2023 Board of Advisors

Joseph Aldy

Joseph Aldy is a professor of the practice of public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a university fellow at Resources for the Future, a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is also the faculty chair for the Regulatory Policy Program at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. His research focuses on climate change, energy, and regulatory policies.

In 2009-2010, Aldy served as the special assistant to the president for Energy and Environment, reporting through both the National Economic Council and the Office of Energy and Climate Change at the White House. He was a fellow at Resources for the Future from 2005 to 2008 and served on the staff of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1997 to 2000. He also served as the co-director of the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements, co-director of the International Energy Workshop, and treasurer for the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists before joining the Obama Administration. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, a Master of Environmental Management degree from the Nicholas School of the Environment, and a B.A. from Duke University.

Kirti Datla

Kirti Datla is Earthjustice’s director of strategic legal advocacy. She leads efforts to anticipate and shape trends in judicial doctrine outside the environmental arena. This includes legal doctrines affecting justiciability, jurisdiction, the scope of federal power, and judicial review of agency actions.

Prior to joining Earthjustice, Datla worked in the Supreme Court and Appellate practice group at Hogan Lovells US LLP. There, she briefed and argued appeals before federal circuit courts and substantive motions before federal district courts. She also briefed cases before the Supreme Court. Earlier in her career, Kirti served as an attorney-adviser in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel, where her work focused on federal environmental and land statutes.

Datla received her B.A. in environmental engineering from Rice University and her law degree from the NYU School of Law. She also serves on the Board of Law Clerks for Diversity, an organization that works to help persons from traditionally underrepresented groups apply for and obtain judicial clerkships.

Greg Dotson

Greg Dotson is an associate professor at the University of Oregon’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center, where he leads the Energy Law and Policy Project. He teaches Environmental Law, Climate Change Law and Policy, and the Environmental Policy Practicum, and is a nationally recognized expert on environmental law, providing commentary to numerous national media outlets.

Dotson has held senior environmental staff positions in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. He served as the Democratic chief counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works where he worked on the American Recovery Plan Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, Dotson served as the Energy and Environment staff director on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He was the lead staffer on the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (the Waxman-Markey Bill).

Dotson graduated from the University of Oregon School of Law with a concentration in environmental and natural resources law. He earned his undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech.

Jay Duffy

Jay Duffy is a senior attorney at Center for Applied Environmental Law and Policy. Previously, Jay was litigation director at Clean Air Task Force (CATF). His work focuses on reducing air pollution through environmental regulations utilizing his Clean Air Act and administrative law expertise. He was one of the lead drafters of the environmental and public health brief in West Virginia v. EPA and argued a portion of the case at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Prior to joining CATF, Duffy worked at the Clean Air Council in Philadelphia where he focused on permitting oversight for natural gas facilities, power plants and refineries. He now represents the council and many other non-profits in Clean Air Act appellate litigation.

Duffy holds a J.D. from Villanova Law School where he was associate editor of the Villanova Environmental Law Journal and a member of the Delaware Valley Environmental Inn of Court. He graduated from the New York City Environmental Law and Leadership Institute in 2011. In 2020 he was recognized by the Environmental Law Institute as an “emerging leader” and was appointed to its board of directors in 2022.

Drew E. MacIntyre

Drew E. MacIntyre is the vice chair of TD Securities and senior vice president of TD Bank Group. As vice chair, he is responsible for senior client relationships as well as the firm’s Global Energy & Renewables franchise. MacIntyre also co-chairs TD Securities’ Global ESG Solutions Group and manages the firm’s cleantech principal investing activities. As a member of the TD Securities’ Supervisory Committee, he plays a key role on the firm’s senior leadership team. He also leads TD Securities’ Women in Leadership initiatives in Western Canada.

MacIntyre holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Manitoba, an M.B.A. from the Schulich School of Business (York University), a Bachelor of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School. He serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board at Harvard Law School and has endowed the MacIntyre Environmental Law Fund, which supports HLS’s Energy & Environmental Law Program.

Roger Martella

Roger Martella is GE’s chief sustainability officer and head of global engagement, government affairs, and policy for GE Vernova. He is responsible for leading a comprehensive and cohesive approach to sustainability for GE as it relates to decarbonizing the energy sector and electrifying the planet. In addition, he leads engagement with governments and stakeholders globally on partnerships to enable GE’s technology to contribute solutions to addressing climate change and the energy transition.

Martella previously served as General Counsel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Prior to GE, he co-led Sidley Austin LLP’s top-ranked global environmental law and climate change practices and was recognized by several organizations among the top lawyers in the field globally.

Martella teaches a first-of-its-kind course on international environmental law and justice at Howard University Law School. In 2022, the Racial Justice Institute honored him with a Racial Justice Champion Award. Martella is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School.

Andrew Mergen

Andrew Mergen is a visiting assistant clinical professor of law and faculty director of the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic. Prior to joining the Harvard Law School faculty, he served in the Appellate Section of the Environment & Natural Resources Division (ENRD) at the United States Department of Justice. Mergen began his career at the Justice Department in the Honors Program and concluded his career as chief of ENRD’s Appellate Section. He has presented oral arguments in all 13 federal courts of appeals, including two en banc courts, and before several state intermediate and supreme courts. He has also worked on over a dozen merits cases in the Supreme Court. During his career at the Justice Department, Mergen received the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service three times. He also received ENRD’s Muskee-Chafee Award, honoring his work’s significant contribution to protecting the environment.

Before entering clinical teaching, Mergen taught at several law schools including HLS, the University of Michigan Law School, and the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii-Manoa. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin — Madison and the George Washington University Law School.

Michael Oppenheimer

Michael Oppenheimer is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs at Princeton University and director of the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. He authored reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, since its First Assessment Report (1990). Oppenheimer is co-editor-in-chief of the journal Climatic Change. He is a science advisor to the Environmental Defense Fund and a member of several boards of directors including the Board of the Trust for Governors Island (NYC), the future site of a major climate science research and education center focused on solutions to the climate problem. He is a Heinz Award winner and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His current research focuses on sea level rise, coastal flooding, and other impacts of climate change, and human responses including migration.

Oppenheimer is the author of over 200 articles published in professional journals and is co-author of the 1990 book, Dead Heat: The Race against the Greenhouse Effect. He is also co-author of the book Discerning Experts: The Practices of Scientific Assessment for Environmental Policy. He joined the Princeton faculty in 2002 after more than two decades with the Environmental Defense Fund, where he served as chief scientist and manager of the Climate and Air Program.

Oppenheimer received an S.B. in chemistry from MIT, a Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Chicago, and pursued post-doctoral research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Margaret Peloso

Margaret Peloso is the global climate officer of Chubb as well as executive director of the Chubb Charitable Foundation. She is responsible for Chubb’s climate-related strategies, including business and public policy initiatives and oversees the Chubb Charitable Foundation, which supports clearly defined projects that solve problems with measurable and sustainable outcomes.

Peloso is an expert in environmental and global climate issues. She joined Chubb in 2023 from Vinson & Elkins, where she served as the law firm’s lead sustainability partner with responsibility for integrating sustainability and environmental, social, and governance factors across its portfolio. Before her 13-year tenure at Vinson & Elkins, Peloso completed a Ph.D. in environment at Duke University, and her law degree at Stanford University. She also received master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Duke.

Peloso is a frequent author on sustainability and climate risks, including her Ph.D. dissertation, Adapting to Rising Sea Levels. In addition to serving as chair of several environment, energy, and resources committees and councils of the American Bar Association, she is a board member of the Environmental Law Institute and a past board member of the Surfrider Foundation. Peloso is also a lecturer in law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

Kevin Poloncarz

Kevin Poloncarz co-chairs Covington & Burling LLP’s Environmental and Energy Practice Group, Energy Industry Group, and ESG Practice. He is ranked by Chambers USA among the nation’s leading climate change attorneys and California’s leading environmental lawyers and by Chambers Global among the top climate change lawyers globally. He advises technology companies and financial institutions on carbon markets and ESG strategy and helps companies advocate for a wide range of climate solutions. Poloncarz also represents advanced energy interests in litigation, defending strong climate and environmental standards for power plants and light-duty vehicles under the Clean Air Act. On behalf of a coalition of major power companies, he argued the key statutory point upon which the D.C. Circuit struck down the Trump administration’s repeal of the Clean Power Plan, and then second chaired his Supreme Court partner’s argument alongside the solicitor general in the landmark climate case, West Virginia v. EPA.

Poloncarz is on the board of directors of the Environmental Law Institute and the Center for Applied Environmental Law and Policy and is a fellow and regent of the American College of Environmental Lawyers. He is a graduate of Hobart College and the University of Chicago Law School.

James Salzman

James Salzman is the Donald Bren Distinguished Professor at UCLA Law School and the UCSB School of the Environment. In more than one hundred articles and twelve books, his broad-ranging scholarship has addressed topics spanning trade and environment conflicts, the history of drinking water, environmental instrument design, and the legal and institutional issues in creating markets for ecosystem services. One of the most widely read scholars in the field, he has written the bestseller, Mine!, and there have been over 115,000 downloads of his articles. Twice voted Professor of the Year by students, he has lectured on every continent.

Salzman has a B.A. from Yale College, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and an M.Sc. from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Patrice Simms

Patrice Simms is a highly accomplished environmental attorney and thought leader, who has spent 25 years in the environmental law arena as an advocate, academic, attorney, and policymaker. Currently, Simms serves as the vice president of litigation for Healthy Communities with Earthjustice. In this role, he helps coordinate the organization’s healthy communities-focused work, including efforts related to clean air, clean water, toxic chemicals, and waste. He also leads efforts to protect access to the courts and serves as a key member of the senior leadership team, helping to guide the organization during a period of dramatic growth and transformation.

Before joining Earthjustice, he was a law professor at Howard University School of Law, where he led the school’s environmental law programming and taught several environmental law courses. Simms served as the volunteer lead of the EPA Agency Review Team for then President-elect Joe Biden’s presidential transition. He also served in a political appointment with the administration of President Barack Obama as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Simms, a graduate of Howard University School of Law and Northeastern University, is also a visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School.

Peter Tufano

Peter Tufano rejoined Harvard in 2022 as Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and senior advisor to the Harvard Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. His current research focuses on climate finance and climate alliances, including anti-trust considerations. With others, he has launched two new courses on climate at Harvard: a short intensive MBA offering (Accelerating Climate Solutions) and a multi-school doctoral course — perhaps the first in academia on climate finance. The Financial Economics of Climate and Sustainability is offered by a group of nine professors to students at 15 schools. His other climate-related work ranges from climate and risk management (board member of the Global Association for Risk Professionals); climate governance (advisor to a circular economy fund); and climate education (co-founder of Business Schools for Climate Leadership).

From 2011 to 2021, Tufano served as the Peter Moores Dean at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, leading a strategy that focused on “tackling world-scale challenges” in part by working closely across Oxford, and for which he was recognized by the Aspen Institute. From 1989 to 2011, he was a professor at HBS, where he oversaw the school’s tenure and promotion processes, campus planning, and university relations, and was the founding co-chair of the Harvard i-lab. His research and course development spanned financial innovation, financial engineering, and household finance. He co-founded Commonwealth, a national nonprofit building financial security and opportunity for financially vulnerable people. Tufano earned his A.B. in economics, M.B.A., and Ph.D. in business economics (finance) at Harvard University.

Devra Wang

Devra Wang is a climate and clean energy consultant at Glass Wing Strategies where she helps clients develop impactful strategies to advance climate and clean energy policies and markets. She was the first director of the Climate and Clean Energy program at the Heising-Simons Foundation where she guided more than $125 million in philanthropic support for leading organizations to advance climate and clean energy policy and markets. Wang was also the director of the California Energy Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, leading policy advocacy campaigns to secure several of California’s world-leading climate and clean energy policies.

Wang has been instrumental in securing several groundbreaking policies, including California’s statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit (AB 32) and the state’s leading utility energy efficiency commitments. She received a B.S. in engineering and an M.A. in energy and resources from the University of California, Berkley.