Meet our new Policy Clinic instructor
We are excited to announce the new instructor for EPM's Policy Clinic, Abre' Conner. Abre' is the Director of Environmental and Climate Justice with NAACP, where she oversees the strategy and collaboration across the Association to dismantle environmental racism. The Policy Clinic is a unique capstone class, designed to give students real-world experience working on an environmental policy or natural resource management project in partnership with external clients. The Clinic requires a boundary-spanning and policy engaged instructor to lead each student group as they work on a variety of projects. Students groups function as consultants for five months, furthering their skills in research, project management, data analysis, survey design, community engagement and more.
Previously, Abre' served as the Directing Attorney of Health at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley where she led the litigation, direct legal services work, and advocacy regarding health equity and the social determinants of health that impact historically excluded communities across the Silicon Valley. Abre' sat on the Law Foundation's race, equity, and inclusion steering committee and led work regarding jail conditions, encampment sweeps, alternatives to involuntary medical and psychiatric treatment for individuals in Santa Clara County, and advocacy to close an airport that allowed planes to use lead fuel. Prior to joining the Law Foundation, Abre' was a staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, where she advocated for the civil rights and liberties of Central Valley and Northern California residents, including an emphasis on issues that impact people of color in rural communities such as environmental justice.
As a staff attorney at the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment in Delano, CA, Abre' primarily worked with migrant farmworkers and in unincorporated communities. She has worked at numerous civil rights entities including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, and Capitol Hill. She was also an associate in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel in the Obama Administration. Abre' served as the elected Assembly Speaker for the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, the chief policy officer for the Division, and is an appointed member of the ABA's Commission on Youth at Risk Advisory Board and Children's Rights Litigation Working Group. Under her leadership, the Division adopted a resolution declaring racism as a public health crisis which is now ABA policy.
A graduate of American University, Washington College of Law, and the University of Florida, Abre' has been named a top 40 under 40 Nation's Best Advocate by the National Bar Association, top 100 leader by Fresno Black Chamber of Commerce, top 40 On the Rise Attorneys by the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, Community Champion by Fresno Building Healthy Communities, 40 under 40 alumni by the University of Florida, and has appeared in the New York Times' The Daily, MSNBC, The Hill, American Bar Association Journal, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated's National Magazine, The Archon, and Cosmopolitan Magazine.
Abre' is excited to work with students to help them better understand how environmental policy processes work and how they can use them to help communities. She hopes to bring the perspective of working directly with historically marginalized communities and centering their needs to the clinic.
The program is accepting Policy Clinic project proposals through October 24, 2022. You can see more information here.