The Center for Progressive Reform consists of a full-time staff and 70 Member Scholars who volunteer their time to support and provide independent policy research, advocacy, congressional testimony, legal insight and analysis, and more.
Our Scholars represent dozens of colleges and universities in every region of the country. They live and work in big cities and small towns, on the coasts and in the heartland, and in about half the states — including blue, purple, and red ones.
The Center was founded in 2002 by five professors who saw the potential of using academic work to advance the protection of the environment, democracy, and racial justice at the federal and state levels. The need for this work has never been greater as the Trump administration transforms the administrative state into an authoritarian weapon; dismantles climate justice, mitigation, and adaptation policies; and disables health, safety, and environmental protections.
Our scholar network is responding to today’s urgent challenges by:
Melissa Powers is a board Member at the Center for Progressive Reform and the Jeffrey Bain Faculty Scholar and Professor of Law at Lewis & Clark Law School, where she is also the Founder of the Green Energy Institute. Professor Powers teaches climate change law, electricity regulation, renewable energy law, the Clean Air Act, administrative law, and torts. Her research interests include energy law, domestic policies aimed at mitigating climate change, and U.S. pollution control laws, and she is a co-author of the books Climate Change and the Law (with fellow Member Scholars David Hunter and Chris Wold) and Principles of Environmental Law. Professor Powers’ expert insights regularly appear in media stories, with recent quotes and interviews with Oregon Public Broadcasting and Inside EPA.
University of Texas Law School
University of Florida Levin College of Law
Indiana University Maurer School of Law
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability
Wake Forest University Law School
Harvard Law School
Tulane Law School
Stanford University Doerr School of Sustainability
Georgetown University Law Center
UCLA School of Law
Boston University School of Law
University of Kansas School of Law
University of California, Riverside
Syracuse University College of Law
Saint Louis University School of Law
Vermont Law School
University of Richmond School of Law
University of Alabama School of Law
University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law
University of California, Berkeley School of Law
Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Case Western University School of Law
University of Florida Levin College of Law
Lewis & Clark Law School
University of New Mexico School of Law
The George Washington University Law School
Loyola University Chicago School of Law
The George Washington University Law School
Earthjustice California Regional Office
American University Washington College of Law
University of Minnesota Law School
University of San Francisco School of Law
University of Michigan Law School
University of Florida Levin College of Law
Wake Forest University School of Law
Yale Law School
University of California, Irvine School of Law
St. John’s University School of Law
University at Buffalo Law School, The State University of New York
University of Texas School of Law
University of Michigan Law School
University of California, Irvine
Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center
Texas Tech University School of Law
Lewis and Clark Law School
University of Kansas School of Law
UC College of the Law, San Francisco
University of Arizona College of Law
George Washington University School of Law
Lewis and Clark Law School
Lewis and Clark College School of Law
University of Michigan Law School
University of Richmond School of Law
Wake Forest University School of Law
Temple University Beasley School of Law
University of Richmond School of Law
University of Wisconsin Law School
Chicago-Kent College of Law
Howard University Department of Earth, Environment, & Equity
University of Cincinnati College of Law
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
University of Texas School of Law
Texas A&M University School of Law
Howard University School of Law
University of Pennsylvania-Carey School of Law and Kleinman Center for Energy Policy
Penn State University College of Law
Lewis and Clark Law School
Wake Forest University School of Law
Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana