About CPRProgressive policy for the public good ... Working together so our government works for us.Guided by a national network of scholars and professional staff with expertise in governance and regulation, we convene policymakers and advocates to shape legislative and agency policy at the state and federal levels and advance the broad interests of today’s social movements for the environment, democracy, and racial justice and equity.Center for Progressive ReformCPR_ef482734-5cb1-11ee-a1ba-ee6e0983ea00The Center for Progressive Reform is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization that harnesses the power of law and public policy to create a responsive government, a healthy environment, and a just society. ^^ The Center was founded in 2002 and is a 501(c)3 organization.CPR Board of DirectorsThe Center is governed by its Board of Directors who are listed below. New Board Members are invited and approved by the Board. Criteria include belief in the Center’s mission and values; a commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice; and diverse sets of expertise. Board officers are elected by the Board. All Board Members participate in committees that support and enhance the Center’s vision and work.Sharon BlockProfessor of Practice and Executive Director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy, Harvard Law School ~ Sharon Block is a Professor of Practice and Executive Director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School. She is also a Board member at the Center for Progressive Reform. ^^ Prior to returning to Harvard, Block served as the Acting Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in President Joe Biden's White House. ^^ From 2017 to 2021, Block led the Center for Labor and a Just Economy (then known as the Labor and Worklife Program). During this time, she launched the Clean Slate for Worker Power project, which is a comprehensive policy initiative focused on fundamental redesign of labor law with the aspiration to enable all working people to create the collective economic and political power necessary to build an equitable economy and politics. ^^ For twenty years, Block has held key labor policy positions across the legislative and executive branches of the federal government. In the Obama Administration, she was the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor and Senior Counselor to the Secretary of Labor Tom Perez. In 2012, President Obama appointed her to serve as a member of the National Labor Relations Board. While serving in the Obama White House as Senior Public Engagement Advisor for Labor and Working Families, Block led the historic White House Summit on Worker Voice, which explored ways for workers to fully participate in their economic future. At the President's direction, Block also conducted a series of regional worker voice summits across the country. Prior to the Obama Administration, she was senior counsel to the Senate HELP committee under Senator Edward Kennedy, playing a central role in the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act. ^^ Block writes frequently on labor, employment and administrative law topics. She is a senior contributor to OnLabor.org and her opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Fortune, The American Prospect, The Hill, USA Today, Forbes, and Newsweek.Alejandro CamachoChancellor's Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law ~ Alejandro Camacho is Chancellor’s Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine, and Faculty Director, UCI Center for Land, Environment, and Natural Resources. He has a joint appointment in Law and Political Science. He also serves on the Board of the Center for Progressive Reform. ^^ Professor Camacho's scholarship explores the goals, structures, and processes of regulation, with a particular focus on natural resources and public lands law, pollution control law, and land use regulation. His writing considers the role of public participation and scientific expertise in regulation, the allocation of authority and relationships between regulatory institutions, and how the design and goals of legal institutions must and can be reshaped to more effectively account for emerging technologies and the dynamic character of natural and human systems. ^^ His legal scholarship includes articles published or forthcoming in the Yale Journal on Regulation, Washington University Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, UCLA Law Review, Stanford Environmental Law Journal, North Carolina Law Review, Harvard Journal on Legislation, Emory Law Journal, Colorado Law Review, Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, and BYU Law Review. Professor Camacho is the co-author, with fellow CPR Member Scholar Robert Glicksman, of Reorganizing Government: A Functional and Dimensional Framework, published by NYU Press in 2019. ^^ Professor Camacho's interdisciplinary research involves collaborations with experts in ecology, land use planning, political science, computer science, genetics, philosophy, and sociology. He was a co-investigator on National Science Foundation-funded research developing a collaborative cyber-infrastructure for facilitating climate change adaptation. His scientific publications include articles in BioScience, the Journal of Applied Ecology, Issues in Science and Technology, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ^^ He is a frequent public speaker and has contributed opinion pieces or interviews for various print and radio news outlets (including the Los Angeles Times, Houston Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post, The Australian, Discover, Nature Climate Change, Bloomberg, Businessweek, HuffPost, Mother Jones, The Hill, and National Public Radio stations). ^^ Professor Camacho is an elected member of the American Law Institute. He also serves as the inaugural Director of the UCI Law Center for Land, Environment, and Natural Resources, which seeks to promote policy-relevant research and public engagement through conferences, lectures, publications, and stakeholder facilitation on a variety of regional and national environmental issues. He is a Scholar at the Center for Progressive Reform, a nonprofit think tank devoted to issues of environmental protection and safety. He is on the Executive Committee of UCI OCEANS, and holds a courtesy appointment in Political Science at UCI’s School of Social Sciences. He is the former chair of the Association of American Law Schools’ Section on Natural Resources. ^^ In Fall 2017, he was the Florence Rogatz Visiting Professor of Law at the Yale Law School. Before joining UCI, Professor Camacho was an Associate Professor at the Notre Dame Law School, a research fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center, and practiced environmental and land use law.Robert L. GlicksmanProfessor of Law, The George Washington University Law School ~ Robert L. Glicksman is the J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law at the George Washington University Law School. He is a member of the board of directors of the Center for Progressive Reform. ^^ Professor Glicksman has expertise in both of the two main branches of environmental law, pollution control and public natural resources law. His recent research has focused largely on climate change issues, public natural resources issues, and the intersection of the two. He has taught three different environmental law courses -- a survey course covering both of these branches and more specialized courses in regulation of air and water pollution and toxic substances and hazardous waste regulation. He also regularly teaches property law (including regulatory takings cases involving environmental controls) and administrative law. Professor Glicksman has written on all of these topics for more than 25 years. ^^ Professor Glicksman worked in private practice for four years after graduating from the Cornell Law School. He practiced for Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, a nationally recognized law firm with an office in Washington, D.C., serving industrial clients in the energy and chemical industries. Professor Glicksman returned to private practice in 1993-94 while on leave from the University of Kansas. During that time, he worked for Lowenstein Sandler, a firm in Roseland, N.J. with a thriving environmental law practice, providing advice to clients on hazardous waste-related issues. ^^ In addition to his experiences in private practice, Professor Glicksman served as a consultant to the Secretariat for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation. The CEC is an international organization established by the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (the environmental side agreement to NAFTA) on issues pertaining to the resolution of international disputes among Canada, Mexico, and the United States on issues of both domestic and international environmental law. Professor Glicksman’s role was to provide advice concerning the proper disposition of submissions by NGOs seeking a finding by the CEC that the signatory parties have failed to effectively enforce their environmental laws. ^^ Professor Glicksman has published widely in the areas of pollution control, public natural resources management, and administrative law. His book Risk Regulation At Risk: Restoring a Pragmatic Balance (Stanford University Press 2003, with Sidney Shapiro), takes issue with the notion that economic efficiency should be the sole or even principal criterion governing the establishment and implementation of laws and regulations designed to reduce the health and environmental risks attributable to industrial activities. The authors urge instead a pragmatic approach to risk regulation that takes into account other values. Professor Glicksman is the lead co-author of an environmental law casebook, Environmental Protection: Law and Policy (Aspen Law and Business), now in its fifth edition (with Professors Markell, Buzbee, Mandelker, and Tarlock). Professor Glicksman is also the co-author (with George C. Coggins) of the leading treatise on public land and resource management, Public Natural Resources Law, (now in its second edition), as well as a student nutshell on the same subject, Modern Public Land Law (now in its third edition). He has also contributed a chapter entitled, "Federal Preemption by Inaction," in Preemptive Choice: The Theory, Law, and Reality of Federalism’s Core Question, 2009, edited by fellow CPR Member Scholar William Buzbee, and "Environmental Law," in Kansas Annual Survey, 2007. ^^ Professor Glicksman's law review articles have been published in journals that include the Pennsylvania Law Review, the Northwestern University Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, the Vanderbilt Law Review, the Wake Forest Law Review, the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, the Stanford Environmental Law Journal, the UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, the Virginia Environmental Law Journal, the Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review, the William & Mary Environmental Law & Policy Review, the Oregon Law Review, the Loyola Law Review, The Administrative Law Review, the Chicago-Kent Law Review, and the Denver University Law Review. Two of Professor Glicksman's articles on judicial review of environmental decision-making (co-authored with Christopher Schroeder, a CPR Board member), have been singled out for recognition as the best in the field for a particular year and have been republished in the Land Use & Environment Law Review. A third article by Professor Glicksman on regulatory takings was also republished in that review. Another of Professor Glicksman’s articles, on the Supreme Court and its treatment of environmental law issues, was designated in 1994 by Professor William Rodgers of the University of Washington as one of the 25 best environmental law articles ever written. ^^ Professor Glicksman was instrumental in the expansion of the environmental law curriculum at the University of Kansas School of Law. He helped to establish a certificate program in environmental and natural resources law. He is now the J.B. & Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law at the George Washington University Law School.Michele JaninCommunity Member and Volunteer ~ Michele Janin is a community leader and volunteer living in Indianapolis, and a member of the board of directors of the Center for Progressive Reform. ^^ Janin serves on several nonprofit boards, including Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. She also serves on the Executive Committee of Women's Fund of Central Indiana, bringing transformative change to women and girls in the areas of domestic violence, economic empowerment, care giving, and issues targeted to serve girls from disadvantaged backgrounds. ^^ As a member of the Executive Committee of WFYI Public Media, the public television and radio organization for Central Indiana, Janin also served on both the Search Committee for the new CEO and the Capital Campaign Committee. In addition, she was on the Executive Committee of the Board for Park Tudor School in Indianapolis, chaired its Development Committee, and co-chaired the Annual Fund Committee for several years. ^^ Janin began her career in public relations, living and working in New York City, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Northern California, and then pursued a career in philanthropy with the Cummins Engine Foundation in Columbus, Indiana, and Huddersfield, England. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University, and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management (a Master’s level program) from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. ^^ Michele and her husband Tom Linebarger live in Indianapolis. The have two adult daughters, one in New York City and the other in San Francisco.Thomas McGarityCPR Member Scholar; Endowed Chair in Admin. Law, University of Texas School of Law ~ Thomas O. McGarity holds the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair in Administrative Law at the University of Texas in Austin. He is a member of the board of directors of the Center for Progressive Reform, and a past president of the organization. ^^ Professor McGarity has taught and written in the areas of Administrative Law, Environmental Law, Occupational Safety and Health Law, Food Safety Law, Science and the Law, and Torts for twenty-five years. ^^ While in academia, McGarity has served as a consultant and/or advisor to the Administrative Conference of the United States, the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress (OTA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Texas Department of Agriculture, and the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission. With Professor Sidney A. Shapiro, Professor McGarity designed and helped initiate a rulemaking prioritization process for OSHA rulemaking during the early 1990s. As a consultant to OTA, Professor McGarity helped write the "Regulatory Tools" report that agencies have frequently cited in designing regulatory programs. As a consultant to the Texas Department of Agriculture, McGarity was a primary draftsperson of that agency's first farmworker protection regulations in the late 1980s. During the mid-1990s, he was also actively involved in the drafting of and negotiations surrounding the federal Food Quality Protection Act. ^^ Professor McGarity began his legal career in the Office of General Counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency. In the private sector, Professor McGarity has served as counsel or consultant in various legal and administrative proceedings to the Natural Resources Defense Council, Public Citizen, the Sierra Club, the American Lung Association, the National Audubon Society, Texas Rural Legal Aid, California Rural Legal Aid, and many local organizations, including, for example, The Bear Creek Citizens for the Best Environment Ever. McGarity has also served on many advisory committees for such entities as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Technology Assessment, and the National Academy of Sciences. ^^ Professor McGarity has published widely in the areas of regulatory law and policy. His book Reinventing Rationality analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of cost-benefit analysis in regulatory decision-making and describes the use of such regulatory impact assessments by federal agencies and the Office of Management and Budget during the Reagan Administration. Workers at Risk, co-authored with Sidney A. Shapiro, describes rulemaking, implementation and enforcement in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from its inception in 1970 through 1990. The book then analyzes OSHA's strengths and weaknesses and makes many recommendations for improving standard-setting and enforcement. McGarity’s casebook, The Law of Environmental Protection, co-authored with John Bonine, has been used in introductory Environmental Law courses at law schools throughout the country. His relatively recent books include The Preemption War: When Federal Bureaucracies Trump Local Juries, Yale University Press 2008, and Bending Science: How Special Interest Corrupt Public Health Research, Harvard University Press 2008, co-authored with fellow CPR Member Scholar Wendy Wagner. ^^ Professor McGarity has published dozens of articles on environmental law, administrative law, and toxic torts in prominent law reviews, such as the Harvard Law Review, Chicago Law Review, Pennsylvania Law Review and Law & Contemporary Problems, as well as in specialty journals, such as the Administrative Law Review, the Harvard Environmental Law Review, Risk, and the Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy, and consumer magazines like the American Prospect and the Hastings Center Report. McGarity has written on federal regulation of biotechnology since the advent of the commercialization of recombinant DNA techniques, and his article in the Duke Law Journal on the “ossification” of the federal rulemaking process, which elaborates on the dangers of encumbering the process of promulgating health and environmental rules with burdensome analytical requirements and review procedures, is frequently cited in the recurrent "regulatory reform" debates. ^^ Professor McGarity has been an active participant in efforts to improve health, safety and environmental quality in the United States. He has testified before many congressional committees on environmental, administrative law, preemption of state tort laws in cases involving medical devices, and occupational safety and health issues. During the first session of the 104th Congress (the "Gingrich" Congress), Professor McGarity was frequently the lone representative of the view that federal regulation had an important role to play in protecting public health and the environment on panels testifying before House and Senate Committee considering "regulatory reform" legislation. Professor McGarity has also participated in path-breaking legal challenges to government inaction like Environmental Defense Fund v. Blum (a challenge to EPA’s decision to allow further use of the carcinogenic pesticide mirex through emergency use exemptions) and Les v. Reilly (a challenge to EPA’s failure to establish protective tolerances for eight carcinogenic pesticides). As a result of the latter litigation, the pesticide industry was forced to accept the greater protections afforded children in the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996.Joel A. MintzProfessor, Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center ~ Joel A. Mintz is a Professor Emeritus of Law and C. William Trout Senior Fellow in Public Interest Law at Nova Southeastern University Law Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and is a member of the Board of Directors at the Center for Progressive Reform. ^^ For more than 30 years, Professor Mintz has taught a variety of substantive and clinical environmental law courses, including offerings on the federal law of pollution control, comparative environmental law, environmental aspects of land use planning, and other subjects. He has written extensively on environmental enforcement, the Superfund program, growth management, sustainable development, and certain international environmental agreements. ^^ Professor Mintz co-founded Nova Southeastern Law Center's in-house Environmental and Land Use Law Clinic, which provides representation to environmental citizens groups and neighborhood organizations in matters that concern implementation of the Florida Growth Management Act and protection of the Everglades and the Florida Keys. He has testified as a legal expert witness in judicial and administrative proceedings, and has given numerous presentations on environmental topics at gatherings of professional and trade associations and on radio and television public affairs broadcasts. ^^ Professor Mintz serves on the board of directors of the Everglades Law Center, Inc., a not-for-profit environmental public interest law firm based in South Florida. He chairs that firm's Litigation Screening Committee. ^^ Mintz is an elected member of the Environmental Law Commission of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and of the International Council on Environmental Law, and he is a member of the Environmental Law Institute, the American Society of Writers on Legal Subjects, and other professional, environmental, bar and civic organizations. He is a member of the executive committee of the Section on State and Local Government Law of the Association of American Law Schools, whose Section newsletter he has edited annually since 1991. He has also served on the Committee on Source Removal of Contaminants in the Subsurface of the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council. ^^ In the early and mid-1970’s, on a pro-bono basis, Professor Mintz lobbied successfully for the passage of the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. In recognition of those voluntary efforts, President Carter invited him to attend the White House ceremony at which that statute was formally signed into law. ^^ Prior to becoming a professor at Nova Southeastern, Professor Mintz worked for six years as an enforcement attorney and supervisory attorney with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago and Washington, D.C. He handled or supervised numerous complex cases involving air, water, and hazardous waste/groundwater pollution from such varied industries as iron and steel, electric utilities, petroleum, pulp and paper, portland cement, and rubber manufacturing. Mintz was the lead attorney on the first EPA criminal contempt case brought in a U.S. District Court to redress a knowing violation of a signed Consent Decree; and he served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Wisconsin with respect to a precedent-setting Grand Jury investigation into criminal violations of the Clean Water Act. In recognition of his EPA enforcement work, he received EPA’s Special Service Award as well as its Bronze Medal for Commendable Service. ^^ Professor Mintz also worked (more briefly) as a law clerk with both the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Public Education Association, and as an editor for West Publishing Company (now West Group, Inc.) in New York. ^^ Professor Mintz has published extensively in the fields of environmental law and state and local taxation and finance. He authored a critically acclaimed history of EPA's enforcement programs, Enforcement at the EPA: High Stakes and Hard Choices (University of Texas Press, 1995), and a well received treatise on the potential liabilities of subnational governments under federal environmental laws, State and Local Government Environmental Liability (West Group, Inc., 1994), which he has updated on an annual basis.Mintz also co-authored an introductory casebook on environmental law (published in 2000 by Lexis-Nexis, Inc.), Environmental Enforcement: Cases and Materials, (with CPR Member Scholar Clifford Rechtschaffen and Robert Kuehn, Carolina Academic Press, 2007), and State and Local Taxation and Finance in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition (with Gelfand and Salsich, West Group, Inc., 2007). ^^ In addition, Professor Mintz has written several book chapters and contributions, and he is the author of numerous law review articles that have appeared in journals published at Harvard, Yale, Virginia, Georgetown, Columbia and other well known law schools. His journal articles have repeatedly been considered to be among the 30 best articles of the year in the environmental law field by peer reviewers. ^^ Professor Mintz has consulted, on an informal basis, with officials of the EPA with regard to environmental issues and policy matters. He has peer reviewed the written work of other academics in several disciplines. His name appears on a list, compiled by the U.S. Department of State, of potential speakers at U.S. embassies and consulates with respect to environmental issues.Ajulo OthowFounder and CEO, EnerWealth Solutions, Law Offices of Ajulo E. Othow, PLLC ~ Ajulo Othow is the founder and CEO of EnerWealth Solutions, member-manager of Law Offices of Ajulo E. Othow, PLLC, and a Board member at the Center for Progressive Reform. ^^ Ajulo Othow is an attorney and the founder and CEO of EnerWealth Solutions, a solar and energy storage company that seeks to advance an ecologically sustainable world, where power is held locally and decisions are made democratically, where all electricity is generated by clean distributed renewables, and where economic prosperity is shared by all, especially those who have historically been left behind by America's success. Her past experience includes work with Strata Solar, Oxfam America, and the Southern Rural Development Initiative. ^^ She lives on a small farm in Oxford, North Carolina.Sidney A. ShapiroFletcher Chair in Administrative Law, Wake Forest University School of Law ~ Sidney A. Shapiro holds the Fletcher Chair in Administrative Law at the Wake Forest University School of Law and is the Associate Dean for Research and Development. He is a member of the board of directors of the Center for Progressive Reform. ^^ Professor Shapiro has taught and written in the areas of Administrative Law, Regulatory Law and Policy, Environmental Policy, and Occupational Safety and Health Law for 25 years. ^^ While in academia, Shapiro has served as a consultant to the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress (OTA), and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). With Professor Thomas O. McGarity, Professor Shapiro designed and helped initiate a rulemaking prioritization process for OSHA rulemaking during the early 1990s. As a consultant to OTA, Professor Shapiro assessed various regulatory tools or options that agencies can use to implement regulation. As a consultant to ACUS, Professor Shapiro studied the efficacy of the regulatory process at EPA (noise control), OSHA, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). ^^ Professor Shapiro began his legal career as a trial attorney in the Bureau of Competition of the Federal Trade Commission and later worked as the Deputy Legal Counsel, Secretary’s Review Panel on New Drug Regulation at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. ^^ Professor Shapiro has published widely in the areas of regulatory law and policy. He co-authored The People's Agents and the Battle to Protect the American Public: Special Interests, Government, and Threats to Health, Safety, and the Environment, with CPR President, Rena Steinzor. This book reviewed years of government actions and inactions leading to the decline of the five protector agencies. His book, Risk Regulation at Risk: Restoring a Pragmatic Approach, analyzes health and safety and environmental protection laws and policy, and argues for a pragmatic approach to policy in these areas instead of using economic analysis to set regulatory goals. Workers at Risk, co-authored with Thomas O. McGarity, describes rulemaking, implementation and enforcement in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from its inception in 1970 through 1990. The book analyzes OSHA's strengths and weaknesses and makes many recommendations for improving standard-setting and enforcement. Shapiro's casebook, Administrative Law and Procedure: A Problem Approach, co-authored with William Funk and Russell Weaver, is used in administrative law courses at law schools throughout the country. His casebook, Regulatory Policy and Law, is the first of its kind, and is used to train lawyers to evaluate and advocate for public policy. ^^ Professor Shapiro has published dozens of articles on regulatory policy, health and safety laws, environmental law and administrative law in prominent law reviews, such as the Harvard Law Review, Duke Law Journal and the Wake Forest Law Review, as well as in specialty journals, such as the Administrative Law Review and the Ecology Law Quarterly. ^^ Professor Shapiro has been an active participant in efforts to improve health, safety and environmental quality in the United States. He has testified before congressional committees on administrative law and occupational safety and health issues. He has worked with various public interest groups in advisory and support capacities, including Public Citizen Global Trade Watch, Public Citizen Congress Watch, and OMB Watch.Steph TaiProfessor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School ~ Steph Tai is a Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a member of the Board of Directors at the Center for Progressive Reform. ^^ Professor Tai's scholarly research examines the interactions between environmental and health sciences and administrative law. These include the consideration of scientific expertise and environmental justice concerns by administrative and judicial systems, as well as the role of scientific dialogues in food systems regulation, and the ways in which private governance incorporates scientific research. ^^ Professor Tai was an adjunct law professor at Georgetown from 2002-2005 and a visiting professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law during the 2005-06 academic year. Professor Tai's teaching interests include administrative law, environmental law, food systems law, environmental justice, risk regulation, contracts (especially private governance and supply chains!), and comparative Asian environmental law. ^^ Raised in the South by two chemists, Professor Tai decided to combine their chemistry background with a legal education to improve the use of science in environmental protection. At Georgetown, Professor Tai was the Editor-in-Chief of the Georgetown International Environmental Law Review and was a member of the Georgetown Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Team. ^^ After graduating from Georgetown, Professor Tai worked as the editor-in-chief of the International Review for Environmental Strategies, a publication by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies in Japan. Professor Tai has also served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Ronald Lee Gilman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Professor Tai then worked as an appellate attorney in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, briefing and arguing cases involving a range of issues, from the protection of endangered cave species in Texas to the issuance of dredge and fill permits under the Clean Water Act. From 2013-2014, Professor Tai served as a U.S. Supreme Court Fellow as a researcher in the Federal Judicial Center. ^^ Professor Tai actively represents amici in federal circuit court and Supreme Court cases. During the summer before joining the Wisconsin Law School faculty, Professor Tai teamed up with several other law professors to work on two Supreme Court amicus briefs: one for a group of legislators in Environmental Defense v. Duke Energy Corp., No. 05-0848, and another for a group of scientists in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 05-1120. Professor Tai still continues this work, representing commercial fishers in Entergy Corp. v. Environmental Protection Agency, Nos. 07-588, 07-589, 07-597; organic farmers in Monsanto v. Geertson Seed Farms, No. 09-475; former senior environmental agency officials in Decker v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center, Nos. 11-338, 11-347; and prominent climate scientists in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, D.C. Cir. Nos. 15-1363 et al. ^^ Professor Tai's leisure time is spent lifting weights, boxing, reading fiction, listening to terrible pop punk, scouring farmers' markets, and annoying a rescue iguana named Megyn Kelly.Robert VerchickBoard President; Gauthier - St. Martin Eminent Scholar Chair in Environmental Law, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law ~ Robert R.M. Verchick holds the Gauthier - St. Martin Eminent Scholar Chair in Environmental Law at Loyola University New Orleans, is the Faculty Director of the Center for Environmental Law at Loyola, and is a Senior Fellow in Disaster Resilience Leadership, Tulane University. He is the President of the Center for Progressive Reform. ^^ Verchick is an expert in climate change law, disaster law, and environmental regulation. In 2009 and 2010, he served in the Obama administration as Deputy Associate Administrator for Policy at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In that role he helped develop climate adaptation policy for the EPA and served on President Obama’s Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force. In the fall of 2012, he researched climate adaptation policies in India as a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, supported by a Fulbright Award. ^^ His work has appeared in many venues, including the California Law Review, the Southern California Law Review, and the environmental law journals at Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley. He is an author of three books, including the award-winning, Facing Catastrophe: Environmental Action for a Post-Katrina World (Harvard University Press 2010). Professor Verchick has taught as a visitor at several schools, including Peking University (China) and Aarhus University (Denmark), and has received several teaching awards. He has lectured across the United States, Europe, and Asia. ^^ Verchick's latest book, The Octopus in the Parking Garage, is scheduled for release in April 2023.CPR StaffThe Center maintains a fully remote staff of policy analysts, communications professionals, and office management staff. See below for members of our team and how to contact them.Marcha ChaudrySenior Policy Analyst ~ Marcha Isabelle Chaudry is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Center for Progressive Reform. Over the course of her career, Ms. Chaudry has held clerkships with government, labor unions, and nonprofit organizations including the AFL-CIO, National Education Association, National Lawyers Employment Association (as a Peggy Browning Fellow), and Congress. ^^ Prior to joining CPR, Ms. Chaudry served as a Senior Policy Manager with the National Women’s Health Network, where she developed and led their consumer safety policy efforts, with a particular focus on toxic chemicals in cosmetics and their impact on historically marginalized communities. She also served as a law clerk for the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and as an Associate Staff Counsel at the Pennsylvania State Education Association. ^^ Ms. Chaudry earned a J.D., with distinction in Alternative Dispute Resolution from Howard University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree from Howard University. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia. She also serves as a Board Member for Women’s Voices for the Earth.Catalina GonzalezClimate Justice Policy Analyst ~ Catalina Gonzalez is the Climate Justice Policy Analyst at the Center for Progressive Reform. She is passionate about advancing equitable climate solutions. She joins CPR to focus on climate justice governance in California. ^^ Prior to joining CPR, Ms. Gonzalez spent five years with community-based nonprofits leading advocacy, community engagement, and capacity-building efforts to empower disadvantaged communities of color to advocate for environmental public policies, land uses, and community improvements to address disparities in public health and respond to climate change. She served communities throughout the San Gabriel Valley of Southern California as Environmental Policy Director at Day One, and as an advocate for safer, more reliable, and sustainable transportation systems with Active San Gabriel Valley. ^^ Her master's research on urban water policy and green stormwater infrastructure programs in major U.S. cities examined the spatial distribution of green infrastructure projects -- and associated impacts and multi-benefits -- in relation to socially vulnerable populations. ^^ Ms. Gonzalez earned her B.A. from Wellesley College in 2014 and her Master's degree (ALM) from Harvard University in Sustainability and Environmental Management in 2020, with a focus on environmental policy.Sarahly GonzalezProgram Consultant, Center for Progressive Reform ~ Saraly joins the Center for Progressive Reform as a Program Consultant. She is completing her M.S. in Environmental Science and Policy with a certificate in Geographic Information Systems from Johns Hopkins University. She has a background in water quality sampling, sustainability, congressional lobbying, and D&I initiatives. Saraly hopes to create a career path that prioritizes environmental justice solutions and advocacy. Saraly is based in Philadelphia, PA, and looks forward to building grassroots support for the toxic floodwaters program.James GoodwinSenior Policy Analyst ~ James Goodwin, J.D., M.P.P., is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Center for Progressive Reform. He joined CPR in May of 2008. Prior to joining CPR, Mr. Goodwin worked as a legal intern for the Environmental Law Institute and EcoLogix Group, Inc. He is a published author with articles on human rights and environmental law and policy appearing in the Michigan Journal of Public Affairs and the New England Law Review (co-author with Armin Rosencranz). ^^ Mr. Goodwin graduated magna cum laude from Kalamazoo College, where he received a B.A. with honors in Political Science. He received his law degree (with a certificate in environmental law) from the University of Maryland School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude, and his master’s degree in public policy (concentration in environmental policy) from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, where he graduated as class valedictorian. While at the University of Maryland School of Law, Mr. Goodwin was a member of the Moot Court team. He is a member of Order of the Coif and Phi Beta Kappa. Spencer GreenSenior Editor and Research Advisor, Center for Progressive Reform ~ Spencer Green is the Senior Editor and Research Advisor at the Center for Progressive Reform. He is passionate about the intersection of climate, economic, and racial justice with public scholarship, organizing, and independent journalism. ^^ Prior to joining the Center in September 2023, Spencer worked with several community-based nonprofits in New Orleans and Iowa, with a focus on disaster relief, anti-poverty programming, and neighborhood organizing. He has also trained and organized with Iowa CCI Action on clean air and water campaigns, immigration justice, and against predatory lending. ^^ In 2019, he received his Master's degree in journalism from the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. His work has appeared in The Nation, The New Republic, and other outlets.Brian GummCommunications Director ~ Brian Gumm is the Communications Director at the Center for Progressive Reform. Prior to joining CPR in March 2016, he spent nearly a decade in several roles at the Center for Effective Government, including communications director and senior writer. ^^ Mr. Gumm's previous public interest experience includes time with the Alliance for Healthy Homes, American Farmland Trust, and the Center on Wisconsin Strategy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has been quoted by a number of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal and The Dallas Morning News, and his work has appeared in several publications. ^^ Mr. Gumm earned a B.S. in environmental policy from Northland College and a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School.Federico HolmClean Energy Policy Analyst ~ Federico (Fede) Holm, Ph.D., M.S., is a Clean Energy Policy Analyst with the Center for Progressive Reform. He joined in February 2023. ^^ Prior to joining the Center, Dr. Holm held research appointments as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan and Colorado State University. His research on environmental policy and governance has been published in journals such as Climate Policy, Energy Research & Social Science, Review of Policy Research, and Society & Natural Resources, among others. ^^ Dr. Holm graduated from the Catholic University of Cordoba (Argentina), where he received a B.A. in International Relations. He received his master’s and doctoral degrees from the School of Environment and Natural Resources at the Ohio State University, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on climate and energy policy at the federal and state levels. ^^ He also holds an appointment as Affiliate in the Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources at Colorado State University.Sophie LoebPolicy Analyst ~ Sophie Loeb is a Policy Analyst with the Center for Progressive Reform. Originally from Southern California, Sophie dedicates her personal and professional life to "tikkun olam," or repairing the world, and firmly believes, "The arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, but it does not bend on its own." ^^ Prior to joining the Center, Sophie engaged with the Detroit community first as a public school teacher and then as a client advocate at the Neighborhood Defender Service (NDS) where she micro-advocated for alternatives to incarceration. While at NDS, Sophie wrote compelling and persuasive mitigation memos, bond motions, and release plans for clients, resulting in improved case outcomes including lower bond, lesser sentences, and community treatment. ^^ Sophie sees racial injustice as the preeminent determinant of and gravest threat to public health. She is propelled to work at the mezzo and macro levels to advocate for environmental justice affected communities, specifically in the climate change mitigation space. ^^ Sophie obtained her BA degree from UC Berkeley in 2017. In 2022, she graduated with a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan, with a focus on Environmental Health Policy in Communities. In the future, she hopes to earn a law degree to further marry her passion for environmental health and law.Sandy MaSenior Policy Analyst for Climate Justice, Center for Progressive Reform ~ Sandy Ma joined the Center for Progressive Reform in August 2023 as a Senior Policy Analyst for Climate Justice. She comes to the Center with a broad range of nonprofit, corporate, and government experience. ^^ She joins the Center after having served as Executive Director of Common Cause Hawaii and Manager of the Common Cause National Stopping Cyber Suppression program. At Common Cause, Sandy led campaigns and fundraising and engaged local, state, and national organizations in building coalitions, focused on ethics and accountability, money and influence, and voting and elections. Specifically, in Hawaii, Sandy led coalitions to pass good government measures and voting modernization bills, such as AVR, RCV, ballot translation, and more. ^^ Prior to joining Common Cause, Sandy worked with the Hawaii Office of Planning in the Coastal Zone Management Program, focusing on climate change, sea level rise, and coastal hazards issues. She was previously with the ACLU as an attorney in North Carolina and Hawaii, worked for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as a trial attorney, and was a private practice corporate attorney for several years. ^^ Sandy holds a BA from Johns Hopkins University, a JD from the University of Maryland School of Law, and an LL.M in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School.Rachel MayoCommunications and Marketing Content Specialist ~ Rachel Mayo joined the Center for Progressive Reform in August 2022 as a communications intern and is now the Center's communications and marketing content specialist. Her areas of interest include storytelling, content creation, and graphic design. ^^ She graduated from Florida International University with a degree in Sustainability and the Environment. She is honored to have been invited to witness history being made as Vice President Kamala Harris announced a $1 billion plan to fund climate change projects. ^^ Rachel was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and currently lives in South Florida.Tara QuiñonezOperations and Finance Manager ~ Tara Quiñonez is the Operations and Finance Manager at the Center for Progressive Reform. She joined the team in January 2023 after spending over 13 years in the tech world in various operations and finance roles. ^^ In Tara's previous roles, she managed finances for companies with an annual revenue of over $1 million. This included everything from day-to-day bookkeeping tasks to more strategic budget and project accounting tasks. Her roles also included various HR responsibilities, including managing HR functions for employee and contractor teams of over 150 people. Her operations skills include serving teams in a detailed manner and helping find a cohesive and functional way of ensuring every team member and department can work together and be productive. ^^ Tara is originally from Canada and became a U.S. Citizen in 2017. She feels very passionate about the mission of the Center and is honored and excited to join such an amazing team.Minor SinclairExecutive Director ~ Minor Sinclair joined the Center for Progressive Reform in February 2021 as Executive Director. ^^ Previously, Minor directed Oxfam’s U.S. Domestic Program on economic justice, equality, and workers' rights. Under his leadership, Oxfam mounted responses to major emergencies in Puerto Rico and the Gulf Coast with a focus on climate resiliency and social vulnerability. He co-founded the Equitable Food Initiative, a consortium of major food buyers, growers, farm worker groups, and consumer advocates seeking to improve working conditions and food safety. While at Oxfam, Minor led a team that supported more than 100 community-based and national organizations dedicated to economic, racial, and gender justice. He also helped launch the transnational migration initiative which brought organizations together across Central America, Mexico, and the United States. ^^ Minor helped commission research publications on social vulnerability, food and agriculture, state and federal labor policy and national disaster response. His writing has appeared in the Washington Monthly, the Baltimore Sun, the Philadelphia Enquirer, and the Orlando Sentinel, among others. ^^ Previously, Minor co-founded Oxfam’s program in Cuba and worked for many years on human rights and global issues, including overseas service with the Mennonite Central Committee. He graduated from Davidson College with a degree in International Development and completed an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.CPR FundersThe Center is grateful to its funders and donors for their unwavering support and generous contributions. They share our vision to create a more just society and sustainable world and their support enables the Center to conduct research and analysis, propose constructive policy reforms, and advocate on behalf of overburdened communities.Abell FoundationBauman FoundationComing CleanClean Slate FundClimateWorks FoundationDeer Creek FoundationDemocracy FundEnergy FoundationEnergy Action FundHive Fund for Climate and Gender JusticeKentfields FoundationJanin/Linebarger FamilyPeggy Browning FundPublic Welfare FoundationRobert L. Habush EndowmentRowboat FoundationTown Creek FoundationUrban InstituteA government that uses the full force of its power to curb climate change and ensure a sustainable environment, economic justice, and healthy workplaces and communities for all_ef4828ce-5cb1-11ee-a1ba-ee6e0983ea00To harness the power of law and public policy to create a responsive government, a healthy environment, and a just society._ef482a9a-5cb1-11ee-a1ba-ee6e0983ea00DiversityInclusionListeningListening and Learning. In an effort to ensure we all embrace a common conviction of what DEIJ means, both broadly and within the Center, we will pursue training and aim to develop a shared language and understanding of DEIJ. LearningResponsivenessResponsive Action Planning. Alongside listening and learning, we will embark on an action planning process whereby all members of staff, and some Board members, will divide into smaller teams to think about how DEIJ can be infused within different aspects of our organization. PlanningActionCollective Action ~ Through our democratic system of government, we have the power to dismantle institutions and processes that put corporate and special interests over people and the planet. We can build social movements to create a government that better reflects the will of the people, promotes the common good, and protects us all from harm.ProtectionWe must protect people and places from harm and make policies that safeguard public and environmental health. This is especially important for disenfranchised groups, who bear the highest price of environmental and workplace harms due to legacies of structural discrimination and oppression.EquityEquity and Justice ~ Our society systematically disenfranchises and oppresses some and supports and lifts up others. We’re working toward systems and structures that ensure all people and communities have equitable opportunities to survive and thrive and that no group experiences unjust harms or burdens.JusticeSustainabilityWe must protect the planet for its own sake, as well as ours, and ensure that future generations have environmental, economic, and political resources needed to live an equal, if not better, way of life as current generations.TruthTruth and Integrity ~ Our system of governance should reflect and respond to scientific evidence and be anchored in truth, reality, and empirical fact. When it doesn’t, the public must stand up for what is right, true, and fair.IntegrityHealthHealth and Safety ~ Clean air, water, and land, and safe and healthy homes, schools, and workplaces are basic human rights and essential to survival.SafetyClimate JusticeBring a justice lens to climate policy_ef482d88-5cb1-11ee-a1ba-ee6e0983ea001State GovernmentsFederal GovernmentCommunities of ColorCommunities of color and low-income communities contribute the least to the climate crisis but suffer its worst harms. And because these communities are often excluded from political processes, they are often not included in solutions to prevent these harms. What's more, they’re already overburdened by racist social and environmental policies.Low-Income CommunitiesActivistsWe're working with activists and advocates to elevate and amplify the climate concerns of marginalized groups and advance key climate justice policies at the state and federal levels -- and prevent future climate policies from reinforcing existing inequities and promoting the interests of those who profit from climate change: the fossil fuel industry and its enablers.AdvocatesClimate change threatens all of us, but not equally. We’re working with state and federal government to bring a justice lens to climate policy... ^^ Mitigating and adapting to climate change is a matter of justice. But justice is not often part of the national conversation around climate change — or our nation’s response to it. The Center for Progressive Reform is advancing climate justice by centering racial and economic disparities in climate policy.Vulnerable PopulationsProtect Vulnerable Populations_ef482fcc-5cb1-11ee-a1ba-ee6e0983ea001.1Vulnerable PopulationsEnsuring low-income families, communities of color, and workers are better protected from heat stress, toxic flooding, and other impacts of human-driven climate change.Federal OpportunitiesSeize Federal Opportunities_ef4831ac-5cb1-11ee-a1ba-ee6e0983ea001.2State AgenciesCoordination across states to ensure state agencies aggressively pursue funding opportunities for climate justice under the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.State GovernanceReform State Governance_ef483436-5cb1-11ee-a1ba-ee6e0983ea001.3StatesA project to inform decision-makers, allies, and support advocates representing fence line and frontline communities in accelerating the development and implementation of climate policies.Public ProtectionsProtect public health and ensure safety_ef48381e-5cb1-11ee-a1ba-ee6e0983ea002One of our government's most important responsibilities is to protect public health and ensure safety... ^^ Over the last half-century, the conservative movement has sacrificed our government's system of social safeguards for corporate deregulation. We all face the dangers of an unregulated industry, but marginalized groups are at the greatest risk of harm due to legacies of slavery, oppression, racism, and economic inequality. Today, lower-income communities and communities of color face disproportionately greater hazards from pollution and chemical disasters than whiter, wealthier communities. ^^ We're working with advocates and activists to restore and strengthen government safeguards to protect workers from dangerous working conditions, consumers from hazardous products, and communities from toxic pollution. ^^ We're also working to ensure that we, the people, can hold companies that violate public and environmental protections accountable. By addressing regulatory and legislative gaps that disproportionately impact marginalized communities, we are repairing our nation's support system and working to eliminate disparities and ensure benefits are equitably distributed.WorkersProtect Workers_ef483a08-5cb1-11ee-a1ba-ee6e0983ea002.1WorkersSupporting workers' rights around issues related to heat stress, private right of action, justice in the courts, a just transition to clean energy and sustainable agriculture, and the intersecting issue of climate justice and workers' rights.PollutersHold Polluters Accountable_ef483c9c-5cb1-11ee-a1ba-ee6e0983ea002.2PollutersLimiting industrial pollution and strengthening enforcement against companies who fail to comply with state and federal regulations, particularly in the mid-Atlantic.PollutionReduce Pollution_ef483ed6-5cb1-11ee-a1ba-ee6e0983ea002.3Tracking air and water pollution in fenceline communities, accounting for cumulative impacts on health and well-being, and advocating for stronger protections from chemical spills and toxic pollution.GovernmentEnsure that government is responsive_ef4840b6-5cb1-11ee-a1ba-ee6e0983ea003Responsive Government ~ In an increasingly interconnected and complex world, our government has a critical and legitimate role to play in both ensuring our democracy flourishes and advancing justice and equity for all. ^^ Unfortunately, corporate interests and the wealthy few have outsized access and influence in our regulatory system, the set of rules and regulations government agencies make when implementing federal and state laws. That leaves us, and historically marginalized groups in particular, with little ability to shape the policies that shape our lives. What’s more, industry often operates behind closed doors, leaving us in the dark about how corporate money has rigged the game in industry’s favor. One especially damaging result: The process by which our government evaluates proposed rules prioritizes protecting industry profits ahead of protecting life, health, and safety. ^^ The Center for Progressive Reform is working to address this problem by strengthening our regulatory system and harnessing the full force of government to create a healthy and thriving society. Through progressive regulatory reform, we can restore "the public" as the central concern of public policymaking; redistribute power to the public, especially to marginalized communities; and guarantee basic human rights and the continued pursuit of our shared national values.ParticipationIncrease Public Participation_ef4842d2-5cb1-11ee-a1ba-ee6e0983ea003.1Developing and advocating for tools that will remove barriers to meaningful public participation throughout the rulemaking process, with the goal of strengthening our democracy, improving regulatory decisions, and reducing systemic inequities.RulemakingStrengthen Agency Rulemaking_ef4845c0-5cb1-11ee-a1ba-ee6e0983ea003.2Regulatory AgenciesPolicymakersJournalistsAlliesEducating policymakers, journalists, and allies about the flaws with our current institutions of centralized regulatory review and regulatory analysis and promoting reforms that would better align these institutions with progressive policy goals.CourtsReclaim Our Courts_ef4847b4-5cb1-11ee-a1ba-ee6e0983ea003.3CourtsPromoting reforms that will better ensure that federal and state courts complement and support the effective functioning of our regulatory system.2002-12-312023-09-26https://progressivereform.org/OwenAmburOwen.Ambur@verizon.net