Strategy Professionals Join Centers for Green Energy, Animal Law

This spring, Lewis & Clark Law School welcomed two accomplished legal and strategic professionals. Licia Sahagun was named Deputy Director for the Green Energy Institute and Pamela Hart is joining the Center for Animal Law Studies as Director of Strategic Initiatives.

Licia Sahagun, GEI’s incoming Deputy Director, brings a decade of nonprofit experience ranging from AmeriCorps volunteer and Program Manager to Executive Director and Board Chair. In her most recent role as Program Director of Our Climate (formerly Oregon Climate), she designed and organized a Youth Lobby Day in Salem that was featured in the National Geographic documentary series, Years of Living Dangerously. Shortly thereafter, Years became a strategic partner and sponsored the organization’s nationwide expansion, which Licia oversaw and helped facilitate as Board Chair.

Licia has been working with GEI part-time since September 2017, helping to organize and implement the Re-Energizing the West conference in October and came on full-time as Deputy Director in March 2018.  She graduated cum laude with her bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois and received her Master of Studies in Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law from Lewis & Clark law school in May 2017.

Pamela Hart joined the Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS) as Director of Strategic Initiatives in April 2018. She has an extensive background in Animal Law including helping to launch CALS as a collaboration between Lewis & Clark Law School and Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) in 2008. At the time, it was the first-of-its-kind animal law comprehensive program of studies. She was the first person to teach an Animal Law course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as the University of Chicago Law School. Most recently, she directed the Animal Law Program at the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), supporting over 200 Student Animal Legal Defense Fund (SALDF) chapters, managing an extensive Attorney Volunteer Network, and partnering with firms and attorneys.

Pam is a frequent writer and speaker on animal law related issues, and has testified on a congressional panel regarding a federal Farm Animals Anti-Cruelty Act. Pam is co-author of Animal Law - New Perspectives on Teaching Traditional Law, a legal casebook published by Carolina Academic Press. She has been featured for her work in multiple regional and national publications, including O Magazine, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News, Baltimore Sun, Houston Chronicle, Raleigh News & Observer, Washington Lawyer and the National Jurist.