Staff Bios
Vicki Arroyo
Vicki Arroyo is the Executive Director of the Georgetown Climate Center of Georgetown University Law Center where she is also a Visiting Professor. She oversees the Center’s work at the nexus of climate and energy policy, supervising staff and student work on climate mitigation and adaptation at the state and federal level. She teaches “experiential” environmental law courses to both law and public policy students.
She previously served at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, most recently as the Pew Center’s Vice President for Domestic Policy and General Counsel. For over a decade, she directed the Pew Center’s policy analysis, science, adaptation, economics, and domestic policy programs. She also served as Managing Editor of the Center’s book and oversaw publication of numerous reports and policy briefs. more ↓
In addition to teaching at Georgetown Law, she has taught courses on environmental policy and climate change at Catholic University, George Mason University’s graduate public policy program, and Tulane Law School. Previously, she practiced environmental law with Kilpatrick Stockton and other private firms and served in two offices at U.S. EPA: the Office of Air and Radiation and the Office of Research and Development where she reviewed development of standards under the Clean Air Act. From 1988 - 1991, she created and directed the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality’s policy office, and briefly served as Governor Buddy Roemer's environmental advisor.
She has recently served on California’s Economics and Allocation Advisory Committee advising California Air Resources Board on cap-and-trade design; on the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) external advisory committee; and on a National Academy of Sciences Transportation Research Board Committee on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. She is serving a three-year term on the national Transportation Research Board (appointed by the National Academy of Sciences). She is also currently serving three-year terms on an advisory committee to the National Science Foundation and as a member of the Board of Trustees for the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (a consortium of 77-PhD granting research universities which oversees NCAR). She also serves on the editorial boards of the Climate Policy journal and the Georgetown International Environmental Law Review.
She holds a B.S. in biology, high honors, from Emory (double major in philosophy); a Masters of Public Administration from Harvard (top honors in program), and a J.D., Magna Cum Laude, from Georgetown Law, where she was Editor-in-Chief of The Georgetown International Environmental Law Review.
Selected Publications
“State and Local Adaptation to Climate Change,” in Adaptation to Climate Change and the Law, American Bar Assn. book (coauthor: Terri Cruce), Sept. 2012.
“Are there Winning Strategies for Climate Policy?” Review of the book Climate Clever: How Governments Can Tackle Climate Change (and Still Win Elections) in Climate Policy, September 2012.
“Regional Action: A U.S. Perspective,” in Regional and State Policies for Economic Competitiveness and Mitigation, Heinrich Boll Foundation Transatlantic Dialogue (fall 2011).
“Upside-down Cooperative Federalism: Climate Change Policymaking and the States.” Virginia Environmental Law Journal, 2011 (Vivian Thomson co-author).
“US Climate Policy,” in Cerdá, E. and Labandeira, X. (eds) Climate Change Policies. Global Challenges and Future Prospects, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham (UK), 2010.
“Current Directions in the U.S. Climate Change Debate: Prospects for a Post-2012 World,” UN Development Report 2007.
“Change in the Marketplace,” in Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, 2007.
“Climate Policy Should Focus on Reducing Emissions,” in Environmental Forum, ELI, 2007.
“Addressing the Costs of Climate Change Mitigation,” and “Establishing a Domestic GHG Reduction Target,” two chapters in: Climate Change Policy Dialogue, Aspen Institute, 2004.
“US Domestic Climate Policy,” Climate Policy, 2001 (with Henry Lee and Manik Roy).
Managing Editor of book: Climate Change: Science, Strategies, and Solutions, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Brill, 2001 and authored chapter on “Climate Change Legislation in the U.S.”
“Jefferson Hazardous Waste Negotiation Game,” Harvard Negotiation Project, 1987 (with Larry Susskind).
“Waste Wars: The Fight Over Hazardous Waste Importation,” Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, 1993.
Kathryn Zyla
Kathryn Zyla, directs the Center’s analytical work as Director of Research and Policy Analysis. Kathryn previously served as Senior Associate in the Climate and Energy Program at the World Resources Institute. Her work focused on greenhouse gas emissions markets, energy security, and state-federal roles in climate policy. She also staffed the Midwest Regional Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord’s process to design a cap-and-trade program in the Midwest. more ↓
Chris Coil
Chris Coil, the Center’s Communications Director, has worked with prominent nonprofit and progressive organizations for more than a decade to develop effective branding, marketing and strategic communication plans. more ↓
Gabriel Pacyniak
Gabriel Pacyniak, an institute associate at the Center, provides legal and policy analysis. He has worked on issues relating to reducing GHG emissions from the transportation sector, state implications of federal GHG regulations, proposed federal energy, climate and transportation legislation, and regional GHG reduction programs. more ↓
Cassandra Powers
Cassandra Powers, an Institute Associate at the Center, provides transportation policy analysis. She works primarily with the Transportation and Climate Initiative’s Clean Vehicles and Fuels workgroup, where she facilitates interaction between stakeholders and provides research and analysis of electric vehicle policies and programs. more ↓
Tsinu Tesfaye
Tsinu Tesfaye, the Center's Administrative Assistant, manages all financial, HR, and administrative activities for the Center, coordinates and manages the Center’s grants, organizes all Climate Center events and maintains the Center’s offices at the Law Center and the Hall of States. more ↓
Pinal Patel
Pinal Patel assists with foundation research, grant writing and reporting, outreach, and legal and policy research. She also helps develop and write content for some of the Center’s core adaptation and mitigation work. In addition to her employment with the Georgetown Climate Center, Pinal also supports the law school’s Office of Advancement.more ↓
Pinal received her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. While in law school, she served as executive editor of submissions review for the Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, and she was a research assistant for the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. She interned at the Center for International Environmental Law, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, and Washington Week with Gwen Ifill.
Outside of law school, Pinal worked at the Center for Environmental Citizenship, Ceres, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Pinal gained environmental health experience at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the NIH. She attained a M.P.H. in health law from Boston University, and a B.A. in political science from Emory University. hide ↑
Research Assistants
Georgetown Law students work with the Georgetown Climate Center every semester, producing important research for both the Center and states that are engaged in developing climate and energy policies. The Center's current research assistants are Anthony Moriello, Evan Shapiro, and John Michael Cummings. To learn more about the work of Georgetown Law students, click here.
Harrison Institute Staff
The Georgetown Climate Center works in partnership with a team of attorneys and students from Georgetown Law's Harrison Institute. For more information about the Institute, click here. Below are a few of the key staff that work with the Georgetown Climate Center on adaptation issues.
Robert Stumberg
Robert Stumberg is a professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, where he is also the director of the Harrison Institute for Public Law. His past positions include policy director at the Center for Policy Alternatives and legislative counsel for Montgomery County, MD. He has 30 years of experience in legislation, economic development, community lending and housing policy. Most recently, he has studied the impact of trade agreements on state and local government, including energy, water services, prescription drugs, foreign investor rights and agricultural subsidies. His publications include: GATS & Electricity (2005); Trade Policy & Prescription Drugs (2005); Federalism & Political Accountability Under Global Trade Rules, Publius – The Journal of Federalism (2001 with Matthew Porterfield); Preemption & Human Rights, Law & Policy in International Business (2000); and Sovereignty by Subtraction: The Multilateral Agreement on Investment, Cornell Journal of International Law (1998).
Jessica Grannis
Jessica Grannis is a Staff Attorney at the Harrison Institute for Public Law working in the Policy Clinic under the Climate Team, which is looking at strategies to help state and local governments adapt to climate change impacts. Prior to coming to the Harrison Institute, she was staff counsel for two California state agencies, the State Coastal Conservancy and the Ocean Protection Council. Prior to her work in state government, she worked as an associate for a civil litigation firm focusing on real property disputes. Jessica was admitted to the California State Bar in 2005 and anticipates being admitted to the District of Columbia Bar in 2009.
Sara Pollock Hoverter
Sara P. Hoverter is a senior fellow and adjunct professor at the Harrison Institute for Public Law, Georgetown University Law Center. Her area of concentration is health policy, including climate change and public health, Medicaid, state and federal health reform, and the use of community health workers to reach vulnerable populations. Her past positions have included law clerk at the National Partnership for Women and Families, research assistant for the Center for Law and the Public’s Health, and program associate at the DC Appleseed Center.
Matthew Porterfield
Matthew Porterfield is a senior fellow and adjunct professor of law at the Harrison Institute for Public Law, Georgetown University Law Center, where he leads projects on agriculture, investment and constitutional law. Before coming to Georgetown, he practiced environmental law in Washington, DC. His publications include: An International Common Law of Investor Rights?, University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Economic Law (2006); International Expropriation Rules and Federalism, Stanford Journal of Environmental Law (January 2004); Who Preempted the Massachusetts Burma Law?, Publius – The Journal of Federalism (2002 with Robert Stumberg); and State & Local Foreign Policy Initiatives & Free Speech: The First Amendment as an Instrument of Federalism, Stanford Journal of International Law (1999).
