Environmental Law Institute Opens West Coast Offices

December 2014

ELI is proud to announce it is officially opening West Coast offices in San Diego and San Francisco, California. Our growing presence on the West Coast will allow us to better serve ELI members, work with foundations and government agencies, partner with other organizations, provide quality educational opportunities, and develop new relationships with leading West Coast environmental attorneys.

ELI’s California-based staff will continue to work on a broad array of issues including state and local law, biological diversity, climate resilience, and ocean and coastal management. The heart of the San Diego Office is ELI’s Ocean Program, led by Dr. Kathryn Mengerink. That office also leads ELI’s Arctic efforts, including projects that support the role and rights of Arctic indigenous peoples in managing marine resources and co-leads ELI’s program in the Caribbean to support sustainable fisheries management and coastal zoning. The San Francisco office will be led by ELI’s Senior Science and Policy Analyst, Dr. Rebecca Kihslinger, who directs ELI’s extensive Wetlands Program and leads work on state and local biological diversity and climate resilience.

“ELI is pleased to now have formal offices in both San Diego and San Francisco, reflecting the importance of those two areas to our environmental vision,” said John C. Cruden, President of ELI.”  We are fortunate to have two national leaders to head those offices, as well as a committed staff with significant experience in the areas of environment, energy, and natural resource law and policy.  In the future we will be establishing other offices.”

Since 1969, ELI has played a pivotal role in shaping the fields of environmental law, policy, and management, domestically and abroad. Now in its fifth decade, the Institute is an internationally recognized, non-partisan research and education center working to strengthen environmental protection by improving law and governance worldwide.