Biography: 

Melissa K. Scanlan is the Water Law and Policy Scholar at the University of Wisconsin Law School and the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee's School of Freshwater Sciences. She is leading a pilot project to link the Law School into the new Center for Water Policy at the School of Freshwater Sciences, and is collaborating on interdisciplinary water research teams. She teaches water law and policy.

Prior to joining UW, Professor Scanlan served as a lead consultant involved in launching the interdisciplinary Center for Water Policy in 2011. Over a decade earlier, she received a competitive Equal Justice Works Fellowship (formerly NAPIL) and an Echoing Green Fellowship to found and direct Midwest Environmental Advocates, Wisconsin's first non-profit environmental law center.

Selected as a Wisconsin Super Lawyers' Rising Star in 2006, 2007, and 2008, Professor Scanlan has represented clients in high impact lawsuits and shaped public policy in areas ranging from the Great Lakes Compact and water supply issues to enforcement and implementation of the Clean Water Act. She currently serves on the Board of the Environmental Law Section of the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Melissa Scanlan earned a law degree and Master of Science in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from the University of California-Berkeley. Her scholarly articles have focused on the public trust doctrine, the Great Lakes Compact, and empirical research about water management. She is a regular contributor of op-eds on emerging issues in water law, most recently on cooperative federalism under the Clean Water Act and implementing rules designed to provide cleaner water.

Outside her scholarly work, she blogs about social entrepreneurs, is a co-founder of the Washington Heights Community Garden, and keeps thousands of honey bees in her urban backyard.

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