Panel II - Protecting the Ocean For All

Steve Roady

Professor of the Practice / Senior Lecturing Fellow

Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment / Duke Law School

Steve Roady is a Professor of the Practice at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, and a Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke Law.  In addition to teaching both coastal law and policy, and environmental litigation, Steve consults with non-profit organizations on the conservation of ocean and coastal resources. 

Before joining the Duke faculty in 2016, Steve devoted more than three decades to litigation and advocacy furthering various conservation and environmental protections contained in U.S. laws.  His work in the courts and other forums helped protect ocean and coastal resources, streams and mountains, and air and water quality. 

Between 1998 and 2016, Steve focused principally on ocean policy law and litigation.  He launched the Ocean Law Project in 1998, which pursued challenges to federal government failures to protect fisheries.  During 2001-2002, he was the first president of Oceana, an international ocean conservation organization.  From 2002 to 2016, he managed the oceans program at the public interest law firm Earthjustice.

Steve received his law degree from Duke, and has taught ocean and coastal law and policy there since 2003.  He has been named a Professor of the Year by the Duke School of the Environment, and a Public Interest Fellow by Harvard Law School.  His recent writings advocate for environmental protections in connection with deep seabed mining. 

Alegna Malave

Director

Defendiendo Cueva del Indio (dci681)

Growing up on the tropical island of Puerto Rico, her passion for the natural environment developed an active advocacy for the rescue and protection of public access to beaches, rivers and nature reserves on the island. She is an organizer for the social movement “Las Playas son del Pueblo” , a decades-long effort to rescue  public access to beaches from illegal construction on the coast. She also participates in legislative hearings and public manifestations in advocacy and defense of public transportation. 

With a Ba in sociology from the University of Puerto Rico and a master in socio spatial planning, she has focused her activism in educating about the laws and regulations that designate public domain areas. Serving as a communications advisor for a coalition of community organizations collaborating on rescuing and protecting public access and easements from the rampant construction and tourism developments all over Puerto Rico.

As a community organizer for the “Asamblea de Pueblo” (Peoples Assembly) movement focused on educating about the importance of the land use plan and the dangers of the proposed new joint regulation 2020 the tool used to deregulate the territorial plans and allow illegal construction in nature, agricultural and historical reserves. Currently she is the director of Defendiendo Cueva del Indio (dci681) where she is working with the community in the effort to rescue and protect the officially designated marine and nature reserves that surround the archaeological sites in the coastline of barrio Islote in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

Jackie Rolleri

Deputy Section Chief

NOAA Oceans and Coasts Section

Jackie Rolleri is the Deputy Section Chief for the Oceans and Coasts Section for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of General Counsel. The Oceans and Coasts Section provides legal advice to NOAA’s National Ocean Service and NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations. Among other things, Jackie works on issues pertaining to national marine sanctuaries, coastal zone management, maritime heritage, and hydrographic surveying and charting.

Jackie began her NOAA career in 2011 as a Presidential Management Fellow for the Office for Coastal Management where she focused on Coastal Zone Management Act matters and completed a detail to NOAA’s Budget Office. In 2015, Jackie became an Attorney-Advisor for the Office of General Counsel, Oceans and Coasts Section before transferring into her current position in 2019 as the Deputy Section Chief.

In law school, Jackie interned for U.S. Senator Whitehouse and the International Section of NOAA’s Office of General Counsel. She currently serves as a member of the Marine Affairs Institute Advisory Board for Roger Williams University School of Law.

Jackie received her B.A. in biology and environmental science from Colby College, her J.D. from Roger Williams University School of Law, and her Master’s of Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island.

Hiroko Muraki-Gottlieb

Adjunct Professor

Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University

Hiroko Muraki Gottlieb, an attorney, has over 20 years of experience in law and policy on sustainability and international matters. As the Representative for the Ocean, International Council of Environmental Law, Ms. Muraki Gottlieb leads the International Council of Environmental Law’s delegation on the high seas treaty negotiations at the United Nations. Her current appointments include Senior Researcher, Business and Climate Change, Harvard Business School, Associate, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, and Adjunct Professor of Law, Elisabeth Haub School of Law. She is also the Senior Ocean Governance Advisor and a member of the World Commission on Environmental Law at IUCN. Previously, she was Charge d’affaires/Senior Counsellor, Permanent Observer Mission of International Chamber of Commerce to the United Nations, and Counsel, IBM’s Corporate Environmental Affairs.