Brennon Mendez (he/him) is an Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law for 2024-2026, where his work will focus on environmental justice, public health, and urban policy. Prior to joining UCLA, Mendez worked as a litigation associate at Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher LLP, where he focused on appellate litigation, class actions, and white-collar criminal defense. He maintained an active pro bono practice in which he represented LGBTQ+ refugees in immigration proceedings and victims of police brutality in federal court. He clerked for the Honorable Richard R. Clifton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Denise Grab is the Energy Law and Policy Project Director for the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law. Before joining the Emmett Institute, Denise served as a Principal at the clean energy nonprofit RMI (formerly known as the Rocky Mountain Institute), where she led initiatives on building electrification policy, helping to secure cutting-edge all-electric building codes in dozens of cities and states across the country, as well as the nation’s first zero-emissions standards for building appliances.

Dr. Marie Grimm is an Environmental Policy Research Fellow with the Wheeler Water Institute at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE). Her work explores how institutions can implement environmental policy objectives, and how different policy instruments are implemented in practice. Her projects include research on funding and permitting for multibenefit projects, planning processes for water reuse in small communities, and regulation of data center water use. Prior to CLEE, Marie worked at the Environmental Assessment and Planning Research Group at TU Berlin, Germany. Her work focused on the conservation banking program in California, impact mitigation tools in the U.S. and the E.U., and energy transitions. Marie holds a Ph.D. and Master’s degree in environmental policy and planning from TU and FU Berlin.

Gabriel Penteado is Program Associate of the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force, at the UCLA Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.