our symposium Speakers
Persons are listed alphabetically by last name.
MICHAEL J. ANDERSON, PH.D., Environmental Program Manager, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oil Spill Prevention and Response
Michael J. Anderson, Ph.D. is the Resource Restoration Program Manager for the State of California Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR). In this capacity, he manages the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) and Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) units within the office. He has extensive experience in guiding the production of Oil Pollution Act (OPA)- and Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)-related NRDAs including the Cosco Busan, Dubai Star, and Refugio Beach oil spills. Prior to serving at OSPR, Dr. Anderson was a staff toxicologist for the Department of Toxic Substances Control—Human and Ecological Risk Assessment Division from 1998-2007 where he performed and evaluated human and ecological risk assessments at various Superfund and hazardous waste sites in California, including marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments. Dr. Anderson holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of California Davis and M.S. in Zoology from the University of Hawaii.
SUSAN AVERY, PH.D., President Emerita,Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Susan K. Avery, Ph.D., is president emerita of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and is professor emeritus at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is currently a member and chair of the board of trustees of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, serves on the Exxon Mobil Corporation Board of Directors, the Board of the American Institute of Physics, and the advisory committee for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She is the author or co‐author of over 110 peer‐reviewed articles and reports and has given scientific presentations to a wide variety of lay and professional audiences. She has been active in Congressional outreach, including testimony and briefings both in the United States and international consortia dedicated to ocean and atmosphere research, observation, and applications. Dr. Avery has served on numerous government and academic advisory committees, including the committee to develop the Massachusetts Green Economy plan. She is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Meteorological Society, for which she also served as president. She received her B.S. in physics from Michigan State University, M.S. in physics from University of Illinois, and Ph.D. in atmospheric science from University of Illinois.
ALEX BEEHLER, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, US Department of Defense
The Honorable Alex A. Beehler is the Assistant Secretary of the United States Army Installations, Energy and Environment and was confirmed by the US Senate in January 2019. In this role, he is the primary advisor to the Secretary of the Army and Chief of Staff of the Army for all matters related to Army installation policy and oversight, and coordination of energy security and management. He is also responsible for oversight of sustainability and environmental initiatives, resource management, including design, military construction, operations and maintenance, Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), privatization of the Army real estate portfolio, and installations’ Safety and Occupational Health programs. Prior to his appointment, The Honorable Mr. Beehler was a visiting scholar at The George Washington University Environmental & Energy Management Institute, where he specialized in water, public-private partnerships, and sustainability issues and served on the advisory board of the George Washington University Environmental and Energy Management Institute. From 2004 to 2009 he held several key positions in the Department of Defense’s Office of the Secretary of Defense including Acting Deputy Under-Secretary of Defense for Installations & Environment, Assistant Deputy Under-Secretary for Environment, Safety & Occupational Health (ESOH), Chief Sustainability Officer and Principal Deputy to the Deputy Under-Secretary, with Top Secret clearance. The Honorable Mr. Beehler also has extensive experience in private industry, where he served as a director of environmental and regulatory affairs. The Honorable Mr. Beehler has maintained a strong background in federal environmental policy, having served in the Department of Justice as a senior trial attorney for environmental enforcement and at the Environmental Protection Agency as a special assistant for legal and enforcement counsel. He also served as staff counsel on the US Senate Judiciary Committee. He holds a B.A. from Princeton University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia.
THOMAS D. BLACKMAN, LM Fellow, Environment, Safety & Health, Ethics and Enterprise Assurance, Lockheed Martin Corporation
Thomas (Tom) Blackman is a LM Technical Fellow with the Corporate Environment, Safety and Health (CESH) organization at Lockheed Martin Corporation. He has 34 years of experience performing environmental assessment, remedial investigation, and land and aquifer restoration. He also performs regulatory advocacy regarding emerging remediation Issues, specifically promoting the use of sound science in policy decisions made by the government. In addition to his technical expertise, Mr. Blackman previously served in corporate management as Director of Environmental Remediation and Director of Operations in the Environment, Safety and Health organization. He is the point of contact with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), acting to coordinate annual corporate funding contributions to the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education efforts that CBF provides for thousands of students. He also helps to coordinate Lockheed Martin’s efforts to support “Businesses for the Bay,” a cooperative program with the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay to promote good environmental practices at business locations within the watershed. He was previously a Senior Project Manager for Camp, Dresser & McKee (CDM), where he was a leader in the program management team coordinating the environmental assessment and clearance of 150 proposed new school sites for the Los Angeles Unified School District. His responsibilities included being the primary liaison with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), the agency that provided the clearance determinations necessary to fund and construct new schools. He holds a B.S. degree in Geophysics and a Master of Science degree in Geological Sciences from the University of California at Riverside. He holds licenses as a Professional Geologist and Certified Hydrogeologist in the State of California.
SCOTT J. CAMERON, Acting Assistant Secretary, Policy, Management and Budget; Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Policy, Management and Budget; and Member, Regulatory Reform Task Force, US Department of the Interior
Scott Cameron is the Acting Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management, and Budget at the Department of the Interior. Prior to his current appointment, he served as the Department of the Interior’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management, and Budget and as Acting Assistant Secretary for Water and Science. He also worked on the Transition Team for President Trump as part of the Landing Team and then the Beachhead Team for the Department of the Interior. Mr. Cameron has worked in both houses of Congress, in the Executive Office of the President, as a career civil servant, and as a political appointee in two administrations. He has worked deep in the bureaucracy and now twice in the Office of the Secretary of a cabinet department. He has consulted with federal agencies on management issues working for both large and small businesses and served the State of California as Washington Representative for former governor Pete Wilson. Scott has also worked as a corporate government relations executive, and as an executive in non-profit organizations. In November 2015, he became a local government elected official, being elected as a Director of the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District, serving Fairfax County. Mr. Cameron has served as Deputy Chief of the Interior Branch at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In that capacity he also served as the program examiner for the US Geological Survey and US Fish and Wildlife Service. Earlier at OMB, he oversaw the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water and the Office of Research and Development. He holds a B.A. in biology from Dartmouth College, and an MBA from Cornell University.
STEVEN D. COOK, Deputy Assistant Administrator, US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); Chair, Superfund Task Force
Steven Cook is the Deputy Assistant Administrator (DAA) for the Office of Land and Emergency Management of the US Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to his DAA responsibilities, in May 2018, Mr. Cook became Chair of the Superfund Task Force. Prior to his work at EPA, Mr. Cook was in-house counsel at LyondellBasell, a large, multi-national chemical and refining company where he oversaw the health, safety, environmental and security legal work on a global basis. As an adjunct professor, Mr. Cook has taught courses at the University of Houston Law Center covering the Clean Air Act, enforcement, and the intersection of environmental and bankruptcy law. Mr. Cook holds B.S. degree in chemical engineering from Brigham Young University (BYU) and a J.D. from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU. In addition, he also obtained a Master of Business Administration from the University of Texas – Austin.
KAROLIEN DEBUSSCHERE, PH.D., Deputy Coordinator, Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator Office, Department of Public Safety and Corrections, Public Safety Services; Chair, States NRD Alliance
Ms. Karolien Debusschere is the is the deputy oil spill coordinator at the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office. She has served in this role for the past 20 years. She coordinates and organizes all Louisiana State programs related to oil spills. In addition, she coordinates policies between Louisiana and federal agencies, including the Coastal Restoration and Protection Authority, the Department of Wildlife & Fisheries, the Department of Environmental Quality, the Department of Natural Resources, the Coast Guard, and EPA. Her leadership was crucial during the Deepwater Horizon disaster. She is a former Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana board member.
JOHN J. FORRER, PH.D., Director, Institute for Corporate Responsibility, Associate Research Professor of Strategic Management & Public Policy Associate Faculty, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, The George Washington University; Fellow, One Earth Future Foundation; Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council; Senior Fellow, Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, University of Toronto
John J. Forrer, Ph.D., is the Director of the Institute for Corporate Responsibility and Research Professor at the School of Business and Associate Faculty at the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at George Washington University. He manages the activities of the Institute for Corporate Responsibility and teaches, conducts research on corporate governance, sustainable supply chains, public-private partnerships, business and peace, ESG, and impact investing. Since its founding in 2006, the Institute for Corporate Responsibility (ICR) focuses on how to consider corporate responsibility through an integrated lens. The Institute’s research, teaching, programs and consulting have focused on expanding understanding of the trade-offs and consequences-for both the firm and society--of options and actions taken by firms to address: climate change, sustainable supply chains, circular economy, human rights, private environmental governance, multisector collaborations , sustainability certification, and impact investing; how to effectively messages these actions; and, how to leverage them to advance a firm’s own strategic goals and growth strategies. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Miami University, MPA from Syracuse University, and Ph.D. in Public Administration from George Washington University.
SCOTT FULTON, President, Environmental Law Institute
Scott Fulton is the President of the Environmental Law Institute. Previously, he was a Principal at the law firm Beveridge & Diamond, P.C., and served as General Counsel of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and in a number of other high-ranking government leadership positions. In addition to his role as EPA’s General Counsel, Mr. FUlton served in a number of other key leadership roles in both Republican and Democratic Administrations, including as Acting EPA Deputy Administrator, head of EPA’s Office of International Affairs, Judge on the Environmental Appeals Board, and head of the Agency’s enforcement program. He also served as Assistant Chief of the Environmental Enforcement Section of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Environment and Natural Resources Division. He is an international expert on environmental governance and rule of law, he serves as a member of the United Nations Advisory Council on Environmental Justice and teaches International Environmental Governance as an adjunct professor at George Washington Law School. He is a Fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers and serves on the United Nation’s Environment Programme’s International Advisory Council on Environmental Justice. He received the two highest awards given by the US government for outstanding leadership—the Presidential Meritorious Executive Service Award, and the Presidential Distinguished Executive Service Award—and has been inducted into the American College of Environmental Lawyers. He earned his B.A. in Business Management from the University of Massachusetts and his J.D. from the University of South Carolina.
TIM GALLAUDET, PH.D., Rear Admiral, US Navy (Ret.); Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Deputy NOAA Administrator, US Department of Commerce
Rear Admiral Timothy (Tim) Gallaudet, Ph.D., is the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Deputy Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). From 2017-2019 he served as the Acting Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator. Before these assignments, he served for 32 years in the US Navy, completing his service in 2017 as the Oceanographer of the Navy. In his current position, Admiral Gallaudet leads NOAA’s Blue Economy activities that advance marine transportation, sustainable seafood, ocean exploration and mapping, marine tourism and recreation, and coastal resilience. He also directs NOAA’s support to the Administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, oversees NOAA’s Arctic research, operations, and engagement, and is leading the execution of the NOAA science and technology strategies for Artificial Intelligence, Unmanned Systems, ‘Omics, Cloud, Data and Citizen Science. Additionally, Admiral Gallaudet chairs or co-chairs several interagency bodies, including the US Coral Reef Task Force, the Alaska Mapping Executive Committee, the National Invasive Species Council, and the Ocean Resources Management Subcommittee (ORM) under the White House Ocean Policy Committee (OPC), of which he is also a member. Other committees on which he serves include the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, the NSTC Committee on STEM Education, the Policy Coordination Committees (PCCs) under the National Security Council (NSC) on Pacific Island Countries, the Arctic, and Maritime Security, and the Executive Steering Group of the National Space Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Executive Committee. Admiral Gallaudet holds a bachelor’s degree from the US Naval Academy in oceanography and a M.S. and Ph.D. from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in oceanography.
STEVE GLOMB, Director, Office of Restoration and Damage Assessment, US Department of the Interior
Steve Glomb is the Director of the Office of Restoration and Damage Assessment in the US Department of the Interior. He previously held several positions in the Department’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) Program, focusing on the second R – the restoration aspects of NRDAR since 2002. Earlier in his career, he spent two years working for the House Appropriations Interior Subcommittee, worked in the US Fish and Wildlife Service on the Coastal Barriers Resources Act, and helped establish US Environmental Protection Agency’s National Estuary Program. Mr. Glomb started his federal career serving as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching freshwater aquaculture to farmers in Africa. Mr. Glomb holds a B.S. in Fisheries Biology from the University of Massachusetts and an M.S. in Biological Oceanography from Florida State University.
BARBARA J. GOLDSMITH, Executive Director, Ad-Hoc Industry Natural Resource Management Group; President, Barbara J. Goldsmith & Company LLC
Barbara J. Goldsmith is Executive Director of the Ad-Hoc Industry Natural Resource Management Group and facilitated its founding in 1988 with a group of major multinational corporations. She is also President of Barbara J. Goldsmith & Company LLC, which has provided consulting services to major companies, law firms and others for over 25 years on high-level national and international energy and environmental policy matters and corporate environmental management strategy. In 2005, Ms. Goldsmith was appointed by the Interior Secretary to serve on the Department’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) Advisory Committee. The seminal book, The EU Environmental Liability Directive: A Commentary, of which she was co-editor and a co-author, was published by Oxford University Press in 2013. Ms. Goldsmith has had substantial experience with business and industry associations, major companies in all industrial sectors, the US Government, international agencies, EU Member States and other countries worldwide. She is a frequent speaker on environmental, energy, and natural resource topics and collaborates with a wide set of both public and private sector entities. In 2012, Ms. Goldsmith was a Delegate to the United Nations Rio +20 Corporate Sustainability Forum and participated in the BASD Business Day Rio +20. She has worked for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, France, and she is the author of numerous publications on environmental regulatory issues affecting industry. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from The George Washington University and a Master of City Planning in Environmental Analysis from Harvard University, a joint degree program between the Harvard Schools of Public Health and Design and she is also an alumna of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
JOHN D. GRAHAM, PH.D., Professor, Paul H. O’Neil School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University; Former Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President
John Graham, Ph.D. is a professor and former Dean of the Indiana University O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. His areas of interest include government reform and energy and environmental issues. Prior to joining the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs he was the dean of The Pardee Rand Graduate School, RAND corporation from 2006-2008. He served as Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) where he shepherded the federal regulatory policy, statistical policy, and informational policy from 2001-2006. From 1990 to 2001, Graham founded and led the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (HCRA). By raising over $10 million in project grants and philanthropic contributions, Graham helped support eight new faculty positions and dozens of post-doctoral and doctoral students. By 2001, HCRA became internationally recognized for analytic contributions to environmental protection, injury prevention, and medical technology innovation. Dr. Graham is widely known to public and opinion leaders through his entertaining speeches about why Americans are both paranoid and neglectful of risks in their daily lives. Throughout his tenure in academia, Dr. Gaham. has authored or coauthored 10 books and more than 200 articles for academic journals and national publications. Graham has also continued to be involved in policy at a global scale. In 2013, he returned to Brussels, Belgium, to testify before the European Parliament's Trade Committee about barriers to free trade. He has delivered invited testimony to numerous House and Senate Committees, state and federal agencies, and the European Commission and Parliament. He holds a B.A. from Wake Forest University, a M.A. in Public Affairs from Duke University, and a Ph.D. in Urban and Public Affairs from Carnegie Mellon University.
LIN HARMON-WALKER, Interim Director of the Environmental and Energy Law Program and Visiting Associate Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School
Professor Lin Harmon-Walker is the Interim Director of the Environmental and Energy Law Program and Visiting Associate Professor of Law at The George Washington University School of Law. Her career has encompassed law practice, where she handled environmental insurance defense and coverage cases; nonprofit organization leadership as executive director of Friends of Trees, Oregon Mediation Association, and Greater Portland Sustainability Education Network; and academic management and teaching at top-ranked environmental law programs: Lewis & Clark Law School, where she was Director of Graduate Programs in Environmental and Natural Resources Law, and Pace Law School, where she was Assistant Dean for the Environmental Law Program and taught the UN Environmental Diplomacy course. Her international experience includes training Brazilian energy officials and judges in environmental dispute resolution; soliciting partnerships and support for Motions at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN’s) World Conservation Congress and leading a Pace delegation of professors and students to the Congress; chairing the international Jury for the Elisabeth Haub Environmental Diplomacy award; and guest lecturing on environmental law topics for law schools in India, Nepal, China, and Brazil. She is a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law and the United Nations Association. Professor Harmon-Walker’s co-authored book, Comparative and Global Environmental Law and Policy (1st edition 2020) is now available through Wolters Kluwer. She holds a B.A. from The College of Idaho and a J.D. from the Lewis & Clark Law School.
ROGER MARTELLA, General Counsel, Environment, Health and Safety, General Electric; Former General Counsel, US Environmental Protection Agency
Roger Martella is the Director and General Counsel for General Electric’s Environment, Health and Safety operations worldwide. As General Counsel, he directs policies that promote compliance with environmental, safety, sustainability, and climate change requirements as well as policies and procedures to keep workers and communities safe in the wake of COVID-19. Prior to GE, Mr. Martella co-led Sidley Austin LLP's global environmental law and climate change practices. Prior to Sidley, he was General Counsel of the US Environmental Protection Agency, where he was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate, and the Principal Counsel for Complex Litigation for the Justice Department’s Natural Resources Section. Mr. Martella’s passion is to improve environmental protections and rule of law for vulnerable populations around the world by fostering pragmatic, implementable solutions. To address the impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations, Mr. Martella serves as co-chair of the International Bar Association’s Climate Change Justice and Human Rights working group, where he co-authored two reports, including the January 2020 Model Statute for Proceedings Challenging Government Failure to Act on Climate Change. As vice-chair of the ABA’s environmental rule of law initiative, he spearheaded efforts to create the World Justice Project’s first Environmental Rule of Law Index which will be released in 2020. He is co-editor of the recently published Corporate Social Responsibility—Sustainable Business: Environmental, Social and Governance Frameworks for the 21st Century (Wolters Kluwer 2020) and International Environmental Law: The Practitioner’s Guide to the Laws of the Planet (ABA 2015). He is an active board member of the Environmental Law Institute and several environmental NGOs, energy think tanks, and “intrapreneurship” organizations and serves on the executive council of both the International Bar Association’s and ABA’s environmental sections (SEERIL and SEER), where he promoted and helped draft recent presidential-level climate resolutions. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a J.D. from Vanderbilt Law School, where he was editor in chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review.
JEAN A. MARTIN, Senior Counsel - BP Legal, BP America Inc. and Affiliates
Jean A. Martin is Senior Counsel, HSSE, in the Legal Department of BP America Inc. She is the lead (liaison) in-house counsel to a team of in-house remediation experts who manage contaminated sites in the US and Canada, and has helped defend the company against some of the largest and most complex natural resource damage claims brought against it. Ms. Martin also assists with the development of BP’s global practices for managing health, safety and environmental risks. She has been providing legal advice on remediation and natural resource damage issues to BP and a predecessor, Atlantic Richfield Company, working in the Los Angeles, Chicago, London and Houston offices. Before that, Ms. Martin was an associate attorney with the environmental teams at Sidley Austin and at Pillsbury Madison & Sutro (now Pillsbury Winthrop). Ms. Martin received her undergraduate degree in history from Cornell University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
STEVEN R. MILLER, Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Environment, US Department of Energy
Steven Miller is a Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Environment in the Office of the Assistant General Counsel for the Environment, in the Office of General Counsel at the US Department of Energy, in Washington, D.C. In that position, Steve is responsible for providing advice and counsel to various DOE offices on uranium mill tailings, remedial action, CERCLA, long-term stewardship and other environmental matters, including natural resource damage issues. He also has served as an environmental conflict resolution point of contact for DOE, and as a mentor to DOE employees, law students, college and high school students as part of various DOE-sponsored mentoring and internship programs. He holds a J.D., M.U.P. and B.A. degrees from New York University.
TONY PENN, Chief, Assessment and Restoration Division, US Department of Commerce/National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Tony Penn is the Chief of US Department of Commerce/National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Assessment and Restoration Division (ARD) and the co-lead of NOAA’s Damage Assessment, Remediation, and Restoration Program. As the head of ARD, he manages a wide group of professionals who are responsible for evaluating coastal habitats and resources injured by hazardous waste releases, oil spills, and vessel groundings. Prior to assuming the chief role at ARD in 2015, he served as Deputy Division Chief of the Assessment and Restoration Division for the previous eight years. Formerly, Tony managed ARD's SE Region where he worked directly with scientists and economists to address coastal pollution and physical impacts from waste sites, oil spills, and vessel groundings. Previous to this position, Tony was a natural resource economist conducting damage assessment work primarily in the Gulf Coast and Caribbean regions with a focus on restoration scaling, including Habitat Equivalency Analysis, and recreational impact assessment. Tony holds B.S. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin and an M.S. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland.
LARRY TIPPIT, Member, Environmental Department, Preoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma
LYNN SCARLETT, Chief External Affairs Officer, The Nature Conservancy; Former Deputy Secretary, US Department of the Interior
Lynn Scarlett is the Chief External Affairs Officer at The Nature Conservancy (TNC). In this role, her work focuses on advancing private-sector partnerships to support sustainability and promoted ambitious actions to address climate change. She also oversees NatureVest, TNC’s impact-investing team. Prior to her role at the Conservancy, Ms. Scarlett was the Deputy Secretary/Chief Operating Officer of the US Department of the Interior, where she also served as Acting Secretary of the Interior in 2006. As Acting Secretary, she initiated and chaired the Department’s Cooperative Conservation Working Group and its first-ever Climate Change Task Force. She established the Interior Department’s Ocean and Coastal activities office and chaired the federal Wildland Fire Leadership Council. She was a co-convening lead author of the 2014 National Climate Assessment. She previously served as chairwoman of the Science Advisory Board of NOAA from 2014-2020 and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Sustainability Roundtable. She has authored and co-authored publications on climate change adaptation, ecosystem services, large landscape conservation, and science and decision making. She is also on the Dean’s Advisory Council of the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara. She serves on the advisory board of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is on the board of trustees of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, and board emeritus of the National Wildlife Refuge Association. She holds a B.S. and M.S. degree in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she also completed her Ph.D. coursework and exams in political science and political economy.
DEBORAH A. SIVAS, Luke W. Cole Professor of Environmental Law, Director, Environmental Law Clinic, Director, Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program, Senior Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford Law School
Deborah Sivas is the Luke W. Cole Professor of Environmental Law and the director of the Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford Law School. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Turtle Island Restoration Network, the Otter Project, and Earth Island Institute, and sits on the advisory board of the Climate Law Institute. She currently studies the interaction of law and science in the arena of climate change and coastal/marine policy. Before returning to Stanford to start the Environmental Law Clinic in 1997, Professor Sivas served as a law clerk to US District Court Judge Judith N. Keep in the Southern District of California, practiced as an environmental attorney in the San Francisco office of Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe and in the Seattle office of Earthjustice, served as the founding legal director of The Lands Council, and started a small non-profit law practice in San Francisco. Professor Sivas has written about and practiced extensively under the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the National Forest Management Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Conservation and Liability Act, and various California state law analogues. With her clinic students, she currently conducts primary research and represents non-governmental organizations in administrative proceedings and litigation in the areas of coastal and marine resource protection, climate change policy, freshwater and terrestrial habitat conservation, and public land management. She has also co-taught interdisciplinary graduate courses and policy labs in coastal policy, trends in environmental regulation, and climate issues. In 2008, she was recognized as a California Lawyer Magazine Attorney of the Year for her work successfully challenging the Bush administration’s gas mileage standards for SUVs and light trucks. She holds a B.A. from Occidental College, an M.S. from University of California Davis and a J.D. from Stanford University.
BEN STANSFIELD, Partner, Gowling WLG (UK) LLP
Ben Stansfield is a partner with law firm, Gowling WLG, in London, United Kingdom. He provides services in both regulatory compliance and environmental litigation at Gowling WLG. Prior to joining Gowling WLG in 2018, he was a partner at Stephenson Harwood LLP and from 2007-2013 was a Senior Associate in Environment, Planning, and Energy law at Clifford Chance. He is a former Vice-Chair of the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association (UKELA). Mr. Stansfield has served as a Trustee of UKELA for eight years. Mr. Stansfield speaks internationally on UK and European environmental law issues and represents a number of overseas law firms with specialist elements of their transactions. Mr. Stansfield studied at the University of Kent, Law with French and Nottingham Law School, LPC.
ACHINTHI VITHANAGE, Professorial Lecturer in Law, The George Washington University Law School, Adjunct Professor, The Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration,
The George Washington University
Achinthi Vithanage joined George Washington University Law School in July 2018 as their first Environmental and Energy Law Fellow with an international law background. 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 and an LLM graduate (summa cum laude) of the Global Environmental Law track at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law, Pace University. Having been born in Sri Lanka, lived in the United Arab Emirates, practiced as an attorney in Australia, and undertaken tertiary studies in Australia, Japan, China, Spain, and the U.S., Professor Vithanage provides a uniquely international perspective to GW's Environmental and Energy Law Program. Professor Vithanage practiced mostly in the commercial and property law fields for almost five years. In 2012, having joined the Law Society of NSW Young Lawyers International Law Committee (ILC) she gradually rose through the ranks, to be eventually elected as Chair of the ILC in 2015. During her two-year tenure, Professor Vithanage endeavored to bring issues of international environmental law into the spotlight. Prior to practising law, she gained a wealth of legal experience in various other legal bodies including the Energy & Water Ombudsman of NSW, the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre at the University of NSW and the Redfern Legal Centre. Professor Vithanage is a Shaw Graduate Fellow in Administrative Law and currently serves as a Professorial Lecturer in Law, teaching International Environmental Law at GW Law. She also teaches in the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration and the George Washington University undergraduate school. She holds a B.A. and L.L.B. at the University of New South Wales and an L.L.M. at the Pace University Law School and is currently undertaking her S.J.D. at George Washington University Law School.
