Meet the Speakers

Cliff Villa currently serves as Deputy Assistant Administrator for the U.S. EPA Office of Land and Emergency Management, where he provides policy direction for programs including Superfund cleanup, Brownfields funding, hazardous waste management, and emergency response. At EPA, Cliff carries out priorities of the Biden Administration centered on environmental justice and climate change, drawing upon new resources provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This spring, at Columbia Law School, Cliff is also teaching a seminar on Environmental Justice. Previously, Cliff served as tenured faculty at the University of New Mexico School of Law, where he teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional rights, environmental law, and environmental justice. Before joining the UNM law faculty in 2015, Cliff spent more than 20 years as an EPA attorney in Washington, D.C.; Denver, Colorado; and Seattle, Washington. Among other publications, Cliff is the lead author of ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: LAW, POLICY & REGULATION (3rd ed. 2020), and author of continuing legal scholarship on environmental justice including Remaking Environmental Justice, 66 LOYOLA L. REV. 469 (2020); and Don't Blame the Flint River, 52 ENVTL. L. 341 (2022). Cliff was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with local roots tracing back over three hundred years.

Katie Dykes is the Commissioner of Connecticut's Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP). She has served since 2019, when she was first nominated by Governor Ned Lamont, and was re-confirmed in February 2023 to serve in Governor Lamont's second term. Katie previously served as Chair of the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) from 2015-2018, and as Deputy Commissioner for Energy at Connecticut DEEP from 2012-2015. Katie also serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Inc. (RGGI). Katie joined CT DEEP in March 2012 after prior service in the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the U.S. Department of Energy. She is a graduate of Yale College and the Yale Law School.

Latha Swamy is the City of New Haven's Director of Food System Policy. She holds a B.S. in Cellular Biology from the University of Georgia, pursued an MD and PhD in systems neuroscience at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and received a Master of Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment. In her current role, she seeks to manifest community visions of a sustainable and just food system by dismantling municipal and systemic barriers and authentically collaborating with community members and local, state and federal actors. Latha has previously worked as Senior Advisor to the Chair of the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health where she focused on local-to-global policies at the nexus between environmental degradation and human health. She has also worked in Haiti, India, Nepal and Indonesia to identify and evaluate solutions for environmental issues relating to the relationship between health and agricultural systems. The City of New Haven Food System Policy Division's current portfolio includes initiatives that focus on, among others, Urban Agricultural Growth & Development, Equitable Food-Oriented Development, Food Systems Mapping and Data, and Regional, National, and International Engagement.

Mayor Elicker is currently in his second term as the 51st elected Mayor of New Haven. He received a BA from Middlebury College followed by an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a Master of Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment. Mayor Elicker previously served as a foreign service officer for economic and environmental policies in the U.S. Department of State and as the executive director of a local environmental nonprofit that focused on community stewardship. Mayor Elicker's primary goal is to ensure each resident of the city of New Haven has the opportunity to thrive, and he is dedicated to creating a healthy and accessible environment for his constituents. As Mayor, he reinvigorated New Haven's first Office of Climate and Sustainability that is dedicated to developing and implementing equitable sustainability initiatives while simultaneously addressing issues like affordable housing and employment opportunities. Mayor Elicker's experiences have given him unique insight into the realities of implementing environmental initiatives at the ground level, and what it means to do so in an equitable manner.

Trevor joined the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic in January 2022 as a Clinical Instructor. Prior to joining FLPC, he worked as a Senior Policy Associate for the Organic Farming Research Foundation, advocating for policies to improve organic agriculture in the United States. Before that, he was the Deputy Director of Food Disclosure and Labeling at the United States Department of Agriculture. While there, he helped write regulations to implement the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (GMO labeling law). At USDA, he also worked on conservation programs, farm programs, farm loans, and crop insurance. Trevor received a Masters of Law (LLM) in Food and Agricultural Law from the University of Arkansas School of Law, a Juris Doctor (JD) from Willamette University College of Law, a Masters in Education from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from Willamette University. He is an active member of the Oregon State Bar.

Smita Narula is the Elisabeth Haub School of Law's inaugural Haub Distinguished Chair of International Law and Co-Director of the law school's Global Center for Environmental Legal Studies. Professor Narula teaches International Environmental Law, International Human Rights Law, Environmental Justice, Human Rights and the Environment, and Property. She is author of dozens of widely-cited publications on human rights, food systems, and the environment, and has helped formulate policy, legal, and community-led responses to a range of social justice and ecological issues worldwide. In 2021 she was elected as a Fellow in the American College of Environmental Lawyers. Prior to joining Haub Law School, Professor Narula was Associate Professor of Clinical Law at NYU School of Law. In 2008 she was appointed legal advisor to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and served in this capacity for the duration of the Rapporteur's six-year mandate. From 1997 to 2003, Professor Narula served as India researcher and Senior Researcher for South Asia at Human Rights Watch, and in 2000, she co-founded the International Dalit Solidarity Network, a transnational advocacy network that helps advance the right to equality for 260 million people affected by caste-based discrimination worldwide.

Baylen Linnekin is an attorney, author, and senior fellow with Reason Foundation. He serves on the board of the nonprofit Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund and also served as a founding board member of the Academy of Food Law & Policy.Linnekin's first book, Biting the Hands That Feed Us: How Fewer, Smarter Laws Would Make Our Food System More Sustainable (Island Press, 2016), reveals how federal, state, and local regulations often proscribe sustainable food practices. Hiswritings have appeared in the Wisconsin Law Review, Chapman Law Review, Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, Fordham Urban Law Journal, Journal of Food Law & Policy, Boston Globe, N.Y. Post, Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, Reason,Huffington Post, The Counter, and many other publications. He has appeared on NBC, CBS, MSNBC, NPR, BBC Radio, and dozens of other TV and radio stations and has been quoted by the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, The Economist, The Guardian,and many other top newspapers. Linnekin earned an LL.M. in agricultural and food law from the University of Arkansas School of Law; J.D. from Washington College of Law; M.A. in learning sciences from Northwestern University; and a B.A. in sociology from American University.

Professor Uché Ewelukwa is a professor of law at the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where she teaches in the international law and intellectual property fields. Professor Ewelukwa also teaches in the Law School's LL.M. Program in Agriculture and Food Law. Professor Ewelukwa is an active member of the American Bar Association Section on International Law (ABA-SIL) and currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Committee on Investment & Development, the Vice-Chair of the International Intellectual Property Rights Committee, as well as the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility of the association. Professor Ewelukwa is also an active member of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) and currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Intellectual Property Interest Group and the Co-Chair of the Africa Interest Group of ASIL. Professor Ewelukwa is the Secretary General of the African Society of International Law.

Professor Ewelukwa is widely published. Her scholarship focuses particularly on international investment law and arbitration, business and human rights, China-Africa trade and investment relations, as well as the intersection of intellectual property law and human rights. Professor Ewelukwa's articles have appeared or are forthcoming in the Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal, Michigan Journal of International Law, Minnesota Journal of International Law, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, University of Miami Law Review, Transnational Dispute Management, among others.

Professor Ewelukwa is on the Advisory Board of the African Journal of Legal Studies, is on the Editorial Board of Law Digest, Africa's Premier Law Journal, and is part of the Editorial Team of the Africa International Legal Awareness Blog. For four years (2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014) she has served as the Editor of The Year In Review for the International Investment & Development Committee of the American Bar Association Section of International Law. She has also served as the Editor of The Year In Review for the Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility of the American Bar Association Section of International Law.

Professor Ewelukwa has received numerous awards and fellowships in recognition of her work. Past awards include: Outstanding 2014 Year-in-Review (YIR) Award from the American Bar Association Section of International Law (for the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee's Year in Review that she edited and co-authored), the 2009 Human Rights Essay Award from the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, and a fellowship award from the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs.

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.

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 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, 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.

Gerald Torres is Professor of Environmental Justice at the Yale School of the Environment, with a secondary appointment as Professor of Law at the Law School.

A pioneer in the field of environmental law, Torres has spent his career examining the intrinsic connections between the environment, agricultural and food systems, and social justice. His research into how race and ethnicity impact environmental policy has been influential in the emergence and evolution of the field of environmental justice. His work also includes the study of conflicts over resource management between Native American tribes, states, and the federal government.

Previously, Torres taught at Cornell Law School, the University of Texas Law School, and the University of Minnesota Law School, serving as an associate dean at both. He is also a former president of the Association of American Law Schools and served as deputy assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice during the Clinton administration.

Torres's past work has examined how U.S. regulations have created racially or ethnically marginalized communities that bear a disproportionate share of environmental burdens and also has focused on developing strategies to improve governmental decision-making. He is also a leading scholar in critical race theory — a theoretical framework that examines questions of race and racism from a legal standpoint. His book The Miner's Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy, coauthored with Lani Guinier, was described as "one of the most provocative and challenging books on race produced in years."

Quetza is an MA student at Soka University of America, in their final Educational Leadership and Societal Change program semester. Quetza was born and raised in New York and has an associate's degree in Liberal Arts and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. Quetza is looking forward to pursuing an Environmental Law degree after SUA.

Over the last four years, Quetza has been in the process of reclaiming their Indigeneity, which is Mexica or more commonly known as Aztec. Reclaiming their Indigeneity is tied to the cultural gap in their family's lineage and their parents' migration from Mexico to NYC.

In these last four years, Quetza's understanding of spirituality helped them navigate challenging life situations as an undergraduate student. The Indigenous perspective recognizes that we are all spiritual beings and that our relationship with the Earth is an essential spiritual practice. Quetza's spiritual practices help them understand the community and personal growth's complex and fascinating interconnections. Quetza strives to know how to use their privileges to contribute to movements focused on accessing education for all, ethical resources for marginalized communities, and eco-centered frameworks.

Thus Quetza's spiritual practices helped them develop their thesis on Climate Justice, Indigenous Liberation, and Decolonial Practices. Quetza focuses on Indigenous and environmental activists supporting communities and being involved in oil resistance. Quetza has interviewed folks from North and South America to bridge the perspectives of these two places. And lastly, the perceptions of SDGs are a comparative point throughout their thesis. Quetza can gain insight into gaps between the UN and the frontlines by asking folks involved in community support and oil resistance what they define as a sustainable future.

Aja K. DeCoteau is a citizen of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and has other tribal lineage with the Cayuse, Nez Perce, and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. She grew up on the Yakama reservation and has over twenty years of experience working on natural resource management and policy issues in the Columbia River Basin. She has been the Executive Director for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) in Portland, OR, since November 2021 and was previously the Watershed Department Manager for the last twelve years. With a team of 150 staff in five locations, she coordinates fisheries restoration and watershed protection activities on behalf of the treaty reserved fishing rights of the Yakama, Nez Perce, Umatilla, and Warm Springs tribes in the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

Aja sits on the Board of Trustees for Earthjustice, the Board of Directors for American Rivers, Columbia Land Trust, Portland Energy Conservation, Inc. (PECI), the Board of Directors for the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), and the Advisory Council for the Yale Center for Environmental Justice. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and Native American Studies from Dartmouth College and holds a Master of Environmental Management from Yale University, School of the Environment.

Prior to joining Haub Law as the Associate Director of Environmental Law Programs, Professor Vithanage was a Visiting Associate Professor of Law and the first Environmental and Energy Law Fellow with an international law background at the George Washington University Law School. She is an admitted solicitor of the state of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia and immediately prior to joining GW Law, was a merit scholarship recipient at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. She was born in Sri Lanka, lived in the United Arab Emirates, practiced as an attorney in Australia, and undertook tertiary studies in Australia, Japan, China, Spain, and the United States, providing her a unique international perspective. Professor Vithanage has also been the Co-Chair of the American Bar Association's Section on Environment energy & Resources' (SEER) International Environmental & Resources Law (IERL) Committee since 2020 and is an originating member of the International Association of Energy Law, a global network of early career energy law professors. Most recently, she was recognized in LawDragon's 500 Leading Environmental and Energy Lawyers 2021 Guide.

Her interest in international environmental law and energy law and policy began early in her tertiary studies, through employment at the NSW Energy & Water Ombudsman, a government-approved industry-based independent body which monitors the state's water and energy industries. She also spent an exchange year at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, under a Japan Student Services Organization scholarship, completing interdisciplinary courses on environmental science and global environmental politics and policies. She completed her undergraduate combined degree of Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of International Studies at the University of NSW, Sydney. Her article "Marine Protected Areas: The Chagos Case and The Need to Marry International Environmental Law with Indigenous Rights," which she wrote during her undergraduate degree, was subsequently published in the 2012 edition of Brill's Yearbook of Polar Law. Following her admission, Achinthi practiced mostly in the commercial and property law fields for almost five years. She joined the Law Society of NSW Young Lawyers in 2012, and was elected Chair of the International Law Committee in 2015. During her two-year tenure, she endeavored to bring issues of international environmental law into the spotlight.

Professor Vithanage has acquired a wealth of environmental law experience since her arrival in the United States. She worked at the Sri Lankan Permanent Mission to the United Nations; published articles in the American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources' Natural Resources & Environment; presented on "Utilizing Marine Protected Areas to Facilitate Climate Change Adaptation: Tales from the Pacific," at the Pacific Climate Change conference in New Zealand; presented at the International Union for Conservation of Nature Colloquium in Glasgow, Scotland; and was invited as a panelist to Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University's Energy Water & Food Nexus International summit, presenting on climate change adaptation-based food security policy in the Pacific Islands, and to a side event to the United Nations High Level Political Forum on SDG 7 Energy. She is frequently called on to speak on panels, moderate conversations, write op-eds and feature articles, and comment on various environmental & energy law issues for news sources.

Professor Vithanage graduated summa cum laude from the Elisabeth Haub School of Law's LLM program following completion of her 180 page thesis on ex situ high seas biodiversity conservation under international environmental law. Her article, "A Deep Dive into the High Seas: Harmonizing Regional Frameworks for Marine Protected Areas with the UNCLOS Convention on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction," was published by Oxford University Press in 2019 in the Yearbook of International Environmental Law. She co-authored "The Transformation of Environmental Law and Governance: Risk, Innovation and Resilience," in the Edward Elgar publication stemming from the 2018 International Union for Conservation of Nature Academy for Environmental Law Colloquium, with Haub Law's Dean Emeritus Richard Ottinger. She recently published a chapter, which she co-authored with GW Law Associate Dean for Environmental Studies LeRoy Paddock, on "Collaborating with Underserved Communities to Contribute to Decarbonization" in the International Bar Association's section on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Law Academic Advisory Group's book on energy justice as well as chapter on Sustainable Energy Democracy. She has a forthcoming chapter in a Brill publication on the international legal instrument on biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction, a treaty presently being negotiated at the United Nations.

At GW Law, Professor Vithanage taught International Environmental Law, Global & Comparative Environmental Law, Environmental Lawyering, and coached students in international environmental law moot court competitions. She also taught Introduction to Environmental Law at GWU's Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration and Introduction to Sustainability, an interdisciplinary course based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, at GWU. She teaches a similar range of courses at Haub Law.

Professor Vithanage is concurrently pursuing a Doctorate degree at the George Washington University Law School as the Shaw Graduate Fellow in Administrative Law.

Nathan de Arriba-Sellier is the Research Director of the Yale Initiative on Sustainable Finance, where he designs and conducts research on the impact of climate change on financial markets. He is also a lecturer at the School of the Environment and the Law School, where he teaches a course on Sustainable Finance Policy & Regulation. Previously, he worked as a PhD Candidate at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Leiden University, where he expects to defend his thesis on the European System of Financial Supervision in the coming months. Prior to his PhD, Nathan clerked for the EU law unit of Conseil d'Etat, France's highest administrative court and legal advisor to the government.

Nathan's research interests revolve around climate-related risk management of financial institutions, regulatory intervention in sustainable finance and the responsibility of financial supervision and monetary policy in the transition to a sustainable economy. He is the author of several articles, analyses and op-eds exploring a wide array of legal issues at the crossroads of law, finance and the environment. His work has been published in distinguished European law journals and blogs. Nathan's prior research led him to Duke University and Stanford University where he conducted research visits.

Nathan holds an LL.M in EU Law from College of Europe (Bruges) as well as an LL.M. in International and European Business Law from the University of Vienna. He graduated valedictorian with a 'Maîtrise' in European law from the University Jean Moulin Lyon 3 after a year at University Hamburg where he was enrolled as part of the Erasmus exchange programme. During his bachelor, he studied French public law, German law and U.S. law.

Jesse Glickstein is an Environmental & Human Rights corporate lawyer who over the past decade has worked for two Fortune 500 companies and an Am Law 100 firm on issues related to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting, in addition to a wide range of environmental, energy, conflict minerals, and human rights compliance and supply chain issues.

Jesse also has a deep commitment to public service. Jesse serves on the Coalition for Green Capital's inaugural Environmental Justice Advisory Board. Jesse has also completed thousands of pro bono hours over the past several years, including, representing unaccompanied immigrant children in legal proceedings; drafting, analyzing, and negotiating power purchase agreements for a cooperative in order to install solar systems, aggregate purchasing of electricity, and reduce costs for schools and non-profit institutions; performing conditions of confinement visits for arrested protesters in jail; and working as a legal observer through the National Lawyers Guild.

Professor Monika Ehrman is visiting SMU Dedman School of Law from UNT Dallas, where she joined as Associate Professor of Law in Fall 2021. Professor Ehrman was previously a tenured Professor of Law at the University of Oklahoma, where she led the energy and natural resources program and served as the Faculty Director of the Oil & Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Center. Prior to teaching, she served as general counsel of an energy company; senior counsel with Pioneer Natural Resources; and associate attorney at Locke Lord LLP. Before law school, Professor Ehrman worked as a petroleum engineer in the energy industry.

Her scholarly interests are in the areas of property, natural resources, energy, and environmental law & policy. She is principal investigator of a multi-year team grant awarded in November 2021 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to study the impact of the clean energy transition on Native American communities. She is also researching the mischaracterization of natural resources in property law, currently writing on atmospheric modification, mining & wildfire policy.

She has been published in law reviews, interdisciplinary journals, and is a West casebook co-author.

Professor Ehrman will join the SMU Law faculty full-time as Professor of Law in fall 2023

Daina Bray is a Clinical Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School and a leading animal protection attorney. Since 2021, Bray has served as a Senior Litigation Fellow and Project Manager at the Law, Ethics, and Animals Program at Yale Law School, where she has overseen the Climate Change & Animal Agriculture Litigation Initiative. From 2014–2018, Bray was General Counsel at the International Fund for Animal Welfare. From 2019–2021, she served in the same capacity at Mercy For Animals, the world's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to farm animal protection. At both organizations, Bray was responsible for matters of governance, litigation, and legal risk. She previously practiced law at White & Case LLP, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer US LLP, and Phelps Dunbar LLP. From 1998–1999, Bray completed a Fulbright Scholarship in affiliation with the University of the West Indies–Mona's Institute for Sustainable Development and the Jamaica Environment Trust. She is a 2004 graduate of Stanford Law School, where she received Pro Bono distinction, and a 1998 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Morehead Scholar and member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Alex St. Pierre is a Senior Attorney on the Strategic Litigation team. Prior to joining CLF, Alex was an Equal Justice Works Fellow and Staff Attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, representing teens aging out of foster care and parents of children with disabilities. She then served as a law clerk to the Honorable Marcia G. Cooke of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and later to the Honorable James E. Graves, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. 

Alex earned a B.A., summa cum laude, from Sonoma State University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. In her spare time, Alex enjoys running long distances (especially on trails), baking, and spending time with her family.

Dr. Maria Antonia Tigre is the Global Climate Litigation fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School and an adjunct professor at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. She serves as the deputy director at the Global Network of Human Rights and the Environment.

Andrea Rodgers, Senior Litigation Attorney at Our Children's Trust, has been successfully litigating in the climate space for over a decade, and practicing environmental and Indian law for over twenty years. Her work representing youth against the Washington Department of Ecology secured the nation's first court order mandating a state to cap and regulate greenhouse gas emissions, prompting Seattle Met Magazine to name her as one of the month's most interesting visionaries, locals and newsmakers, calling her work "a pro bono lesson in how to fight for your environmental future." Andrea serves as co-counsel in Juliana v. United States, Held v. State of Montana, and Navahine F. v. Hawai`i Department of Transportation, and supports a number of other youth-led cases, including La Rose v. His Majesty the King in Canada. In 2022, Andrea led a petition for rulemaking effort in Florida filed by over 200 children that resulted in Chapter 5O-5: Renewable Energy – Florida's most significant climate policy in over a decade. This rule sets renewable energy goals for Florida's electric utilities at least 40% by 2030, 63% by 2035, 82% by 2040, and 100% by 2050. Andrea has given dozens of presentations at a variety of venues, including Aspen Ideas Health, and keynote addresses at the Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia, Tulane University Environmental Law and Policy Summit, the Washington State Council for the Social Studies, and the Miccosukee Indian Law Conference, among others. Andrea has published a number of articles, including most recently The Injustice of 1.5┬░C-2┬░C in the Virginia Environmental Law Journal. Prior to joining OCT, she clerked for the Honorable John C. Gemmill on the Arizona Court of Appeals and has served as an Honors Attorney for the U.S. Department of Transportation, In-House Legal Counsel for the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe, and Staff Attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center.

Thomas Poston is a second-year J.D. candidate at Yale Law School. In addition to his work with Yale's Climate Change and Animal Agriculture Litigation Initiative, Thomas has researched and contributed to climate litigation efforts at the European Court of Human Rights and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Thomas is also a 2022-2023 Emerging Scholar Fellow with the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law & Policy and a student fellow with both the Law, Ethics, and Animals Program and the Center for Global Legal Challenges. Prior to law school, he studied international development, environmental degradation, and human and non-human animal exploitation as a Fulbright research fellow in Cambodia. A native of coastal North Carolina, Thomas received his B.A. summa cum laude from Wake Forest University.

Lee Miller is a lecturing fellow teaching Food, Agriculture and the Environment: Law and Policy and a fellow in environmental law in the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic at Duke Law. His work has primarily focused on subnational climate change mitigation and resilience; adoption of regenerative agriculture systems; concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), environmental justice and animal welfare; the federal farm bill; development of local and regional food systems; as well as food justice, food sovereignty and the right to food; open markets and fair competition; and economic justice for restaurant workers.

Most recently, at the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic he developed and coordinated a farm bill research project to advance agricultural sustainability, racial and economic justice, and rural resilience. The project spanned eight environmental, food, and public health clinics across the law schools at Harvard, Yale, Duke, UCLA, Pace and Vermont. Previously, at Yale Law School's Environmental Law Clinic, Miller spearheaded a nationwide CAFO survey for the Natural Resources Defense Council that exposed information asymmetries between regulatory authorities and industry.

Miller has published pieces in the Yale Law Journal Forum, the American Journal of Public Health, the Journal of Food Law and Policy, and the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, among others. He has co-authored numerous reports on the farm bill, CAFOs, and regenerative agriculture. Miller serves as faculty advisor for the Duke Food Law Society and on the Board of Advisors for the national Food Law Student Network.

Miller received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he co-founded the Yale Food Law Society. He was awarded the post-graduate Jane Matilda Bolin Yale Law Journal Public Interest Fellowship and was an inaugural Exchange Fellow at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, NY. He received his B.S. summa cum laude from Duke, where he also received his MEM. He and his spouse raise sheep, bees, and vegetables on their small farm outside of Hillsborough.

Emma Scott is a Clinical Instructor with the HLS Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC) and a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. At FLPC, Emma primarily leads the Clinic's Sustainable and Equitable Food Production Initiative, including FLPC's advocacy on farm bill policy, food system workers, and equity in USDA programs. She also coordinates the activities of the Farm Bill Law Enterprise (FBLE), a coalition of law school programs that publishes educational resources and recommendations to improve farm bill programs and policy to better meet the long-term needs of our society (check out our work on farmbilllaw.org). Prior to joining FLPC, Emma served as an Attorney-Fellow at California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation in the Labor and Civil Rights Litigation Unit (supported by Justice Catalyst). At CRLAF, Emma's practice focused on group representation of workers from immigrant communities in employment litigation, with an emphasis on farmworkers and the H-2A visa program. Before that, Emma clerked on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California for the Hon. John A. Mendez.

Jonathan has served as Manager of Legislative Affairs at Feeding America since 2022. In this position, Jonathan advances Feeding America's legislative priorities in Congress to strengthen federal nutrition programs like SNAP, TEFAP, child nutrition programs, and CSFP. Jonathan is passionate about garnering bipartisan and cross-industry support for increased public investment in federal anti-hunger programs. Prior to working at Feeding America, Jonathan served four years as a legislative staffer for Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) where he focused on food and agriculture issues. Jonathan is a native of Ellicott City, Maryland and a lifelong Baltimore sports fan. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 2016, obtaining a B.A. in Foreign Affairs.

Kelli Case, Citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, serves as Senior Staff Attorney for the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative at the University of Arkansas (IFAI). Prior to joining the IFAI, Kelli earned her B.S. in Agribusiness from Oklahoma State University and her J.D. from the University of Tulsa. Since joining IFAI, Kelli has traveled across Indian Country, working with Tribes and Tribal producers on their agricultural pursuits. In the last two years, her work has focused heavily on the Farm Bill and its impact in Indian Country.

Dãnia serves as Director of Land Retention and Advocacy at the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund the largest and oldest cooperatively-owned organization whose membership includes black farmers, landowners and cooperatives. After double concentrating in Community Health and Africana Studies at Brown University, she earned her J.D. at University of Virginia School of Law.

Dãnia began her legal career as a Skadden Fellow at the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers' Land Loss Prevention Project implementing a project she designed which provided community education and estate planning services to improve Black farmers and heir property landowners' access to legal services in the rural South. She developed the documentary - "Our Land, Our Lives: The North Carolina Black Farmers' Experience" and served on the inaugural North Carolina Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council.

Dãnia is also the Director of the Federation's Regional Heirs Property & Mediation Center, manages the State Agricultural Mediation Programs in Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Georgia, and Louisiana, leads the Heir Property Relending Program Technical Assistance and Outreach Project, hosts the Federation Conversation Podcast, supervises the Federation Fellowship and Summer Law Student Internship, and leads the Federation's Advocacy Institute. Dãnia currently serves on the boards of the Farmers Legal Action Group and Southern Rural Development Center.