2021 Panels

Race in Ethics and Professionalism
Conversations on the regulations governing legal ethics: recent changes, and how ethics and professionalism intersect with issues of race.

• Lynn Luker
  Stanley, Reuter, Ross, Thornton & Alford LLC
• Tracie Washington
  Higher Ground Consultants
• Suzette Bagneris
  Bagneris Law Firm
• Prof. Robert Wesley
  LOCHEF Professor of Legal Ethics & Professional Responsibility at Tulane Law School
• Gary Carter, Jr.
  Louisiana House of Representatives

Restore the Mississippi River Delta: Economic Resilience in Coastal Communities
Opportunities for coastal communities to build economic resilience with a focus on the off-bottom oyster farming industry and legal and regulatory constraints presented.

• Byron Encalade
  President, Louisiana Oystermen’s Association
• Brandi Shelley
  Co-owner & Manager
  Shelley Farms
• Dr. Steve Pollock
  Owner Triple N Oysters; Gulf Coast Oyster Aquaculture Association
• Faye Matthew
  Legal Policy Advisor, National Wildlife Federation
• Robin Barnes

Community Mobilization Workshop
Developing skills in community mobilization and grass-roots organization, led by advocates from New Orleans.

• Arthur Johnson
  CEO, Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement & Development
• Kim Terrell, Director of Community Outreach
  Tulane Environmental Law Clinic

Recent Publications on Environmental Injustice
Discussion among authors who write about environmental justice; both the subject of their work and how the power of storytelling can be used for social change.

• Andy Horowitz, Author, Katrina: A History 1915-2015
  Tulane University Department of History
• Harriet Washington, Author, A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind
  Columbia University
• Dina Gilio-Whitaker, Author, As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice from Colonization to Standing Rock
  Lecturer of American Indian Studies, California State University
• Myrriah Gomez (moderator), Professor & Forthcoming Author, Nuclear Nuevo México: Identity, Ethnicity, and Resistance in Atomic Third Spaces

Food and Agricultural Justice
Focus on the environmental and environmental justice themes present in the food/agricultural industry, including the lingering effects on law and policy of the plantation system and the issue of migrant labor.

• Marianne Cufone,
  Professor, Loyola University School of Law
• Lauren Ornelas
  Founder, Food Empowerment Project
• Sam Pfotenhauer (moderator),
  Attorney

History of the Environmental Justice Movement
Discussion of the themes and issues of environmental justice. The speakers will focus on the evolution of environmental policies on state and federal levels, as well as how environmental justice fits into the social justice movement as a whole.

• Kimberly Fields
  Policy Professor, University of Virginia
• Ellen Griffith Spears
  History Professor, University of Alabama

KEYNOTE: Disaster relief and legal services in the Gulf South in a post-Katrina era.

Colette Pichon Battle, Esq.
Director, Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy

National Wildlife Federation: Clean Energy and Just Transitions Panel
Discussion of clean energy programs and how to avoid “greenwashing,” and explore how the just transition framework can build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

• Rachel Stevens
  Staff Attorney, Environmental Justice and Environmental Advocacy Clinics
  Vermont Law School
• Patricia Rubio
  H.O.P.E. Community Garden Project
• Brent Newman
  Senior Policy Director, Audubon Delta

New Deals, New Economics
Discussion of the sustainable energy transition, both local and national economic impact and schemes, and the Green New Deal.

• Chase Iron Eyes
  Lead Counsel, Lakota People’s Law Project
• Logan Burke
  Alliance for Affordable Energy
• Robert Verchick
  Louisiana Climate Initiatives Task Force

Disparate Impacts – COVID-19 and Environmental Justice
Focus on how COVID has affected environmental protection, in particular the EPA rollbacks that have occurred. Like COVID itself, the effects of these rollbacks will inevitably disproportionately affect marginalized communities.

• Linda Villarosa
  Author/Journalist, New York Times
• Charles Miller, PhD
  Professor and Interim Chair, Environmental Health Sciences Department
  Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine

Historic Whitewashing, Criminalization and Stigmatization: Linking the Global Environmental and Human Rights Defenders Struggles with the US Environmental Justice Movements.

Alfred Brownell, 2019 Goldman Prize Recipient
Environmental Activist and Lawyer

Changes in Environmental Regulation: 2020-21
Updates to the heavy-lifting statutes and theories of environmentalism (NEPA, CAA, CWA, etc.), highlighting developments with changing administrations.

• Tim Hardy
  Partner, Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, L.L.P.
• Stephen Schima
  Senior Legislative Counsel, Earthjustice

• Adam Babich
  Professor of Law, Tulane University
• Monica Goldberg
  U.S. Ocean’s Program

Prison Industrial Complexes
Focused on the disproportionate environmental effects of the military-industrial complex and the prison-industrial complex so prevalent in American society.

• Emily Posner, Attorney
• Warren Palmer
• Connor Stevens

Louisiana – A Case Study
Focus on the abundant instances of environmental injustice in Louisiana and what we can do about them now and in the future.

• Shannon Rainey
  President, Residents of Gordon Plaza
• Anne Rolfes
  Director, Louisiana Bucket Brigade
• Lisa Jordan (moderator)
  Director, Tulane Environmental Law Clinic

Environmental and Climate Displacement
Stories of climate displaced individuals and communities: why those communities were sacrificed, how they have responded, and legal/policy solutions to help prevent such tragedies in the future.

• Shelby D. Green
  Professor of Law, Pace Law School
• Maxine A. Burkett
  Professor, William S. Richardson School of Law
• Lauren Nishimura
  Doctoral Candidate, University of Oxford
• Chris Dalbom (moderator)
  Assistant Director, Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy