Kiana Courtney is a staff attorney at ELPC, working on clean energy and natural resources protection litigation, rulemaking, and policy. She worked at the University of Miami Environmental Justice Clinic as an intern and later as a fellow, using community lawyering to address Miami’s affordable housing issues and community pollution. Kiana was a law clerk at Earthjustice (Tallahassee) and at the U.S. Justice Department, Environment and Natural Resources Division in the Environmental Crimes Section. She was also a judicial intern for Magistrate Judge William C. Turnoff in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Before law school, she was a middle school science teacher in Atlanta Public Schools.

Jessica Culpepper is Director of Public Justice’s Food Project. Before joining Public Justice, Jessica was a Barker Fellow and Staff Attorney at the Humane Society of the United States in the Farm Animal Welfare Division. There she worked primarily on fighting pollution from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and advocating for federal and state policy reform to advance sustainable food systems and the humane treatment of animals. Jessica also defended constitutional challenges to state laws protecting the treatment of dogs in puppy mills and preventing the practice of cockfighting. Jessica is a 2007 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, where she won the Outstanding Clinic Achievement Award in the Domestic Violence Clinic and helped establish the Georgetown Journal of Law & Modern Critical Race Perspective. She received her B.A. in history and political science from Warren Wilson College in 2004, where she won the Alton P. Pfaff Award for Most Outstanding Member of the Graduating Class.

Bakeyah has been the Executive Director of Air Alliance Houston since 2017. Previously, she led a consulting firm focused on advancing health equity and worked in Harris County Public Health’s Office of Policy and Planning where she was responsible for leading community health initiatives to reduce environmental inequities. Bakeyah was recently honored as one of the Texas Organizing Project’s 2018 Community Champions. She is a Senior Fellow of Class XLVI of the American Leadership Forum and was selected as one of the Aspen Institute’s Health Scholars for the 2019 Aspen Ideas Festival. She is also a contributing faculty member with Baylor University’s Department of Public Health. In 2012, Bakeyah was selected for the University of California, San Francisco’s Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment Reach the Decision Makers Fellowship, which trains scientists, community members, clinicians, and public health professionals to effectively promote science and health-based policies. Later in 2012, she was a recipient of the National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO) Model Practice Award for demonstrating exemplary leadership to advance environmental justice and public health. Bakeyah’s Doctorate in Public Policy, Master’s in Applied Sociology and Bachelor’s in Psychology all come from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Keri N. Powell is the Director of Powell Environmental Law and works with the Environmental Integrity Project on investigations and legal issues concerning air pollution from the rapidly growing wood pellet industry. Keri is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading Clean Air Act permitting experts, with 20 years of experience litigating state and federal cases with Earthjustice and New York Public Interest Research Group. From 2010 to 2016, Keri served as Senior Clean Air Act Attorney for U.S. EPA’s Region 4 office in Atlanta. In 2017, she started Powell Environmental Law and founded the Wood Bioenergy Project with Environmental Integrity Project. Keri holds a B.A. in Earth Science from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law. She is a native of Macon, Georgia, and calls Decatur, Georgia, her home.

Cyndhia Ramatchandirane joined Earthjustice in 2020 and is a staff scientist based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her role involves providing technical science support for the Fossil Fuel program. Prior to Earthjustice, Cyndhia worked for over six years as a research scientist in Applied Geosciences at The Water Institute of the Gulf, an independent research nonprofit with a mission to help coastal and deltaic communities face environmental change.

Ruth Santiago is a resident of the municipality of Salinas in southeastern Puerto Rico where she has worked with community and environmental groups, fisher’s associations and other organizations for over thirty years on projects ranging from a community newspaper, children’s services, a community school, ecotourism projects to a rooftop solar energy pilot project. In addition to litigation in courts and administrative agencies, Ruth has organized and promoted environmental education projects, advised community groups and the Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve on watershed protection and land use issues. Most recently, Ruth has worked on cases related to energy projects and integrated resource plans. Ms. Santiago earned degrees from Lehigh University and Columbia Law School and has published articles on energy issues in Puerto Rico.

Kimberly Terrell joined the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic (New Orleans, LA) in 2018, where she works to provide community members with information and resources to achieve their environmental advocacy goals. Her broad scientific background, including in the environmental and biomedical fields, makes her well positioned to conduct “actionable research” to advance environmental advocacy, including research related to permitting, pollution, and health risks. Dr. Terrell earned a Ph.D. in Conservation Biology from the University of New Orleans in 2011 and dual bachelor’s degrees in Biology and Political Science from Tulane University in 2005. She is a 2011 recipient of the David H. Smith Postdoctoral Conservation Research Fellowship, a highly competitive program that enables emerging leaders in environmental fields to develop skills that increase the impact of their work. Dr. Terrell considers herself a native of the Mississippi River Basin, having lived most of her life in New Orleans, Chicago, and Memphis.