Melissa K. Scanlan

Professor Melissa K. Scanlan co-founded the New Economy Law Center with Gus Speth in 2015 and is now directing the Center. An active scholar, she is also directing the Colloquium on Environmental Scholarship. From 2013-2017, she served as the Associate Dean of the Environmental Law Program and Director of the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law School. Prior to joining VLS, she was the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Water Law and Policy Scholar, where she led a pilot project on interdisciplinary water research and teaching. She was also a lead consultant involved in launching the Center for Water Policy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences 2011.

Over a decade earlier, she received a competitive Equal Justice Works Fellowship (formerly NAPIL) and an Echoing Green Fellowship to found and direct Midwest Environmental Advocates, Wisconsin’s first non-profit environmental law center.

Selected as a Wisconsin Super Lawyers’ Rising Star in 2006, 2007, and 2008, Professor Scanlan has represented clients in high impact lawsuits and shaped public policy in areas ranging from the Great Lakes Compact and water supply issues to enforcement and implementation of the Clean Water Act.

Melissa Scanlan earned a law degree and Master of Science in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from the University of California-Berkeley. Her scholarly articles have focused on the public trust doctrine, the Great Lakes Compact, adaptive management, and empirical research about water management.

Outside her scholarly work, she is co-founder of the Washington Heights Community Garden, and keeps thousands of honey bees in her backyard.