Ben is a professor of environmental science and sustainability at Brigham Young University and the executive director of the water conservation group Grow the Flow. He has a B.S. in watershed and Earth systems science from Utah State University and a Ph.D. in ecology from University of Alaska Fairbanks. He works on renewable energy, global hydrology, climate change, and Earth stewardship. He is particularly interested in science communication and improving our commitment to environmental stewardship. He has four children who take after him in their love of animals, biking, and TV.

Bryce Bird was appointed as the Air Quality Division Director at the Utah Department of Environmental Quality in June 2011, after having managed the Division's Planning Branch, Compliance Branch, and Hazardous Air Pollutants Section and having worked in air quality regulatory programs since 1992. Bryce completed a degree in biology at the University of Utah and a Masters of Science and Management and Leadership from Western Governors University.

Rebecca Bratspies is a CUNY Law professor and founding director of the Center for Urban Environmental Reform. A scholar of environmental justice and human rights, Rebecca has written scores of law review articles. Her book Naming Gotham: The Villains, Rogues and Heroes Behind New York Place Names.won the NY Public Historians’ 2023 Excellence in Local History Award, the 2024 American Legacy Book Award for US History, and the 2024 NYC Big Book Award for Regional History. Her co-authored textbook Environmental Justice: Law Policy and Regulation is used in schools across the country. Rebecca is creator (with artist Charlie LaGreca-Velasco) of the EPA Award winning graphic novel series The Environmental Justice Chronicles.

Ann Carlson is the Shirley Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law and co-directs the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. She is a leading scholar of climate change and air pollution law and policy. From 2021 to 2024, Carlson served in the Biden-Harris Administration as Chief Counsel and  Acting Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminstration. Under her leadership, the agency developed strong fuel economy standards to cut greenhouse gases from cars and issued numerous vehicle safety standards.  Carlson is a frequent media commentator and blogs at Legal Planet. She has received the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award, the Eby Award for the Art of Teaching and the Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching. Carlson is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers. She is a magna cum laude graduate of both UC Santa Barbara and Harvard Law School.

Lingxi Chenyang’s research interests lie at the intersection of moral psychology, climate ethics, landscape ecology, property law, and environmental law. Originally from Chengdu, China, Chenyang comes to the Environmental Resilience Institute after receiving her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she studied environmental law and published work on the merits of reducing meat demand as a climate policy strategy. Chenyang holds a bachelor’s in philosophy from Dartmouth College and is a Ph.D. Candidate in philosophy at the University of Michigan. She is also a Global Priorities Fellow with the Forethought Foundation.

Brig Daniels is a professor at the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law; co-director of the Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment; and director of the Center’s Great Salt Lake Project.

His current scholarship focuses on saving Great Salt Lake. Daniels’s previous work has received research grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

He has won several teaching awards. He teaches courses relating to water, environmental, natural resources, and property law. He founded the College of Law's Environmental Policy Accelerator.

Outside of the classroom, Daniels has served on the boards of several environmental nonprofits and has represented and consulted for a wide range of public, nonprofit, and commercial entities.

Daniels graduated from Stanford Law School. He also earned a PhD from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. He received a MPA and undergraduate degree from the University of Utah, where he also was awarded a Harry S Truman Scholarship.

Prior to returning to the University of Utah, he taught as professor at BYU Law and the University of Houston Law Center and was a lecturing fellow at Duke Law School.

Lincoln Davies is an internationally recognized expert in energy law and policy. He has written extensively on laws that promote renewable energy, as well as on the clean energy transition. His most recent work focuses on the development and governance of electricity markets in the United States. His research has been sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the South Korean government, the Brookings Institution, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, among others. He is coauthor of one of the nation’s leading energy law textbooks. In 2012, he was named the McCloy Fellowship in Environmental Policy and, in 2024, the Elizabeth Evatt Distinguished Fellow at the University of Sydney Law School. He serves on the faculty at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, where he is Co-Director of the Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources, and the Environment and Executive Director for Energy, Resource, and Environment Programs.

Alexandra Ponette-González is Associate Professor of City & Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah and Curator of Urban Ecology at the Natural History Museum of Utah. She studies how changes in our atmosphere caused by urban pollution, fire, and dust affect diverse ecosystems on land, with a specific focus on urban and non-urban forests. Currently, she is investigating how digital technologies influence equity and environmental justice in urban forest planning and management. She is also studying the diverse suite of tiny particles, including soot, that flow through forest canopies when it rains. Soon, she plans to utilize museum-based collections to study historical air pollution along the Wasatch Front. Alexandra is a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary scholar. She received her Ph.D. from Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (2009), a M.A. in Geography from the University of Texas at Austin (2002), and B.A. in Psychology from United States International University in Mexico City.

Sara Grineski is a professor at the University of Utah (U) with a shared appointment in the Department of Sociology and the School of Environment, Society and Sustainability. She is a member of the leadership team for the Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy and the co-director of the Center for Natural and Technological Hazards at the U. Dr. Grineski has been a faculty member at the U since 2018. Previously, she was a faculty member at the University of Texas at El Paso. Dr. Grineski’s research addresses issues of environmental injustice and health disparities with a focus on air pollution.

Lisa Grow is the Howard W. Hunter Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University, where she teaches disaster law, constitutional law, and torts. Her research centers on the intersection of law and disasters.  She is a coauthor of the definitive disaster law textbook, Disaster Law and Policy, with Dan Farber, Jim Chen, and Rob Verchick.  Professor Sun graduated from Harvard Law School summa cum laude, the first woman ever to do so and the first person to do so in fifteen years.  After law school, she clerked for the Honorable J. Michael Luttig, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and then for the Honorable Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, United States Supreme Court.  She has also taught as a full-time Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School and as a Visiting Professor in the Temple/Tsinghua University Masters in Law Program in Beijing.

Brent leads the land policy team in TNC’s North America Policy & Government Relations office. The team manages relationships and influences policy working with leadership of federal agencies within the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of the Interior. Before joining the Conservancy, Brent worked for the National Association of State Foresters and the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition, and practiced at a water law firm in Portland, Oregon. Brent spent four seasons as a wildland fire fighter on federal crews in Oregon and Arizona. He is a graduate of Pace University School of Law and holds a forestry degree from the University of Idaho. He is a member of the Oregon State Bar and the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Dr. Kelly is a professional engineer and an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Utah. Dr. Kelly is committed to the translation of science to data-driven policy decisions. She served 8 years on Utah’s Air Quality Board and four years on Utah’s air quality policy. She has received numerous awards including UCAIR’s air quality person of the year, and The Story Exhange’s Women in Science Innovation Prize.  Her research focuses on understanding and addressing air-quality challenges, including using cost-effective, air-quality sensing to empower communities.

Professor Keiter holds a J.D. degree with honors from Northwestern University School of Law and a B.A. with honors from Washington University. He has taught at the University of Wyoming, Boston College, and Southwestern University, and served as a Senior Fulbright Scholar at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal. Professor Keiter's most recent books are To Conserve Unimpaired: The Evolution of the National Park Idea, (Island Press, April 2013), and the Wyoming State Constitution (Oxford University Press, 2017). His other books include Keeping Faith With Nature: Ecosystems, Democracy, and America's Public Lands (Yale Univ. Press 2003); Reclaiming the Native Home of Hope: Community, Ecology, and the West (Univ. of Utah Press 1998); Visions of the Grand Staircase-Escalante: Examining Utah's Newest National Monument (Utah Mus. of Nat. History & Wallace Stegner Center 1998); The Wyoming State Constitution: A Reference Guide (Greenwood Press 1993); and The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Redefining America's Wilderness Heritage (Yale Univ. Press 1991). He has also written numerous book chapters and journal articles on public lands and natural resource law, addressing such topics as national parks, ecosystem management, wildfire policy, and biodiversity conservation. He serves as a Trustee of the National Parks Conservation Association and the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, for which he served as President from 2013-2014. Professor Keiter teaches Natural Resources Law and Constitutional Law. He has received teaching awards from the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, the University of Wyoming College of Law, and the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation. In 2008, he was named a University Distinguished Professor by the University of Utah. His current project is an update of his previous work on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

John Lin is a Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences and the Associate Director of the Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy.  He has over 20 years of experience researching the emissions and transport of greenhouse gases and atmospheric pollutants, publishing over 100 peer-reviewed journal papers to date.  He was selected as a Earth Leadership Fellow in 2022 and participates regularly in national and international research efforts such as with the World Meteorological Organization and the European Union.  John's research group (http://lair.utah.edu/) is carrying out greenhouse gas and air quality observations in the Salt Lake area, as well as in the Uinta Basin.  John also works regularly with satellite observations from NASA to determine carbon emissions from cities around the world.  He has recently served on the Great Salt Lake Strike Team to synthesize scientific knowledge and inform policy decisions surrounding the Great Salt Lake.  John received his AB, AM, and PhD degrees from Harvard University.

Derek Mallia, Ph.D. is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Utah’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences. Derek is originally from upstate New York. Topics that Derek is most interested in have strong linkages to climate change and air quality. Derek’s most recent research has primarily focused on using atmospheric models to elucidate key processes that drive wildfire behavior and smoke dispersion, and wind-blown dust. Better understanding how climate change will impact wildfire behavior and smoke is also of interest to Derek. Derek also has a general interest in using atmospheric and chemical transport models developed for research and repurposing them for forecasting applications.

Dr. Daniel Mendoza holds joint appointments as Research Associate Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Pulmonary Division in the School of Medicine, and the Department of City & Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah. His research interests include quantifying and characterizing urban greenhouse gas, criteria pollutant emissions, and temperature for use in human exposure estimation and metropolitan planning. He also examines the health effects associated with acute and chronic pollutant exposure, particularly in vulnerable populations. He is the Director for the Dark Sky Studies Minor and instructor of the Capstone Class on Dark Sky Studies at the University of Utah.

Brian Moench recently retired after a 40 year career in intra-operative anesthesia. He is a former adjunct faculty member in the University of Utah Honors College, where he taught public health and the environment. He is the president and founder of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment (UPHE), UPHE.org.

UPHE’s primary focus is the public health consequences of air pollution and various other forms of environmental degradation. Since 2007 UPHE has become one of the largest civic organization of medical professionals in the Western US.  We have been actively engaged in many environmental battles throughout the country and Western Canada.  UPHE has worked closely with numerous national environmental groups like the Sierra Club, Earthjustice, the Center for Biological Diversity, Beyond Pesticides, and WildEarth Guardians on regional and national pollution issues.

He was nominated by Pres. Obama as a finalist for the Award, Champions of Change, for my work on public health and the climate crisis, 2013.

Mr. Raymond Oldman lives on the Aneth oil field in the Navajo Nation along with his wife, children, grandchildren, and livestock. Over the 47 years he has lived on the oil field, Mr. Oldman has watched as above-ground pipelines, pump jacks, and other oil and gas infrastructure have taken over his lands. He and his family live with the daily health and other impacts of air, water, and soil pollution from the oil and gas industry. Mr. Oldman is one of the community members who works with the Stegner Center's Environmental Justice Clinic.

Robert Paine III, M.D. is Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Respiratory, Critical Care and Occupational Pulmonary Medicine at the University of Utah Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine.  He is an active clinician, educator and researcher.  His research laboratory has addressed questions concerning the role of alveolar epithelial cells in pulmonary innate immune and the response to lung injury.  He pursues clinical research studies addressing key questions concerning defense of the lung in patients with the acute respiratory distress syndrome and mechanisms determining the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) including studies of the impact of air pollution on the progression of COPD.

The impact of air quality on human health has been an important focus of Dr. Paine’s activities since he arrived at the University of Utah in 2007.  He served as a member of the State Air Quality Board for 8 years, playing an active role in educating physicians and state leaders about the important impact of air quality on health.  He has also served on the American Thoracic Society Environmental Health Policy Committee.  He was the founding Director of the University of Utah Program for Air Quality, Health and Society.

Professor Kevin Perry has been a faculty member in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Utah for the last 21 years. He holds a B.S. degree in meteorology from Iowa State University and a Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences from the University of Washington. He served as Chair of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences for 7 years and has expertise in the broad areas of air pollution and atmospheric chemistry. For the last 6 years, his research has focused on the emission of dust from the exposed portions of the Great Salt Lake. During that time, he has spent more than 200 days conducting fieldwork at the Great Salt Lake and has personally visited all 800 square miles of the exposed lakebed. He is currently serving as a member of the Great Salt Lake Strike Team whose goal is to synthesize existing scientific data and research for use by policymakers.

Dr. Susana Ramírez is an expert in media, inequality, and health. As an “infodemiologist”—trained in both communication and public health—Dr. Ramírez uses social scientific methods to advance public health. Prof. Ramírez is co-editor of the Handbook of Language in Public Health and Healthcare (Wiley, 2024) and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Health Communication and the Journal of Communication in Health Care. She is currently an Associate Professor of Public Health Communication at the University of California, Merced, where she teaches courses in social science research methods, health communication, and health policy. Dr. Ramírez earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.P.H. from Harvard University, and a B.A. in Communication from Santa Clara University.

Deborah A. Sivas is the Luke W. Cole Professor of Environmental Law at Stanford Law School and a Professor of Environmental Social Science at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. She also directs the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic and the Environmental and Natural Resource Law & Policy Program at the Law School and serves as a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and an Affiliated Researcher at the Center for Ocean Solutions. Deborah holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Stanford Law School, a Master of Science in Ecology from the University of California at Davis, and a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Philosophy from Occidental College.

Deborah and her clinic students represents non-governmental organizations in administrative proceedings and impact litigation in the areas of coastal and marine resource protection, climate policy and the energy transition, freshwater and terrestrial habitat conservation, and public land and endangered species management. She co-teaches interdisciplinary graduate courses, discussion seminars, and policy labs in a variety of areas, including coastal law and science, federal public lands, climate justice, wildland fire and smoke, sustainable food systems, environmental ethics, and the just energy transition.

In May 2023, Governor Spencer Cox appointed Brian Steed as the first Great Salt Lake Commissioner.

Currently, Steed also serves as executive director of the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water and Air at Utah State University. As part of this role, he has served as co-chair of the Great Salt Lake Strike Team, a cooperative effort by Utah State University, the University of Utah, the Utah Department of Natural Resources and the Utah Department of Environmental Quality that provides up-to-date data and analysis of the lake as well as policy recommendations to the governor and legislators for the protection and preservation of the Great Salt Lake.

Previously, Steed has served as executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, deputy director of policy and programs of the Bureau of Land Management in Washington D.C., and chief of staff to Congressman Chris Stewart.

Steed holds a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in political science from Utah State University, a Juris Doctor and certificate in natural resources and environmental law from the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah and a doctorate in public policy from Indiana University.

Deena Tumeh is a senior attorney in Earthjustice’s Washington, D.C. office. She primarily litigates Clean Air Act cases in federal court with a focus reducing toxic air pollution. Prior to joining Earthjustice, Deena worked at Public Counsel, where she litigated child welfare and immigration cases. She clerked for the Honorable Jill A. Pryor in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the Honorable Myron H. Thompson in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. Deena graduated from Yale University and Stanford Law School.

Carmen Valdez has been volunteering for local, national, and international nonprofits for over a decade, focusing on human rights and advocacy. She has experience in a range of nonprofit roles, from grassroots outreach to policy to board membership. She earned her degrees in political science and international affairs from the University of Utah and  excelled in numerous internships while working for one of Utah’s largest law firms.

Elizabeth Kronk Warner is Dean and Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. She was formerly Associate Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Kansas School of Law (KU), where she was also the Director of the Tribal Law and Government Center. Dean Kronk Warner is a nationally recognized expert in the intersection of Environmental and Indian law. She has taught courses in Property, Indian, Environmental and Natural Resources Law, and supervised the KU Tribal Judicial Support Clinic. She has received several teaching excellence awards, co-authored several books on environmental issues and Native Americans, and has over 40 articles and book chapters to her credit. Dean Kronk Warner, a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, served as an appellate judge for the tribe and as a district judge for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Tribe. Dean Kronk Warner previously was an active member of the Federal Bar Association, serving on its national Board of Directors. In 2014, she received the Federal Bar Association President’s Award for leadership and extraordinary service, commitment, and guidance to the Federal Bar Association and its members. She is currently active in the American Bar Association, where she is co-chaired of the Native American Resources Committee. She holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan, a B.S. from Cornell University, and also studied at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, MPH, serves as the Executive Director for  the Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN), extending partnerships, organizing, leading, and managing policy, education/training, and science-related programs. For the past 24 years, she has served as a key spokesperson for children’s vulnerabilities and the need for their equal and intentional protections, conducting presentations and lectures across the country and providing key guidance and public health directed recommendations. She is a leader in the field of children’s environmental health, serving on the External Science Board for the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) NIH Research work. She is a Co-Leader for the Health/Science initiative of the Cancer Free Economy Network, Co-Chair of the America the Beautiful for All Coalition, Lead Chair for Clean Water for All, and leader in the Climate Equity Collaborative. Ms. Witherspoon is also a Board Member for the Environmental Integrity Project, Habitable, and serves on the Maryland Children’s Environmental Health Advisory Council. She is a proud mom to four children.