Research Report: Local Climate Change

In addition to teaching at Boalt, Cymie serves as the associate director of the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment (CLEE) and as director of the Global Commons Project, which seeks to extend the influence of environmental law on global policy. Cymie is an expert in natural resource and environmental law, and joined the Boalt Hall faculty in 2006 after working for international and domestic entities engaged in environmental regulation and advocacy. Cymie was employed from 1999 to 2005 by the United Nations Compensation Commission. As a senior attorney, she was responsible for an international team of lawyers and technical experts assessing claims of damage to the environment and public health from conflict in the Persian Gulf. In this position, she supported a panel of commissioners involved in landmark decisions that granted war reparations for environmental damage. Following graduation from Boalt with an environmental certificate, Cymie served as an attorney-advisor in the Solicitor's Honors Program at the U.S. Department of the Interior, where she advised a host of governmental agencies on land claims, endangered species protection, tribal rights and other issues. She also worked in the environmental department of Goodwin Procter's offices in Boston. Before law school, Cymie served as the executive director of Earth Access, a nonprofit forest conservation organization that she founded in Cambridge, Mass. Payne received her M.A. at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (1993) and her J.D. at UC Berkeley (Boalt Hall) (1997).

Deborah Behles is a visiting assistant law professor at the Golden Gate University.Deborah was formerly a trial attorney with the US Department of Justice in Washington, DC, where she litigated and settled several civil environmental claims. She taught classes at the National Advocacy Center, received a Gold Medal from the US Environmental Protection Agency in 2008, and was a former editor of the Minnesota Law Review. Her publications include "A Wrong Turn Crushes Protective Air Regulations: American Trucking Association v. EPA," 85 Minnesota Law Review 319 (November 2000).Deborah holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) from Purdue University, and a JD from University of Minnesota School of Law.

Diane Bailey is a Senior Scientist in the Natural Resources Defense Council's (NRDC) health program. Her research focuses on reducing exposure to diesel exhaust and other air pollutants.Before joining NRDC, Diane worked at Citizens for a Better Environment and a local transportation planning agency in Houston, Texas. Diane holds a B.A. in chemical engineering from Washington University and a master's degree in environmental engineering from Rice University.

Eugene Cordero is an Associate Professor in the Department of Meteorology and Climate Change at San Jose State University. His research interests are aligned with understanding how the climate is changing as a result of both natural and anthropogenic processes. His investigations are performed using a variety of tools including global and mechanistic models of the atmosphere, and various observational networks.

Helen Kang is the Director of the Environmental Law and Justice Clinic and is also an Associate Professor of Law at Golden Gate University.Helen was a former partner in the San Francisco law firm Goodman Kang. She was a former Trial Attorney with the US Department of Justice, Environmental Enforcement Section, and has successfully litigated numerous significant environmental cases. She is a member of the California Bar.

Jason Scorse is currently Associate Professor and Chair of the International Environmental Policy Program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He is also currently the Lead Non-Market Economist for the National Ocean Economics Program. Dr. Scorse also sits on the board of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Research Activities Panel and The Otter Project. In addition to his scholarly work and consulting, he writes for the Grist blog and the Environmental Economics blog. Dr. Scorse previously was Assistant Professor for the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and a postdoctoral fellow for University of California, Berkeley in the summer of 2005. Dr. Scorse has consulted for numerous environmental organizations, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club. He has published articles in American Economic Review, California Management Review, and for books published by the Brookings Institution and Routledge Press. His book, What Environmentalists Need to Know About Economics, is slated for publication in 2010.Dr. Scorse received his Ph.D. in Agricultural & Resource Economics from UC-Berkeley in 2005. He has a Master of Science (MS) in Applied Economics & Finance and Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Environmental Studies from University of California, Santa Cruz.

Dr. Jim Williams is the Chief Scientist for E3: Energy & Environmental Economic (E3), an energy research and consulting organization. In this position, Dr. Williams leads E3’s practice in climate change policy and greenhouse gas reduction.  He is the lead analyst on the E3 team modeling implementation of AB32 (California’s Global Warming Solutions Act) for the California Public Utilities Commission.  With more than 20 years experience in the energy industry, he is a specialist in regulatory policy and clean energy technologies, resources, and costs.  His practice areas include carbon pricing and market design, renewable generation and transmission, retail rate design for energy efficiency and demand response, and economic modeling/analysis of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, energy storage, and distribution automation.  Dr. Williams is also Associate Professor at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, where he teaches energy and environmental policy, with a focus on energy markets and regulation in Asian developing countries.Dr. Williams received his Bachelor of Science (BS) in Physics from Washington and Lee University, and his PhD in Energy and Resources from U.C. Berkeley.

Linda Schuck is a Senior Advisor and Director of the Behavior, Energy and Climate Change Project at the CIEE. CIEE's mission is to support public-interest energy research in California. Linda's work is focused on expanding behavior and decision research and its use in energy and climate policy and technology commercialization. At CIEE, she founded and chairs the Behavior, Energy and Climate Change Conference, which now involves 200 speakers and over 800 attendees, and, in 2007, convened the first Summit on Behavior, Energy and Climate Change Research.Linda has 25 years of experience working on energy, technology commercialization and climate change issues. Prior to joining CIEE, Linda directed the California Climate Change Project at Stanford University, an inter-university collaboration to facilitate the use of research in the design, adoption and implementation of strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. She has held managerial positions at the US Department of Energy, PG&E Company and the Alliance to Save Energy and has served as a management consultant to the California Energy Commission, Southern California Edison, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, PG&E and other organizations. Linda has extensive experience managing social science-based research and conducting experimentally designed research programs. She founded the Utility Customer Research Network, served on the advisory board of the International Energy Program Evaluation Conference and on the organizing committee for ACEEE Summer Study for many years. She also works on clean technology commercialization and serves on the Advisory Board of the Environmental Business Cluster, a clean energy technology incubator.Linda has an Masters of Public and Private Management MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, a MA from Antioch Graduate School and a BA from Stanford University.

Lisa Micheli is the Executive Director of The Pepperwood Foundation, which is a beautiful nature sanctuary north of Santa Rosa. In this position, she directs the expansion of Pepperwood’s extensive conservation, education and research programs into the education cent.A Switzer Environmental Leader since 2002, Dr.Micheli brings with her more than 20 years of experience in environmental research, policy and community conservation program development. Previously, she worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 watershed program in San Francisco.Dr.Micheli received her masters degree at University of California, Berkeley, and her post-doctoral degree at University of California, Davis, where her research was on the Sacramento River that helped to guide the Nature Conservancy’s large-scale restoration effort.

Lynne Trulio joined the Department of SJSU in 1991 as an assistant professor and is now a full professor and the Department Chair of the Environmental Studies. Dr. Trulio teaches a wide range of courses including Introduction to Environmental Studies and Globalization and the Environment. Dr. Trulio conducts research investigating human impacts to species and habitats and seeks effective methods to mitigate or eliminate those impacts. Specific research with colleagues and graduate students includes studies of tidal salt marsh restoration in the San Francisco Bay, the effects of recreation on wildlife, and the ecology and recovery of the western burrowing owl in California. She has been a committee member or chair for scores of Environmental Studies master of science students. She is also the faculty advisor to the Environmental Resource Center, a student-run center for sustainability action in the Department. In addition to her professorship, Dr. Trulio was the Lead Scientist for the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project during its planning phase, from 2003-2008. For this position, she directed the Project's science program and was a member of the Project Management Team. In 1999, she was selected as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Environmental and Engineering Fellow. In that capacity, from August 1999 to December 2000, Dr. Trulio was a visiting environmental scientist in the Wetlands Division, Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC. Dr.Trulio received her Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California, Davis (1988) and her undergraduate degree in Biology from Goucher College in Towson, MD (1979).

Mark Levine is Group Lead of the China Energy Group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, an organization that conducts unclassified research across a wide range of scientific disciplines, and where eleven scientists associated with Berkeley Lab have won the Nobel Prize and 55 Nobel Laureates either trained here or had significant collaborations with the Laboratory. Dr. Levine is also Director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the Center for Clean Air Policy, and has authored more than 100 publications. Dr. Levine previously served as Director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division and was head of the Lab’s Energy Analysis Program. Earlier in his career, he was a Senior Energy Policy Analyst at SRI International and worked for the Ford Foundation Energy Project.Dr.Levine has a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in chemistry from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

Michael Wara is an Assistant Professor in Law at Stanford University, and a Center Fellow of the Woods Institute. Michael is an expert on environmental law and policy. His research focuses on climate policy and regulation, both domestically and internationally. Professor Wara’s current scholarship addresses the performance of the emerging global market for greenhouse gas and mechanisms for reducing emissions, especially in developing countries after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Professor Wara is a research fellow at the Program in Energy and Sustainable Development in Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

Dr. Stephen Schneider is the Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Professor of Biological Sciences, Professor (by courtesy) of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and a Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. He is currently counseling policy makers, corporate executives and other stakeholders in industry and the nonprofit sectors regarding possible climate-related events. Dr. Schneider has consulted with federal agencies and/or White House staff in the Nixon, Carter, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton and G.W. Bush administrations. Dr.Schneider has been actively involved with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since its origin in 1988. He has been a contributor to all four IPCC Assessment Reports and is currently a Coordinating Lead Author. He has authored or co-authored over 400 scientific papers, proceedings, legislative testimonies, edited books and book chapters, and over 200 book reviews, editorials and other pieces for popular media. Dr.Schneider has served as Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Environmental Science and Policy from 2002 to 2007 and Co-Director of Stanford's Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources from 2003 to 2005.Dr. Schneider received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Plasma Physics from Columbia University in 1971. He was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in 1972 and was a member of the scientific staff of NCAR from 1973-1996, where he co-founded the Climate Project. Dr. Schneider, along with four generations of IPCC authors, received a collective Nobel Peace Prize for their joint efforts in 2007. Other awards he has received include the American Association for the Advancement of Science/ Westinghouse Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology, the MacArthur Fellowship award, the Edward T. Law Roe Award of the Society of Conservation Biology, the 2003 National Conservation Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation and the Banksia Foundation's 2006 International Environmental Award in Australia.

Stuart Weiss is the Chief Scientist and Chief Executive Officer of Creekside Center for Earth Observation, which is an ecology and conservation biology, scientific consulting firm.Dr.Weiss was previously a research assistant professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California at Santa Barbara. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University from 1996-1999. He has published multiple articles in Ecology and Society, Earth Interactions, and Conservation Biology.Dr.Weiss received his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences in 1996 from Stanford University. His dissertation was about "Weather, Landscape Structure and the Population Ecology of a Threatened Butterfly, Euphydryas editha bayensis". He also received his B.S. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University with honors.