I am part of a large, NSF-funded research team that is examining formal and informal rules for water allocation in snowmelt-dependent agricultural communities, seeking to identify approaches to water allocation that are flexible in times of water scarcity. As a lawyer, my research within the project has focused on Kenya's national water policy. In June 2013, I traveled to Nairobi to conduct archival research at the Kenyan National Archives and to interview key government actors who have been involved in enacting or implementing recent reforms to Kenya's water policies. I am currently analyzing my findings and working with other team members to include national and regional laws in an agent-based model.

Since 2011, I have been funded to conduct social science research on small-scale distributed generation (DG) systems in developing countries. I am part of a 4-member research team that seeks to answer the following questions: What factors lead to successful long-term DG projects in developing countries? Why are DG systems and projects more common in some areas than others? How does access to DG affect users' economic and political development?My work on this project has included extensive methodological training, both qualitative and quantitative. My largest contribution to date to the project has been the development of an original renewable energy policy database, in which I gathered data on over 160 countries' renewable energy policies from 1990 - 2010, coding specific details of each policy to make the data suitable for quantitative analysis. I then worked closely with a faculty member to use this database to analyze renewable energy policy effectiveness across 127 countries. My work on the project has also included conducting field interviews with actors involved in DG in Uganda, and use of Nvivo (qualitative analysis software) to analyze field interview notes.

I provided one-on-one assistance, graded problem sets, and delivered guest lectures on electricity regulation.

I helped coordinate a series of speakers and a symposium on migratory species policy. The speaker series brought in nationally prominent scholars and practitioners on ecological, economic, legal, and political aspects of migratory species conservation. For the symposium, I provided assistance to non-legal scholars to prepare scientific work for publication in a law journal.

I responded to a request from the Indiana Legislature for unbiased policy advice on amending the statute of limitations for Indiana's brownfields cleanup bill, the Environmental Legal Actions statute. I interviewed attorneys on all sides of the issue, researched other states' approaches, and analyzed the pros and cons of each approach from a public interest perspective. My report and recommendations were used to draft an amendment to the statute, and I testified before the Indiana Natural Resource Committee in support of the bill - which passed.

My primary deliverable for this internship was a "toolkit" of best practices in climate change adaptation law to inform the Environmental Law Center's work on climate change adaptation in developing countries. I also worked collaboratively with environmental lawyers and legal scholars from around the world and became familiar with the culture of a large, international environmental organization.

I provided research, analysis, and editorial support on a series of papers addressing the role of forests in an international climate change agreement.

I worked in the Child Protection and Natural Resources divisions of the Attorney General's Office. In the Child Protection division, I developed a template for appellate briefs and researched an emerging area of law regarding involuntary medication of juveniles. In the Natural Resources division, I provided research on Maine groundwater rights, dam removal, and the application of the public trust doctrine on shorelines. I also attended several hearings and appellate arguments.

I compiled a database of state implementation of EPA's National Action Plan on Energy Efficiency; researched state utility regulatory policies on renewable energy and energy efficiency; interviewed regulatory staff on long-range electric utility regulatory processes and approaches to energy efficiency; and read many, many state utility commission decisions.