Global Environmental Democracy Project
Preparing students to be advocates for global change
The Global Environmental Democracy Project explores the principles of public participation, freedom of information, and access to the judicial system and how those principles play out when confronting international environmental problems. Faculty leaders are John Bonine and Mary Wood.
GEDP Fellows
Andrew Narus grew up in southern Oregon, where he spent summers as a river guide on the Rogue River and a dockhand at Crater Lake National Park. He graduated from Southern Oregon University in 2009. Following his first year of law school, Andrew worked for Rogue Advocates, a non-profit organization advocating progressive land use policies in the Rogue Valley. During his second year, he served as a Staff Editor for the Oregon Law Review, a tutor in the LRW department, and a 2011-12 Bowerman Fellow. Andrew spent the past summer in the Washington, D.C. office of U.S. Senator Ron Wyden as the Wayne Morse Summer Fellow. He will continue his work on campaign finance reform this year as a 2012-13 Bowerman Fellow. Andrew is inspired by the likes of Barack Obama, Tom McCall, and Billy Beane. Tragically, he is a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan.
Adam Walters's upbringing by a social worker and public school teacher immersed him in the value of public interest work. He earned his Bachelor's from Canisius College in Buffalo, where he focused on international human rights while volunteering with a refugee resettlement non-profit. Recognizing a dawning humanitarian crisis, Adam wrote his thesis on the tragedy facing developing nations encountering climate change. He pursued this research further as a Fulbright scholar in Peru, documenting regional responses to climatic variations across the diverse countryside. Stateside, Adam worked on urban naturalization and community organizing projects in Pittsburgh before committing to law school. He interned with Trustees for Alaska following his 1L year with the assistance of an OLSPIF stipend. In addition to being a GEDP fellow, Adam is the Web/IT director for Land Air Water and PIELC, and a research assistant to Professor Wood.
Ashley Carter, a native of Long Island, NY, grew up influenced both by the great cross-section of people and ideas her close proximity to New York City offered and by the vast array of Long Island’s natural terrains. As an undergraduate, she studied moral philosophy at Yale University and, after graduating in 2010, narrowed that concentration to environmental ethics while participating in Yale’s Bioethics Internship Program. Post-graduation Ashley also traveled to Haiti with the organization Life for the World to meet and give donated Christmas gifts to the children of a school and orphanage just outside of Port-au-Prince. She has since contributed to the nonprofit’s efforts to raise funds and foster a sustainable community in the village surrounding the orphanage. As a first year law student, Ashley is excited to have settled on the West Coast and to begin studying law at the University of Oregon.
Gordon Levitt, a first-year law student, is a lifelong resident of Oregon and recent graduate of the University of Oregon, where he studied Political Science and Business Administration. While an undergraduate he coordinated and was a member of the climbing and alpine ski racing teams. These experiences, when combined with three summers working as a park ranger for the US Forest Service in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge, have inspired Gordon to help protect the natural beauty of the Northwestern US. As a hopeful future practitioner of environmental law, he looks forward to his fellowship experience with the Global Environmental Democracy Project and to the second leg of his‚ double duck‚ experience.
Faculty
Summary Sheet
For a full summary of the events and scholarship of the GEDP, click here.
