of Montana, where she oversaw and was additionally responsible for a wide variety of legal issues pertaining to intergovernmental relations, tribal land management, water rights, elections, health and social services, law enforcement, economic development, and general litigation issues. Prior to working with the Crow Tribe, Heather practiced in New Mexico as an Assistant Public Defender, and additionally worked as an associate attorney in private practice, serving tribal governmental clients on a wide variety of issues.

Heather is a member of the Crow Tribe and grew up on the Crow Reservation, and received her Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School. She received her B.A.F.A. with high honors in Art History, and with honors in Studio Art from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and her A.F.A. from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is licensed to practice law before the State Bar of New Mexico, the District of New Mexico, and the Crow Tribal Court.

Daniel Winer is a corporate associate in the Boston office of Latham & Watkins LLP. In addition to his corporate practice, Dan is part of a team of Latham attorneys who work closely with the Coalition for Green Capital to uncover avenues for providing low cost financing support for the deployment of clean energy technologies, products, and services. Dan is a graduate of Boston College Law School and Bucknell University. While in law school, Dan was an editor for the Boston College Law Review, a student attorney at the Boston College Legal Assistance Bureau, and a member of the Pro Bono Board.

Randall S. Abate is a Professor of Law, Director of the Center for International Law and Justice, and Project Director of the Environment, Development & Justice Program at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University College of Law in Orlando, Florida. Professor Abate teaches International Environmental Law, Natural Resources Law and Indigenous Peoples, Climate Change Impacts on Ocean and Coastal Law, Public International Law, Constitutional Law I and II, and Animal Law. Professor Abate joined the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University College of Law faculty in 2009 with fifteen years of full-time law teaching experience at Vermont Law School, Widener Law School–Harrisburg, Rutgers School of Law–Camden, Florida Coastal School of Law, and Florida State College of Law. He has taught international and comparative environmental law courses in Argentina, Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Kenya, India, Spain, and Ukraine.

Professor Abate has published and presented widely on environmental law topics, with a recent emphasis on climate change law and justice. His articles on climate change law and justice have appeared in several law reviews including the Stanford Environmental Law Journal, Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, Connecticut Law Review, Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum, Washington Law Review, William and Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review, Fordham Environmental Law Review, and UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs. He is the editor of CLIMATE JUSTICE: CASE STUDIES IN GLOBAL AND REGIONAL GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES (ELI Press, forthcoming Jan. 2017), WHAT CAN ANIMAL LAW LEARN FROM ENVIRONMENTAL LAW? (ELI Press 2015), and CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON OCEAN AND COASTAL LAW: U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES (Oxford University Press 2015), and co-editor of CLIMATE CHANGE AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: THE SEARCH FOR LEGAL REMEDIES (Edward Elgar 2013). Early in his career, Professor Abate handled environmental law matters at two law firms in Manhattan. He holds a B.A. from the University of Rochester and a J.D. and M.S.E.L. (Environmental Law and Policy) from Vermont Law School.

Judith Albert is a member of the Cornerstone Board of Directors. She is the former Executive Director of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), a national community of business leaders who promote sound environmental policy to grow the economy. E2 members are entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals from every sector of the economy, with a strong representation from the clean energy and sustainability sectors. Collectively, E2 members manage over $100 billion in assets and have been involved in creating or financing more than 1,400 companies, which have generated over 500,000 jobs.

Ms. Albert joined E2 in 2010 after a long career in investment banking. Most recently, she was at Bear Stearns, where she was Chief Operating Officer-Investment Banking, London and prior to that Chief of Staff-Investment Banking, New York. She advised Latin American clients at J.P.Morgan as the capital markets re-opened to them in the 1990s, and helped found Violy, Byorum & Partners, a boutique firm focused on Latin America. Prior to banking, she practiced corporate law with the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Judith began her career with The Ford Foundation, based in Mexico, and as extensive experience in emerging markets. Ms. Albert is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Yale College. She is on the Board of Directors of Mission Markets, and is a Vice Chairman of the ABA Committee on Government and Private Sector Innovation.

Robert Anderson is a Professor and Director of the Native American Law Center at the University of Washington School of Law, and is the Oneida Indian Nation Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School where he teaches annually. He teaches primarily in the areas of American Indian law, water law, natural resources law, and property law. He is a co-author and member of the Board of Editors of COHEN'S HANDBOOK OF FEDERAL INDIAN LAW (2005) and (2012). He is a co-author of Anderson, Berger, Frickey and Krakoff, AMERICAN INDIAN LAW: CASES AND COMMENTARY (3RD ED. 2015). He spent twelve years as a Staff Attorney for the Boulder–based Native American Rights Fund where he litigated major cases involving Native American sovereignty and natural resources. He was one of the two attorneys who opened NARF’s Alaska office in 1984. From 1995-2001, he served as a political appointee in the Clinton Administration under Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, providing legal and policy advice on a wide variety of Indian law and natural resource issues. Bob was the co-chair of the Obama transition team for the Department of the Interior in 2008, and one of five members of the National Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform. He is a member of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe.

Jessica Bacher is the Executive Director of the Land Use Law Center. Established in 1993, the Land Use Law Center is dedicated to fostering the development of sustainable communities and regions through the promotion of innovative land use strategies and dispute resolution techniques. As the Executive Director, Ms. Bacher’s responsibilities include development and implementation of projects relating to local land use practice, energy siting, distressed property remediation, transit-oriented development, sustainable communities, land use responses to sea level rise, and code enforcement, as well as providing strategic assistance to numerous municipalities. Most recently, she led the City of Newburgh, New York, in the development of a distressed property remediation implementation plan that focuses on the creation of a land bank. Additionally, Ms. Bacher serves as a trainer for the Center’s award-winning Land Use Leadership Alliance Training Program that has educated over 2,500 local leaders in land use strategies, consensus building, and regional stewardship. Ms. Bacher also is Chair of the Land Use Planning & Zoning Committee for the American Bar Association’s Section of State and Local Government Law and chairs its Distressed Properties Sub-Committee. At Pace Law School, Ms. Bacher serves as adjunct professor, teaching Land Use Law, Sustainable Development Survey, and the Advanced Land Use and Sustainable Development Seminar. She also administers the Center’s academic programs and guides student research. In addition, she is a Clinic Lecturer at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where she manages the School’s Land Use Clinic. Ms. Bacher authors regular land use features in New York and national publications and has edited numerous small books in the fields of Land Use and Real Estate Law, including Breaking Ground and Planning and Building in Priority Growth Districts. She also presents at regional and national conferences and served on the New York State Sea Level Rise Task Force Legal Work Group. Ms. Bacher was selected by the American Bar Association to receive the Jefferson B. Fordham Award, an award presented to a young practitioner who has shown great promise through her contributions to the field. Ms. Bacher received her J.D. summa cum laude from Pace Law School in 2003, along with a certificate in Environmental Law.

Annie Bennett is an Institute Associate at the Georgetown Climate Center, where she provides policy analysis on adaptation projects. Her work has focused on identifying models of regional collaboration to more effectively approach climate change impacts that cross jurisdictional lines. She also works on documenting state and local adaptation practices in the transportation sector to facilitate the incorporation of climate change into transportation planning, design, and operations. Annie graduated from Georgetown Law, where she participated in the Harrison Institute for Public Law's policy clinic, working on legal and policy questions related to urban heat adaptation. During law school she also interned at the U.S. Department of Justice in the Environment and Natural Resources Division, Natural Resources Section. Annie holds a B.A. in Chemistry and Neuroscience from
Dartmouth College.

Khiara M. Bridges has written many articles concerning, race, class, reproductive rights, and the intersection of the three. Her scholarship has appeared in the Stanford Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the California Law Review, the Boston University Law Review, the Fordham Law Review, the Washington Law Review, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, among others. She is also the author of Reproducing Race: An Ethnography of Pregnancy as a Site of Racialization (2011), published by the University of California Press. She also sits on the Academic Advisory Council for Law Students for Reproductive Justice, and she is a co-editor of a reproductive justice book series that is published under the imprint of the University of California Press.

She graduated as valedictorian from Spelman College, receiving her degree in three years. She received her JD from Columbia Law School and her PhD, with distinction, from Columbia University’s Department of Anthropology. While in law school, she was a teaching assistant for the former dean, David Leebron (Torts), as well as for the late E. Allan Farnsworth (Contracts). She was a member of the Columbia Law Review and a Kent Scholar. She speaks fluent Spanish and basic Arabic, and she is a classically trained ballet dancer who continues to perform professionally in New York City.

Susan Jane Brown is a staff attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC). Her primary focus of litigation is federal public lands forest management, but her practice includes cases involving the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, National Forest Management Act, and other land management statutes. She is Co-Chair of the National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule and is also heavily engaged in collaborative forest restoration in the Upper John Day Basin in eastern Oregon.

Benjamin Cashore is Professor of Environmental Governance & Political Science at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He is Director of the Governance, Environment and Markets (GEM) Initiative at Yale and is the Joseph C. Fox Faculty Director of the Yale International Fox Fellows Program. He is courtesy joint appointed in Yale’s Department of Political Science.

Cashore’s major research interests include the emergence and evolution of non-state governance innovations, their intersection with traditional governmental processes, and the role of firms, non-state actors, civil society and governments in shaping these trends.

His ongoing research efforts are focused on understanding how the interaction of multiple -levels of governance, public and private, might evolve to produce durable global environmental governance solutions. He pursues this approach through thematic efforts: certification /corporate social responsibility/non-state governance; forest policy and governance; policy change and policy learning; climate change as a “super wicked” problem; and the influence of globalization and internationalization on domestic policy processes.

Tony Cheng is Director of the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute and Professor in the Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship at Colorado State University. Tony’s primary research interest is in forest governance, policy and administration, with a focus on collaborative approaches to promote resilient social-ecological systems linked to forest landscapes. In his capacity as director of CFRI, Tony oversees programs to develop, compile, and apply locally-relevant scientific information to achieve forest restoration and wildfire hazard reduction goals. His research publications appear in a wide diversity of disciplinary and interdisciplinary journals, such as Forest Science, Forest Policy & Economics, Environmental Management, Human Ecology Review, Human Dimensions of Wildlife, and Society & Natural Resources. Born and raised in eastern Washington’s Palouse country, Tony has a PhD in Forestry from Oregon State University, a MS in Forestry from the University of Minnesota, and a BA in Political Science from Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA.

Amy Cordalis is a member of the Yurok Tribe of Northern California and currently works for her tribe as a staff attorney. Her family is from the village of Requa on the mouth of the Klamath River. As traditional regalia holders and leaders, several generations of her family have fought for cultural fishing rights, including her great uncle whose battle was successfully won in the Supreme Court case Mattz v. Arnet, which confirmed the boundaries of the Yurok reservation and fishing rights. Amy is active in Yurok ceremonies and salmon fishing. Her tribe’s connection to the Klamath River and the need to protect it for future generations brought her into the field of law. Amy spent six years as a staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, where she worked in the areas of water rights, Indian education, and self-governance. She has also worked for Berkey Williams, a law firm that exclusively represents tribal interests.

Amy earned her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Oregon and her J.D. from the University of Denver. In 2011, the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development honored Amy as one of its “40 Native Americans Under 40” for her leadership, initiative, and dedication to serving Indian Country.

Professor Jason J. Czarnezki holds the Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law Chair and is Executive Director of Environmental Law Programs at Pace Law School. Prior to joining the Pace Law faculty, Professor Czarnezki was Professor of Law in the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law School, Faculty Director of the U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law, and a Faculty Fellow in the Vermont Law Center for Agriculture and Food Systems. He has also held academic appointments at Marquette University Law School and the DePaul University College of Law. Pursuing interests in comparative and global environmental law and politics, Professor Czarnezki served as a Guest Researcher and Uppsala Forum Visiting Fellow at Uppsala University in Sweden and as a J. William Fulbright Scholar at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China. He has presented his work on environmentalism, natural resources law, food policy, and global climate policy at universities, public interest organizations, government institutions, and conferences throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.

Previously, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable D. Brock Hornby of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine and as a law clerk for the Bureau of Legal Services at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. His articles have been published in the law journals of Boston College, Boston University, Stanford University, University of Chicago, University of Colorado, University of Maryland, and University of Virginia. His books include "Everyday Environmentalism: Law, Nature and Individual Behavior" (2011) and "Food, Agriculture and Environmental Law" (2013). Professor Czarnezki received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Chicago.

Daniel C. Esty is the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy. As a professor at Yale since 1994, he holds faculty appointments in both Yale’s Environment and Law Schools and directs the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and serves on the Board of the Center for Business & Environment at Yale which he founded in 2006.

From 2011 to early 2014, Professor Esty served as head (Commissioner) of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. In this role, he worked to create a model 21st Century regulatory agency that used a “LEAN” process to re-design all of its permitting programs for greater speed, efficiency, customer orientation, and compliance focus resulting in transformed outcomes. Likewise, he designed an innovative energy strategy for the state designed to fulfill Governor Dan Malloy’s commitment to cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable energy – including a shift away from subsidies toward a finance focus using creative policy tools (reverse auctions, power purchase agreements, a first-in-the-nation Green Bank, and a statewide Property Assessed Clean Energy program).

Prior to taking up his position at Yale, Professor Esty was a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (1993-94), served in a variety of senior positions in the US Environmental Protection Agency (1989-93), and practiced law in Washington, DC (1986-89). He has an AB from Harvard College, an MA from Balliol College at Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and a JD from Yale Law School.

Dr. Rebecca French is the Director of Community Engagement for the Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation (CIRCA) at the University of Connecticut. Dr. French works with community leaders in vulnerable municipalities, state policy makers, and local and regional organizations to solicit their input into the work of the research institute. She then shares the information developed by the CIRCA faculty and staff with those communities and stakeholders. Dr. French is a project director for the Connecticut Connections Coastal Resilience Plan, an $18 million plan to provide downscaled coastal flooding information and plans for connecting vulnerable coastal communities to economic resilience transit-oriented development zones. Dr. French served as the CIRCA project director for the state of Connecticut’s successful $54.3 million proposal for the HUD National Disaster Resilience Competition. Previously, she was a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the US EPA and served as an AGU Congressional Science Fellow in the Office of Senator Sanders (I-VT). She holds a doctorate in geosciences from Virginia Tech, a Masters in soil science from Cornell, and a B.A. in chemistry from Oberlin College. Dr. French has presented and published multiple papers on climate adaptation policy, geosciences, and citizen science and crowdsourcing.

Joshua is Director of the Environmental Protection Clinic and Clinical Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. Josh is also the Environmental Law and Policy Program Director at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (F&ES). In addition to directing and teaching the Environmental Protection Clinic, Josh directs the dual law-environment degree program between F&ES and Pace, Vermont, and Yale law schools. He is also a lead collaborator in the Land Use Collaborative. His own research addresses the law of takings and just compensation, with a current focus on just compensation in the context of climate change adaptation; and the law and policy of invasive species management. Prior to his current role, Josh was the associate director for the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy where he oversaw all operations of the Center including budgeting, fundraising, research, and teaching. Josh studied law at Vermont Law School where he graduated magna cum laude and was a member of the Vermont Law Review’s senior editorial board. He earned a master’s degree in environmental management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in wildlife conservation from the University of Delaware.

Ms. Guzman is a lawyer, with a Master's degree in Political Science from the National University of Colombia. She worked in the United Nations Development Program for nine years. She coordinated the Rural Development Seedbed until this year, and from 2009 to 2012 she coordinated the team that wrote the last National Human Development
Report for Colombia (2011), entitled “Rural Colombia. Reasons for hope.” Before that, she was researcher in the Human Development Reports for Central America (2009) and for Bogota (2008). Ms. Guzman began her career in the United Nations, where she designed and coordinated a civic initiative called “How are you doing Council of Bogota?” This initiative examines Bogota’s city councilmen/councilwomen’s performances. Her professional interests include looking at the relationship between rural inequality and civil war, land tenure issues, conflict resolution and environmental justice. She enjoys teaching in the Javeriana University in Bogotá, where she is a lecturer in Political Science and government courses.

Judy Hatcher joined the staff of Pesticide Action Network North America in June 2012, after serving on the board for five years. She has worked as a grant maker, a program manager, a consultant and a trainer for social justice groups all over the country. Previous employers include National People's Action, Amnesty International USA, the Funding Exchange, the Crossroads Fund, the Community Resource Exchange and the Center for Community Change. She was a consultant with the Grantsmanship Center and the Women of Color Fundraising Institute, among other organizations. Most recently, Judy served as Director of Programs, then Executive Director, of the Environmental Support Center. Judy is currently a board member of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, which supports grassroots organizations and movements in the US working to change environmental, social, economic and political conditions to bring about a more just, equitable and sustainable world.

Katrina Fischer Kuh is a Professor of Law at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University where she teaches Environmental Law, Global Climate Change and U.S. Law, International Environmental Law, Torts and Administrative Law. Her scholarship, which has been published in journals including the Duke Law Journal and Vanderbilt Law Review, focuses on climate change, sustainability, and second generation environmental challenges. Professor Kuh is the co-editor of The Law of Adaptation to Climate Change: United States and International Aspects. Prior to joining the Hofstra faculty in 2007, Professor Kuh worked in the environmental and litigation practice groups in the New York office of Arnold & Porter LLP and served as an advisor on natural resource policy in the United States Senate. She received her law degree from the Yale Law School and served as a law clerk to Judge Charles S. Haight of the District Court for the Southern District of New York and Judge Diana Gribbon Motz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Douglas Kysar is the Joseph M. Field ’55 Professor of Law at Yale Law School. His teaching and research areas include torts, environmental law, and risk regulation. He received his B.A. summa cum laude from Indiana University in 1995 and his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1998, where he served on the student board of advisors. He has published articles on a wide array of environmental law and tort law topics, and is co-author of a leading casebook, The Torts Process, with James A. Henderson, Jr., Richard N. Pearson & John A. Siliciano. His recent book, Regulating from Nowhere: Environmental Law and the Search for Objectivity (YUP 2010), seeks to reinvigorate environmental law and policy by offering novel theoretical insights on cost-benefit analysis, the precautionary principle, and sustainable development.

Jonathan Lovvorn is Senior Vice President & Chief Counsel for Animal Protection Litigation at The Humane Society of the United States. A nationally recognized expert in animal law and environmental law, Mr. Lovvorn has litigated extensively on behalf of animals and the environment, and manages the nation's largest animal protection litigation program, with dozens of attorneys prosecuting more than 40 cases in state and federal courts around the country.

Mr. Lovvorn has served as a visiting or adjunct professor of law at a number of law schools, including Harvard Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, Lewis & Clark Law School, George Washington University Law School, and New York University School of Law. Mr. Lovvorn has authored several articles concerning animal law and wildlife policy, and his legal work has been featured in The New York Times, The National Law Journal, and other media outlets around the country.

Sydney Menees is a third-year student at Georgetown University Law Center. Since entering law school, she has held internships at the European Chemicals Agency (Helsinki, Finland), Department of Justice in the Environment and Natural Resources Division, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. At Georgetown, Sydney participated the Harrison Institute for Public Law’s policy clinic, working on climate adaptation strategies for regional collaboratives. Prior to law school, she worked for a green building nonprofit in rural Kansas. Sydney obtained a B.A. in Music from Bard College.

Mark Mitchell is the principal of Mitchell Environmental Health Associates, a consulting firm on environmental health and environmental justice issues. Dr. Mitchell is also founder and Senior Policy advisor for the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice. Dr. Mitchell has spent over twenty years working in the public health sector, including as Director of the Hartford, Connecticut, Health Department and as Deputy Director of the Kansas City, Missouri, Health Department. He has spent the past fifteen years educating the community on the effects of the environment on health. Working primarily with communities of color and low-income whites, he teaches people what can be done to prevent and reduce the disproportionately higher rates of disease in their communities.

Dr. Mitchell has served on the US EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Board and on the US Food and Drug Administration’s Advisory Committee on Blood and Blood Products. He is currently a member of the US EPA’s National Advisory Council on Environmental Policy and Technology. He recently received the Physician of the Year award from the National Medical Association Region I and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the US Environmental Protection Agency Region I.

Dr. Mitchell is a public health physician with an MD from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Dr. Mitchell received his Master’s in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University, where he was trained in environmental health and health policy.

Sarah Morath is an Associate Professor at The University of Akron School of Law where she teaches courses in legal research and writing, judicial opinion drafting, environmental law and animal law. Professor Morath’s scholarship focuses on the intersection of environmental law and food law. Her articles have appeared in the Oregon Law Review, Seattle University School of Law Review, Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum, Natural Resources Journal, and Public Land and Resources Law Review. She is the editor of the forthcoming From Farm to Fork: Perspectives in Sustainable Food Systems in the Twenty-First Century. Before joining Akron Law in 2010, Professor Morath clerked for The Honorable Andrew M. Mead of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and for the Honorable John A. Woodcock, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine.

Professor Morath is a graduate of Vassar College (B.A.), Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (M.E.S.), and the University of Montana School of Law (J.D.)

Ms. Mukhayer has an LLM in Natural Resource Law and Policy, and seven years of experience working in the field of natural resources management with the United Nations in Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia. Her career focus is on helping governments design and enforce natural resource policies and programs that contribute to local economic development and employment creation. In her work and research, Ms. Mukhayer adopts a multidisciplinary approach to integrated natural resource management drawing on her qualifications and professional experience in: environmental management, natural resource law, and economics.

During her fellowship year, she will explore the role of traditionally enforced property rights in the transition towards a green economy, focusing on productive resource sectors (livestock production, gum Arabic etc.). Ms. Mukhayer is a fierce advocate of the human right to question the assumptions on which our understanding of society is based. Her quest for answers is motivated by such questions as: Are our assumptions on how people organize, the institutions of the state and economy, and modes of governance valid? If so, why haven't we reversed poverty, turned natural resources into a blessing, and distributed wealth with equality?

Erin is a law student interested in environmental and energy litigation. She is currently the Natural Gas Market Advocacy intern with Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate & Energy Program, and also worked on natural gas issues last fall with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Sustainable FERC Project. Erin has also interned at Earthjustice working on Florida Public Service Commission hearings, at DOJ ENRD in the Power Plants Group, and at EPA OECA’s Air Enforcement Division. She holds a B.A. in environmental science from the University of Florida, and previously worked in political campaigns and state government.

Martin Nie is Professor of Natural Resources Policy and Director of the Bolle Center for People and Forests. As appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture, Nie is currently serving on the U.S. Forest Service’s National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule. In 2015, Nie received the College's "Druids Outstanding Professor Award."

Nie’s research broadly focuses on federal lands and wildlife policy, law, planning, and management. Some of Nie’s more recent projects focus on reform proposals and initiatives in National Forest law and management, the future prospects of the Wilderness Preservation System, the rewriting of National Forest plans, and the practice of adaptive management. Nie’s latest book is The Governance of Western Public Lands: Mapping Its Present and Future (2008).

Nie grew up in Ontario, Canada and received degrees from the University of Nebraska and Northern Arizona University.

Yogini Oke is a fourth year BA.LLB (Hons.) student at the West Bengal National Unversity of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, India. Her hometown is Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. Her academic interests lie in the interfaces between law and policy, especially in the areas of environmental law and socioeconomic rights. She has interned with various Supreme Court lawyers, as well as policy organizations which provide legislative assistance to parliamentarians in India. Her extracurricular interests are reading historical fiction, swimming, and playing basketball.

Jim Parajon has been with the City of Arlington since 2006.

He has almost three decades of experience as a professional planner with an extensive technical and management background. Jim has managed the short and long range activities of large multi-disciplined consultant firms and municipal organizations, advised elected officials and local government staff on development, design, transportation and growth policies, and conducted training workshops for interest groups, the business community and professionals on a regional and national level.
Currently, Jim serves the City of Arlington as the Deputy City Manager for Economic Development and Capital Investment. In this capacity, he oversees the Arlington Municipal Airport, Community Development and Planning, Economic Development, the Convention Center and the Department of Public Works. Jim also serves as an Adjunct Professor for the University of Texas at Arlington.

Prior to his current role, Jim served Arlington as the Community Development and Planning Director. In this position, he was responsible for the management of real estate services, planning, the Arlington Housing Authority, civil engineering, federal grant programs, natural gas well functions, development services and building inspections functions. In 2014, Jim was recently elected to the College of Fellows for the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Neil M. Popowitz is a founding partner of Freilich & Popowitz, and an accomplished, entrepreneurial, results-oriented Attorney/MBA with 26 years of experience working directly with senior management, and a track record as a large company and start-up General Counsel.

Neil is an articulate, persuasive and seasoned advisor to senior business executives and government officials, a strategic and analytical problem solver who focuses on the ‘big’ picture to ascertain strategic business direction, while formulating risk mitigation strategies that protect the client’s finances and assets. Neil’s practice focuses on delivering strategic business and legal counsel; negotiating creative solutions for complex business agreements with Fortune 500 companies and government agencies; and providing leadership in risk management and litigation minimization.

Neil’s complex land use and zoning practice includes developing growth management and green land development codes; drafting oil and gas ordinances to limit and mitigate hydraulic fracturing impacts upon local communities; and representing both government agencies and landowners in 5th Amendment takings claims. Neil is a founding director of Clean Technology Council, whose nonprofit mission is to foster an environment of learning, mentoring, expert support and collaborative resourcing for businesses and entrepreneurs to develop and market clean energy and technology innovations locally and globally.

Karl is the Executive Director of the Pace Energy and Climate Center, at the Pace Law School in White Plains, New York. The PECC mission is to protect the earth’s environment through solutions that transform the ways that society supplies and consumes energy. Karl has some 25 years experience in energy and climate policy markets. Karl serves as Chair of the Board of the Center for Resource Solutions, a San Francisco-based non-governmental organization that works to advance voluntary clean energy markets. He also sits on the Board of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). Karl also is co-director and principal investigator for the Northeast Solar Energy Market Coalition, a US DOE SunShot Initiative Solar Market Pathways project.

As a staff attorney with the New York Program, Raichel works with NRDC’s Community Fracking Defense Project, which helps local residents and elected officials effectively exercise their democratic voice to protect their communities from the harms of industrial fracking activities. Before coming to NRDC, he got his start working on fracking issues as a clinic student at Columbia Law School helping Pennsylvania municipalities write protective zoning ordinances against fracking.

Mr. Rumpler coordinates Environment America’s state and federal work on clean water, toxics pollution, and land preservation. His recent work includes successful campaigns to restore the Chesapeake Bay, halt the expansion of offshore oil drilling in the wake of Deepwater Horizon, and protect the Grand Canyon from toxic mining. His current efforts also include safeguarding our beaches from runoff pollution and sewage overflows, and protecting our drinking water from gas drilling.

In addition, Mr. Rumpler has either advised or co-authored numerous research reports – including Corporate Agriculture and America’s Waterways, Toxics on Tap, and Quietly Paving Paradise (see our Reports section). He has also testified before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure regarding enforcement of the nation’s clean water laws.

Education: J.D., Northeastern University School of Law, 1996; B.A., Tufts University, 1988

Sarah Schindler is a Professor of Law and Glassman Faculty Research Scholar at the University of Maine School of Law, where she teaches Property, Land Use, Local Government, Real Estate Transactions, and Animal Law. Professor Schindler is quickly earning a national reputation for her scholarship, which focuses on the intersection of sustainable development and land use law. Two of her recent articles, Architectural Exclusion (Yale Law Journal) and Banning Lawns (George Washington Law Review) were competitively selected for presentation at the Sabin Colloquium on Innovative Environmental Scholarship at Columbia Law School. She was named as Pace Environmental Law Center’s Distinguished Young Scholar of 2013. Professor Schindler is also passionate about teaching, and received Maine Law’s Professor of the Year award in 2013. Prior to joining the Maine Law faculty in 2009, Professor Schindler clerked for Judge Will Garwood of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Austin, Texas and practiced in the area of land use and environmental law at Morrison and Foerster in San Francisco. She was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia School of Law, and previously served as a White House Intern. Professor Schindler graduated summa cum laude from the University of Georgia School of Law. She will spend next year as a Law and Public Affairs Fellow in residence at Princeton University.

As EDF’s Senior Director, Clean Energy Idea Bank, Jonathan Schrag leads the Clean Energy Idea Bank, an internal think tank for analytics and strategic planning set up to help transform our country’s electricity system in order to grow our economy, slash harmful pollution, and give people control over their energy use and costs. The Idea Bank generates research for our clean energy experts to use as they work with regulators, policymakers, clean tech entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders in key states to modernize utility business models, make the grid more resilient and less wasteful, level the playing field for clean energy, and unleash the power of private capital.

John Smith is a member, partner, and co-founder of Smith Butz. Attorney Smith decided to form his own law practice with Attorney Thomas M. Butz after practicing law in Pittsburgh law firms. Attorney Smith focuses his practice in the areas of Commercial Litigation, Construction Litigation, Estate Litigation, Zoning and Land Use Law, Corporate Law, Employment Law, Municipal Law Matters, Probate Law, and Energy Law. In addition, Attorney Smith is at the forefront of Gas Lease Negotiations, Local Zoning regulations on drilling, and the Litigation of Ownership of these valuable minerals.

Attorney Smith has tried hundreds of cases representing both individuals, businesses and municipalities in various courts and jurisdictions throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As a reward for his wealth of litigation experience, Attorney Smith was invited to become a member of the American Association of Trial Lawyers.

Attorney Smith received his Bachelor of Arts in Communication, Rhetoric and Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1991 and his Juris Doctor Degree, magna cum laude, from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 1995.

Based out of Earthjustice’s Washington, DC office, Jill Tauber leads the Clean Energy Program’s work to advance energy efficiency, solar, wind and other clean resources andaccelerate the transition away from fossil fuels. Tauber’s litigation practice and advocacy focuses on increasing investment in clean energy resources, eliminating barriers to clean energy, and defending and promoting progressive clean energy policies nationwide. Since joining Earthjustice in August 2013, Tauber has been representing clients before various state public utility commissions – key arenas where energy policy is made and executed – and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Prior to joining Earthjustice in August 2013, Tauber was a senior attorney at Southern Environmental Law Center where she led the organization’s energy efficiency practice across the Southeast. She completed a Skadden Fellowship at Advancement Project, a national civil rights organization, and served as a clerk to the Honorable Richard A. Paez, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Tauber graduated from Cornell University and received her law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School.

Scott leads Vote Solar’s work on shared solar and the Southeast. Previously, Scott was president of the policy consulting firm NewBuild Strategies LLC. During his years in the United States Senate, Scott served as legislative counsel to the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) and as professional staff for the Senate Appropriations Committee. Scott holds a B.A. in economics from Georgetown University and a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. He is based in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Thompson has worked on energy, development, and climate change issues for over two decades, in both government and non-government positions. Dr. Thompson currently is Director of the Office of Electricity and Energy Efficiency at the U.S. Department of State. In that position he is responsible for establishing and managing the strategic direction and programmatic implementation of the Office’s mission in advancing U.S. foreign policy and national security goals in priority countries through the promotion of electricity system reforms and functioning power markets; promoting increased access to clean and affordable energy services; and, supporting USG climate change goals by creating the regulatory and electric utility system frameworks necessary for investment in clean energy and energy efficiency.

Before becoming the Office Director in the Bureau of Energy Resources, Dr. Thompson served as Senior Program Manager in the State Department's Climate Office. Attendant duties included:
• U.S. Government lead negotiator on Technology within the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
• U.S. Government representative on the International Steering Committee of the Renewable Energy Policy Network of the 21st Century (REN21), Paris, France
• U.S. Government representative on the Governing Board of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), Vienna, Austria
• Lead U.S. Negotiator for Energy at the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, New York City

Before coming to the State Department, Mr. Thompson served as Director of the Office of Energy at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and before that, as Senior Policy Analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Mr. Thompson has a B.A. in English from Gonzaga University and a Ph.D in Political Philosophy from Georgetown University.

Paul Waldau is an educator, scholar and activist working at the intersection of animal studies, law, ethics, religion, and cultural studies. A Professor at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, Paul is the Director of the Master of Science graduate program in Anthrozoology for which he has been the lead faculty member since the program’s founding in 2011. Paul has also taught Animal Law at Harvard Law School (2002-2014) and courses regarding ethics and animals in Harvard’s Summer School since 2009, where this summer he will teach “Animal Studies—An Introduction.” The former Director of the Center for Animals and Public Policy at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, Paul taught veterinary ethics and public policy for more than a decade. He has completed five books, the most recent of which are Animal Studies—An Introduction (2013 Oxford University Press) and Animal Rights (2011 Oxford University Press). He is also co-editor of A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics (2006 Columbia University Press) and An Elephant in the Room: The Science and Well-being of Elephants in Captivity (2008 Center for Animals and Public Policy). His first book was The Specter of Speciesism: Buddhist and Christian Views of Animals (2001 Oxford University Press).

Terry Welch is a founding partner of Brown & Hofmeister. His practice emphasizes state and federal court litigation and appellate practice, focusing on civil rights, constitutional law, employment discrimination, personnel matters, and zoning and land use litigation. He offers more than two decades of municipal law experience and is a frequent speaker on issues facing public and business entities in Texas.

Terry represents numerous local government entities in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and provides training to various groups throughout the area. He served as the 2004-05 Chair of the State and Local Government Law Section of the American Bar Association. Terry is fluent in German.

Laurie is an associate attorney focused on replacing coal with clean energy in several Central U.S. states. Born and raised in Hawaii, Laurie moved to the Mainland to earn her B.A. from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs with a focus on environmental policy, along with a certificate in Environmental Sciences. After college, Laurie worked as an energy policy analyst in the Office of New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine before obtaining her J.D. from the University of Michigan. Before joining the Club, Laurie was an associate at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. In her free time, she can be found exploring the D.C. area’s many parks with her dog, who may or may not actually be a black bear.

Omaid Zabih is a Staff Attorney with the Immigrants & Communities Program at Nebraska Appleseed. Nebraska Appleseed is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest law center dedicated to equal justice and full opportunity for all Nebraskans. Prior to Appleseed, Omaid worked as a congressional staffer in Washington, D.C., for Senator Ben Nelson. He earned a B.S. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a J.D. with distinction from the University of Nebraska College of Law.