Welcoming New Fellows to the Emmett Institute

This month, the Emmett Institute is excited to welcome three new fellows to our program: Daniel Carpenter-Gold, Heather Dadashi, and Andria So. Our fellows serve in limited-term academic appointments at UCLA Law to support our research, teaching, and public service initiatives. Our new fellows join Beth Kent, Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy for 2020-22.

– Daniel Carpenter-Gold joins us as a Shapiro Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy for 2021-23. Among other projects, Daniel will co-teach the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic next semester. Prior to joining the Emmett Institute, Daniel served as a staff attorney at the NYC-based organization TakeRoot Justice, where he supported community-based organizations fighting displacement and other challenges. Daniel has also worked at NRDC as a litigation fellow, on a team spearheading impact and enforcement litigation. And as a fellow with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, he helped public-housing residents with asthma and other respiratory diseases fight for their right to safe housing. Daniel was born and raised in rural Maine, received his B.A. from Columbia University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. While in law school, Daniel worked two summers at NRDC: one in Beijing, and one in the organization’s New York office doing environmental justice work.

– Heather Dadashi joins us as an Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy for 2021-23, where she will pursue projects related to sea-level rise, water, and climate change.  Dadashi earned her J.D. this year from UCLA Law, with a specialization in environmental law. During law school, Dadashi was a legal fellow at Los Angeles Waterkeeper and a legal intern in the Natural Resources Law Section of the California Attorney General’s Office and at the California Coastal Commission. She also served as a senior editor of the UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, a managing editor of the UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Policy, and a member of the Moot Court Honors Board. Heather participated in the Tribal Legal Development Clinic, contributing to projects on tribal criminal procedure and protections against domestic violence. Her publication addressing tribal cultural resource protection under the California Environmental Quality Act is forthcoming in the UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy. Dadashi earned her B.A. in legal studies and psychology from UC Berkeley.

– Andria So joins us an Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy for 2021-2023, building on her interest in air quality, climate change, and environmental justice. So earned her J.D. from NYU School of Law magna cum laude and with membership in the Order of the Coif, where she was an article selection editor of NYU Review of Law and Social Change. While at law school, So was a legal extern for Judge Denny Chin of the Second Circuit and a summer law clerk at the HIV Law Project. She also served as a legal extern at NRDC in connection with NYU’s Environmental Law Clinic, where she worked on fossil fuel divestment and PCB pollution, and a summer law clerk at Earthjustice, where she worked on litigation ranging from Freedom of Information Act to Clean Water Act issues. So’s fellowship is a return to campus and her hometown: she received her B.A. in history at UCLA after growing up in Los Angeles.

The arrival of our new fellows coincides with the departure of five fellows who made significant contributions to the Emmett Institute’s mission:

– As an Emmett Climate Engineering Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy, Adrien Abecassis, supported our faculty director Ted Parson’s research project on the governance of geoenegineering. Adrien’s research focused on ways to convene policymakers, experts, and other relevant stakeholders to explore and advance questions in international policy and law.

– As an Emmett Climate Engineering Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy, Charles Corbett contributed to amicus briefs in defense of clean air in Imperial County and federal climate policy, and published four scholarly articles on climate engineering issues. Corbett has  joined NRDC’s Washington, D.C. office as a litigation fellow.

– As a Shapiro Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy, Benjamin Harris ’16 co-taught the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic; contributed to legal briefs and comment letters on urban oil drilling and other environmental issues; co-wrote two amicus briefs in the federal SAFE rule litigation (part 1 and part 2); and undertook research on deep decarbonization, the clean energy transition, and more. Harris has joined Los Angeles Waterkeeper as a staff attorney.

– As an Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy, Jesse Reynolds published a book on The Governance of Solar Geoengineering (Cambridge), produced more than a dozen scholarly articles, taught a seminar on the economic analysis of law, and co-organized an international summer school on geoengineering governance. Reynolds is continuing his work as a consultant to climate engineering initiatives.

– And as an Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy, Siyi Shen co-authored a major research report on the coordinated governance of air and climate pollutants, published in English and Chinese; co-organized a study tour of California and North Carolina for a high-level delegation from China’s Ministry of Ecology & Environment; and contributed to an amicus brief submitted to the D.C. Circuit challenging the Trump administration’s rollback of federal vehicle pollution and fuel economy standards. Shen has joined the environment and natural resource group of Crowell & Moring, LLP, an international law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C.

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