The University of Virginia’s Environmental Institute has chosen Elizabeth Andrews, a longtime legal and policy expert in Virginia, as the inaugural Environmental Sustainability and Resilience Practitioner Fellow.

In this role, Andrews will engage various groups within UVA and externally to continue her work on climate resilience, connect with indigenous peoples and communities, provide law and policy analysis on environmental matters and collaborate with students and faculty at UVA.

Andrews, who received her Juris Doctorate summa cum laude from American University, is an accomplished environmental attorney who has worked with the Virginia state government, nonprofits and universities. She has spent her career bridging the gap between policy and scientific discovery with excellence and impact.

“Elizabeth Andrews is a highly respected legal and policy analyst in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and her expertise is sought after by government officials, non-profits and environmental scholars,” said Karen McGlathery, Director of UVA’s Environmental Institute. “We are honored to welcome her as our inaugural Practitioner Fellow. The Environmental Institute, UVA faculty, students and the people of the Commonwealth will benefit greatly from her guidance and experience addressing the environmental challenges that impact us all.”

Andrews, whose term began in August, will serve as the Environmental Institute’s Practitioner Fellow for one year. This fellowship brings Andrews’ consequential experience building community partnerships to UVA in a variety of ways, including work with faculty sponsor Tanya Denckla Cobb on the Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool (“RAFT”).

The RAFT, a project directed by UVA’s Institute for Engagement and Negotiation and involving partners at Old Dominion University and Virginia Tech, is an innovative “collective impact” collaborative approach to climate resilience. The RAFT team works with communities to assess their needs and develop a checklist of actions that will increase their resilience in the face of climate challenges. The team then helps communities find resources to support these needs. The RAFT has been primarily engaged with coastal communities, and Andrews will work to adapt this tool for noncoastal communities.

Andrews will also bring her community engagement, policy and legal experience to UVA through partnerships with Virginia’s indigenous tribes, in which she will seek to help increase their resilience and address environmental issues such as the preservation of culturally significant natural resources during development.

Andrews has served as Water Policy Manager for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and as the Senior Assistant Attorney General and Section Chief for the Environmental Section at the Office of the Virginia Attorney General. Most recently, Andrews was Professor of Practice and Director of the Virginia Coastal Policy Center (“VCPC”) at William & Mary Law School. 

The VCPC provided science-based legal and policy analysis affecting the state's coastal resources and education and advice to Virginia decision-makers, from government officials and legal scholars to nonprofit and business leaders. In her role as Director, Andrews developed community partnerships with many diverse organizations and hosted influential policymakers at an annual conference that became known as the premier climate change-related event in the region.

 “I am honored and excited to be appointed as the inaugural Practitioner Fellow for the Environmental Institute,” Andrews noted. “The University of Virginia has an outstanding reputation as a flagship research university and a leader in community engagement. I look forward to working with faculty and students on researching effective adaptation policies to increase communities’ resilience to climate change impacts.”

Andrews is a member of the American College of Environmental Lawyers and was an appointed member of the Technical Advisory Committee that assisted with development of Virginia’s first Coastal Resilience Master Plan. She has served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Virginia State Bar’s Environmental Law Section, and as the Virginia representative on the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Climate Resiliency Workgroup. Andrews also served as a member of the Expert Study Board convened by the Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering & Medicine (VASEM) to research and draft a report (“The Impact of Climate Change on Virginia’s Coastal Areas”), which was submitted to the Virginia General Assembly.

UVA’s Environmental Institute’s Practitioner Fellow program advances the EI’s mission to support interdisciplinary research and training that is both great and good at the intersection of environmental change and human well-being.