Press contact: singre@nrdc.org, 415-875-6100
DAVID S. BECKMAN is a senior attorney and director of NRDC's national water program. The water program is comprised of NRDC scientists and lawyers in five NRDC offices and focuses on achieiving safe and sufficient water for people and the environment. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard Law School.
Press contact: jlass@nrdc.org, 310-434-2300
FRANCES BEINECKE is the president of NRDC. Under Frances's leadership, the organization has launched a new strategic campaign that sharply focuses NRDC's efforts on establishing a clean energy future that curbs climate change, reviving the world's oceans, defending endangered wildlife and wild places, protecting our health by preventing pollution, fostering sustainable communities, and ensuring safe and sufficient water. Frances has worked with NRDC for more than 30 years. Prior to becoming the president in 2006, she served as the organization's executive director for eight years. Under her years of leadership, NRDC's membership has doubled and the staff has grown to more than 400. In addition to her work at NRDC, Frances was appointed by President Obama to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. Frances currently serves on the Boards of the World Resources Institute, the Energy Future Coalition and Conservation International's Center for Environmental Leadership in Business and is on the steering committee of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership. Frances received a bachelor's degree from Yale College and a master's degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She now co-chairs the Leadership Council of the Yale School of Forestry, is a member of the School of Management's Advisory Board and a former member of the Yale Corporation. Frances has received the Rachel Carson Award from the National Audubon Society, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, the Annual Conservation Award from the Adirondack Council and the Robert Marshall Award from the Wilderness Society.
Press contact: jpowers@nrdc.org, 212-727-2700
F. KAID BENFIELD is director of NRDC's smart growth and transportation program, which supports innovative solutions to sprawl and automobile dependence. Kaid is a founder and former vice chair of Smart Growth America, a national coalition working on smarter land development policy. His numerous publications include Solving Sprawl (2001) and Once There Were Greenfields (1999), NRDC's definitive books about smart growth and sprawl. He has also led NRDC's land program and its forestry and agriculture projects, and served as NRDC's legal affairs coordinator. He is a graduate of Emory University and Georgetown University Law Center.
Press contact: sstruglinski@nrdc.org, 202-289-6868
MITCHELL BERNARD is NRDC's litigation director. At NRDC, he has successfully litigated water, air, toxics, and environmental justice cases against Texaco, Mallinckrodt, Duke Energy, and a variety of government agencies. From 1995-98, as a monitor appointed by United States District Judge John S. Martin, Jr., he oversaw the creation and implementation of an environmental compliance program at Con Edison. He later served as a consultant to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He is a graduate of Princeton University and New York University School of Law, where he was a Hays Civil Liberties Fellow. He was a law clerk in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Press contact: jpowers@nrdc.org, 212-727-2700
TERRY R. BLACK works in NRDC's energy program, where he directs the FERC project, an education and action initiative that focuses on federal efforts to restructure the electricity industry. Prior to joining NRDC, he served as program director of the Center for Environmental Legal Studies at Pace University in New York City and as director of the Michigan Energy Office. A lawyer with more than 30 years of experience working on state and federal energy policy, Terry earned his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.
Press contact: sstruglinski@nrdc.org, 202-289-6868
DALE BRYK is director of NRDC's energy and transportation program and a senior attorney. Her expertise is in the area of energy and climate policy, including cap-and-trade design, utility regulation, energy efficiency and renewable energy programs, global warming pollution registries, green building and smart growth. Prior to joining NRDC in 1997, Dale practiced corporate law at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York. Since 2002, she has also taught the environmental protection clinic at Yale Law School. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and holds a master's degree in international law and policy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a bachelor's degree from Colgate University.
Press contact: jpowers@nrdc.org, 212-727-2700
SHARON BUCCINO is a senior attorney and co-director of NRDC's land program. Her work focuses on protecting America's public lands in the courts, before Congress and at federal agencies. She has litigated cases under the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act and the Freedom of Information Act. Before joining NRDC in 1993, Sharon clerked for the Alaska Supreme Court and worked for a private law firm in Washington, D.C. She received her undergraduate degree from Yale University and her law degree from Stanford University.
Press contact: sstruglinski@nrdc.org, 202-289-6868
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