Melissa Scanlan

1999

Melissa Scanlan

Midwest Environmental Advocates

http://www.midwestadvocates.org

Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Environment

The Bold Idea:

Mid-westerners are a people rooted in their land. That bond can be traced from a time when lakes and rivers formed the backbone of villages and transportation for European settlers. This connection with the land is even more significant for the Native American communities that preceded European settlement. Despite this connection, the region faces many environmental problems, from toxic fish to pollution from livestock factories. Water and air pollution laws are not enforced. Industrial expansion plans are approved without adequately assessing environmental impacts.

The Midwest Environmental Advocates (MEA), Wisconsin's first and only non-profit environmental law center, provides legal and technical assistance to grassroots groups promoting environmental justice in the Western Great Lakes region. MEA provides high-quality legal service to support a diverse social movement, builds local leadership, and implements innovative solutions to environmental problems. The center also runs an Advocacy Network of pro bono attorneys to represent individuals and groups on environmental issues. MEA has already vastly improved conditions in the Midwest.

Biography:

Raised in a rural area of Wisconsin, Melissa Kwaterski Scanlan returned to her home state in 1999 to open Midwest Environmental Advocates. She initially received two fellowships that allowed her to work for the public interest.

Ms. Scanlan received a law degree and a master of science from the University of California-Berkeley. While at Berkeley, she received several scholarships and awards, including the 1999 Harmon Award for the Best Environmental Law Writing at UC-Berkeley and the Alvin & Sadie Landis Scholarship in Water Law, a scholarship that was given to one member of the class of 1999 for outstanding work in the field of water law.

She is the author of two law review articles involving property rights. These are titled "The Evolution of the Pubilc Trust Doctrine and the Degradation of Trust Resources: Courts, Trustees, and Political Power in Wisconsin" and "The End of Welfare and Constitutional Protections for the Poor: A Case Study of the Wisconsin Works Program and Due Process Rights," published in 27 Ecology Law Quarterly 135 (2000)  and 13 Berkeley Women's Law Journal 153 (May 1998), respectively.

Ms. Scanlan has been active in the environmental movement for a decade and has worked as an environmental advocate with the Natural Resources Defense Council (San Francisco office), Wisconsin's Department of Justice, Communities for a Better Environment (San Francisco office), and Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll.