ELI Staff, Former Board Members, Elected to the American College of Environmental Lawyers

August 2021

(Washington, D.C.): The Environmental Law Institute is proud to announce that Linda Breggin, a Senior Attorney with the Environmental Law Institute, is among the American College of Environmental Lawyers’ (ACOEL’s) newly elected class of Fellows for 2021. ELI is equally proud to announce that ELI Board Member Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming and former Board Members Ann Carlson and Carlton Waterhouse—both of whom recently stepped down from ELI’s Board to join the Biden Administration—were also elected to the 2021 class of Fellows.

“Just as ELI has benefited enormously from Linda, Gwen, Carlton, and Ann’s contributions of thought leadership, vision, and good will, so too will the College,” beamed ELI President Scott Fulton, already a member of ACOEL. “These four are among the finest and most talented environmental lawyers I know.”

Linda Breggin, who has been with ELI for 20 years, serves as Director of ELI’s Center for State, Tribal, and Local Environmental Programs, working with state, tribal, and local agencies to help them design, implement, and enforce their own environmental laws. Linda also developed the Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review, a collaboration with Vanderbilt University Law School, that showcases some of the most innovative proposals in the legal academic literature each year at an annual conference and in ELR—The Environmental Law Reporter. She is also the author of the “Around the States” column in The Environmental Forum, ELI’s award-winning policy journal, and Senior Strategic Advisor to the Nashville Food Waste Initiative.

Gwendolyn Keys Fleming, a current member of ELI’s Board, is a partner with Van Ness Feldman LLP in Washington, D.C.  Gwen’s practice focuses on environmental policy, government relations, enforcement defense litigation, and special investigations for private and municipal clients. Prior to joining the firm, she spent more than 20 years in the public sector, serving as both an elected and appointed official at the federal, state, and local levels, including as the Environmental Protection Agency’s Chief of Staff and Region IV Regional Administrator.

Carlton Waterhouse, who served on ELI’s board from 2019-2021, is Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) and nominee to be the Assistant Administrator of OLEM. Carlton is an international expert on environmental law and environmental justice, as well as reparations and redress for historic injustices. Prior to joining the Biden Administration, Carlton served as law professor for many years after an initial tour of service with EPA. Most recently, he led the Howard University Environmental Justice Center at the Howard University School of Law, where he also taught environmental, property, and administrative law.

Ann Carlson, who served on ELI’s Board from 2016-2020, is the Chief Counsel of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Before this role, she worked as the Shirley Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law, and the inaugural Faculty Director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the UCLA School of Law. She was also on the faculty of the UCLA Institute of the Environment. Ann is one of the country’s leading scholars on climate change law and policy. 

The ACOEL is a professional association of distinguished lawyers who practice in the field of environmental law. ACOEL members are dedicated to: maintaining and improving the ethical practice of environmental law; the administration of justice; and the development of environmental law through rigorous focus, outreach and education in all forums—federal, state, municipal, tribal and international. Membership is by invitation and members are recognized by their peers as preeminent in their field.