The ELC Team

ELC operates as a democratic and cooperative organization to empower a greater diversity of voices. Contact us to learn more about how we are formalizing these values within our organization.

Grant Wilson, Executive Director

Grant Wilson is the Executive Director of Earth Law Center. He is an expert on the Rights of Nature, ecocentric law, and international environmental law. For the last decade, he has defended the rights and interests of Nature all over the world, including by co-drafting legal instruments recognizing the rights of nature. He is a co-lead editor of the seminal Earth Law textbook, 'Earth Law: Emerging Ecocentric Law--A Guide for Practitioners' (Wolters Kluwer, 2021). He is also a member of the World Commission on Environmental Law and the UN Harmony with Nature Initiative. Grant earned a J.D. with a Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law from Lewis & Clark Law School.

Constanza Prieto Figelist, Latin America Legal Director

Constanza is a leading expert on the Rights of Nature in Latin America with a speciality in the protection of rivers and marine ecosystems. Her work to fight for the rights of ecosystems in the courts now extends to over five countries in Latin America. She is also an expert legal drafter of ecocentric laws. Aside from her work at Earth Law Center, Constanza collaborates with other environmental, feminist, and immigrant protection NGOs. Constanza studied law at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (Chile) then earned a master's degree in private international law and international trade from the Pathéon-Assas University in Paris (France). She is also a candidate for an LL.M. in Environmental and Energy Law at the University of New York.

Myra L. Jackson, UN Representative and Focal Point

Myra Jackson is a retired electrical engineer who has designed and delivered seminar courses on business management, emotional intelligence, and heart coherence techniques at Harvard, Stanford, USC, UCSF, UCSD, Rockefeller University, and Duke University. In 2006, Myra shifted her focus to global policy on the climate crisis, and in 2015, she participated in the UN Open Working Group that determined the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Ms. Jackson currently serves on the United Nations Expert Platform on Harmony with Nature and is a delegate to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. She consults collaborative groups of governments, higher education, companies, utilities, and communities developing responses to sustain their rivers and regional environments.

Rachel Bustamante, Interim Ocean Program Director

Rachel Bustamante is a leading specialist in marine biodiversity conservation science and policy at species and oceanic ecosystem levels. She underscores the pivotal role of values and ethics in shaping conservation efforts, particularly in the context of shark protection and restoration. Her research contributions have been featured in PLOS Biology, and she is the author of the recent publication, "Beyond Protection: Recognizing Nature’s Rights to Conserve Sharks" in Sustainability. As a Gen Z ocean advocate, she is dedicated to transforming our relationship with marine species and the Ocean as a whole to safeguard the planet. Rachel graduated from the University of Maryland with a Master’s in Public Policy, specializing in Environmental Policy in 2022.

Elizabeth M. Dunne, Esq., Director of Legal Advocacy

Elizabeth brings 20 years of legal experience and a passion for designing legal frameworks that enable systemic change. She has advanced many of the groundbreaking Rights of Nature laws in the US and co-authored the US Chapter of the first Earth Law textbook - Zelle et al. (Eds.), Earth Law: Emerging Ecocentric Law—A Guide for Practitioners (Aspen Coursebook, Wolters Kluwer 2020). The story of her former client Grant Township’s fight against a frack waste injection well, based in part on the state constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment, is featured in the award winning documentary, Invisible Hand (www.invisiblehandfilm.com). She specializes in drafting laws for Tribal Nations, state and local governments, and ballot initiatives. Drawing on her experience as lead counsel in public interest class action lawsuits and as a law clerk to US federal District Court judges, Elizabeth is a leading practitioner in the development of litigation strategies that advance Earth Law.

Claudia Brindis, Operative Director for Mexico

Claudia Brindis has dedicated her career to advancing the Rights of Nature in Mexico and globally. She co-founded the First International Forum for the Rights of Mother Earth Mexico in 2016 and helped secure Mexico City's Rights of Nature recognition in 2017 and Oaxaca’s Rights of Nature recognition in 2021. Her advocacy also strengthened the General Water Law and Water Law for Mexico City, and she is now seeking strong federal protections for waterways. She also coordinated the Living Rivers Forum in Puebla, México (2018) and the international event for the protection of the sacred rivers at Kiva Kumbha Mela in India (2019). She is an expert within the UN Harmony with Nature programme as well as a teacher, therapist, coach, and facilitator.

Dr. Kelsey Leonard, Director of Water Advocacy

Dr. Kelsey Leonard is a water scientist and Indigenous legal scholar with expertise in transboundary water governance and international water policy-making. Her recent scholarship explores legal personhood for water and her TEDTalk “Why lakes and rivers should have the same rights as humans” has nearly 3 million views. Dr. Leonard has been instrumental in safeguarding the interests of Indigenous Nations for environmental planning, and builds Indigenous science and knowledge into new solutions for water governance and sustainable oceans. Dr. Leonard received her A.B. in Sociology and Anthropology with honors from Harvard University, a MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management from the University of Oxford, a JD from Duquesne University, and PhD in Political Science from McMaster University.

Alexandra Pimor, Director of Global Nature Governance

Alexandra leads on the Nature On The Board project, a pioneering endeavour to expand the scope of Rights of Nature across legal systems, corporate boards, and any decision-making body to foster a global Nature/Earth-based governance praxis. A published scholar with over 20 years’ experience in pedagogical engineering, Ally started her career as a senior law lecturer in the UK. She is a certified Scrum Master, certified professional agile facilitator & systems coach, and founder of SoaNoia. Besides her role at ELC, she is also a non-executive director at RiseUP (Europe) CIC; an executive member of the Spirituality Scholars Network; an executive associate of the Natural Arts Associations (Wales); a professional volunteer at Notre Affaire à Tous (contributor to “Les Droits de la Nature”); and at Rights & Humanity (International).

Javier Ruiz, Expert in Environmental Policy and Climate Change

Javier is an expert in Nature Rights and non-human Animal Rights. He also has experience with environmental “access rights,” including access to justice, in Latin America through the Escazu Agreement. He is a lawyer and master's degree candidate at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico and specialized in Integrated Climate Change Management at the Universidad Nacional de Quilmes in Argentina. In 2020, he presented a paper on the biocultural identity of river guardians at the Latin American Congress of Graduate Students in Social Sciences (CLEPSO). At the first Conference of the Parties (COP1 2022) of the Escazú Agreement, he served as representative of civil society organizations and the public in the Mexican delegation, obtaining favorable results in the negotiations for the defenders of nature and the rights of future generations.

Bastián Núñez, Legal Counsel and Researcher

Lulu Robles, Social Media Coordinator

Lulu Robles is a Mexican content creator and social media specialist. With a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies, she has collaborated with diverse businesses in Canada, Mexico, and the USA to craft compelling strategies and engaging content. From creating captivating videos and photos to designing eye-catching designs, Lulu is very passionate about storytelling through visuals. She has completed several diplomas related to cinema and storytelling, including NYU’s 'Film Essentials' and Young Screenwriters: Writing the Short. She is working to elevate the voice of Nature through Earth Law Center’s social media and online presence.

Matt Zepelin, Operations Manager

As Operations Manager at Earth Law Center, Matt Zepelin writes grants, oversees the internship & volunteer program, works with tech systems, and coordinates various internal and external processes. Matt holds a PhD in American history from the University of Colorado, Boulder and has a professional background in book publishing, nonprofit administration (former co-director of the Boulder Zen Center), and somatic education. As an editor at Shambhala Publications, he acquired and edited environmental books including A Wild Love for the World: Joanna Macy and the Work of Our Time, A Future We Can Love, and Green Buddhism. He lives with his wife and daughter near ELC’s headquarters in Durango, Colorado.

Kevin Schneider, Counsel

Kevin Schneider is Counsel to the Earth Law Center. Based in New York City, Kevin is admitted to practice in New York and the United States District Court for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. For over a decade, Kevin has worked on extending legal rights to animals and ecosystems. He represented an elephant named Happy (Supreme Court, Bronx County) alongside a team of lawyers in a historic habeas corpus case from 2018-22, culminating in a first-of-its-kind argument before the New York State Court of Appeals. Among other publications, Kevin wrote a chapter on common law animal rights for the textbook “Earth Law” (Wolters Kluwer, 2021). Kevin has delivered guest lectures to undergraduate and law students at leading institutions including Harvard, Yale, and New York University.

Irikefe V. Dafe, Africa Lead

Irikefe V. Dafe has advocated for river protections in Nigeria and throughout Africa for three decades. Much of his work has focused on protecting the River Ethiope and the rights of communities who rely upon the river for food, water, and their livelihoods. He is a lead organizer of the First National Dialogue on Rights of Nature in Nigeria. He is also the founder and CEO of River Ethiope Trust Foundation and an expert member of the UN Harmony with Nature Initiative.

Ciara Shea, Esq., Right to a Healthy Environment Lead

Ciara is a leading specialist on the right to a healthy environment and contributor to the Earth Law Portal. In addition to being a licensed Attorney in New York, she is also a functional nutritionist and holistic health and wellness expert, having run her own clinical practice since 2016 while simultaneously co-hosting a successful podcast on holistic living. This unique blend of skills anchors Ciara in the ideal position to legally advocate for the human right to a healthy environment. Ciara received her J.D. and certificate in Mediation from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law and holds her B.A. in Speech Communication with a minor in Legal Studies from Ithaca College.

Marsha Moutrie, Senior Counsel

Marsha Moutrie is an attorney who has practiced in the public, private and nonprofit sectors since 1975, when she graduated from UCLA Law School. In 2016, she retired from government employment after serving for 22 years as the City Attorney of Santa Monica, California, where she headed the city's in-house law office and was responsible for all of the city's legal matters. Her work included writing and enforcing a wide variety of laws, including many environmental laws. In 2013, she wrote the City's Sustainability Rights Ordinance, which recognizes and codifies the fundamental and inalienable right of natural communities and ecosystems to exist and flourish.

Jonathon Keats, Principal Philosopher

Jonathon Keats is an experimental philosopher, artist, and writer whose transdisciplinary projects explore all aspects of nature, adapting methods from the sciences and the humanities as well as legal practices. He has lectured and exhibited at dozens of institutions worldwide, from Stanford University to SXSW to UNESCO. He is the author of six books, most recently You Belong to the Universe: Buckminster Fuller and the Future, published by Oxford University Press. Keats is currently a research associate at the University of Arizona’s Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill, a visiting scholar at San Jose State University’s CADRE Laboratory for New Media, and an artist-in-residence at both the SETI Institute and UC San Francisco’s Memory and Aging Center.

Anthony R. Zelle, General Counsel

As an Earth lawyer, Tony started by writing and editing the first law school coursebook on the subject. He began his Earth law career after 30 years in private practice, trying cases and arguing appeals. His work focused on consumer protection and insurance laws. He led the board of the Earth Law Center from 2018 through 2021 and now serves as ELC’s general counsel. His current practice is focused on rights of future generations, intergenerational leadership development, the duties of humankind to nonhuman species and individual animals, and the engagement of private practice law firms who will drive Earth law into the mainstream.

Herman Greene, Thomas Berry Scholar-in-Residence

Herman is President of the Center for Ecozoic Studies, in addition to being a corporate, tax, and securities lawyer. He holds degrees in Spirituality and Sustainability, Law, Ministry, and Political Science.

Board of Directors

Missy Lahren, Chair

Missy Lahren has worked as an activist and public interest lawyer in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1993. She has an M.Ed. in Integral Education and a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religion both of which focus on the emerging field of “ecozoic education.” She has been working to expand enforceable human and ecological rights since 1997 through participatory media and board positions at Unite for Rights, Planetary Advocates, and Eleanor Lives.

Brandon Hubbard, Vice Chair

Brandon brings expertise with a Degree in Marketing and a career in Advertising, focusing on media, storytelling with data, and sales. He's also an advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion as a member of Comscore's EDI Alliance and Co-founder of an employee resource group for minorities.

Rachelle Adam, Secretary

Rachelle has 25 years of experience in Rights of Nature legal issues. As an attorney for Israel’s Environment Ministry, she worked extensively on nature protection and biodiversity issues.

Felipe Clavijo-Ospina

Felipe Clavijo-Ospina is a Constitutional lawyer and professor with 15+ years of experience in constitutional and environmental affairs. He has served as an advisor of the Inspector-Attorney General and as a former law clerk at the Constitutional Court of Colombia where he led the way towards a new constitutional interpretation to protect Nature as a legal entity. Author of A rights revolution for Nature.

Corinne Sanders, OP

Corinne Sanders, OP, is Director of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Office of Sustainability, where she has coordinated projects such as the installation of a solar array and the Permaculture Garden on the motherhouse campus.

Elvir Causevic

Dr. Causevic is a recognized technology and IP investment banking professional focused on public and private board advisory, M&A, capital formation, and financial restructuring of technology and IP businesses. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Causevic founded and ran several high technology companies focused on signal acquisition, processing and communication hardware and software. He also has a J.D. degree from University of California Hastings College of the Law and is an avid student of Earth law. Dr. Causevic was born in Bosnia and now lives in San Francisco.