Career Highlights

National Whistleblower Center, Washington, D.C., March 2019-May 2021

I served as Executive Director for two years and then transitioned to Senior Director of Environmental Innovation for my final two months. I led the transformation of this small, widely respected anti-corruption organization into a global leader on climate and environmental whistleblowing. During my tenure, NWC became the first organization to use whistleblower-reward laws to combat financial crime and corruption in the two industries most responsible for driving climate change: fossil fuels and industrial logging. We educated and trained key audiences worldwide on strategies for confronting climate-related corruption and assisted whistleblowers in these two industry sectors with securing counsel and filing high-impact cases. Working at an affiliated nonprofit law firm, I also represented whistleblowers in important climate cases that were confidentially submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulators and prosecutors.

I also provided thought leadership on climate-related financial regulation while at NWC, laying the foundation for my work on this issue at Kostyack Strategies. For example, NWC helped to persuade the SEC to move forward with new climate risk disclosure rules and prioritize enforcement of existing rules. To advance this work, I conceived and launched the Climate Risk Disclosure Lab with the Global Financial Markets Center at Duke Law School and the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University. I continue to serve on the Lab’s Steering Committee.

Wind Solar Alliance, Washington, D.C., 2014 – 2019

When I took the helm as Executive Director of the Wind Energy Foundation in 2014, this industry-created nonprofit had no history of policy advocacy, and the wind and solar industries rarely collaborated. I rebranded the organization as the Wind Solar Alliance, transforming it into an innovator on education and policy advocacy for the two leading sources of renewable energy. I educated renewable energy executives and employees on using traditional and social media and meeting with their home-district legislators at wind farms, solar installations, and manufacturing facilities. Our A Renewable America campaign played a critical role in several federal and state legislative victories, including the 2015 extension of federal tax credits for wind and solar deployment. 

National Wildlife Federation, Washington, D.C., 1994 – 2014

During 20 wonderful years, I rose through the ranks from litigating attorney, policy counsel and program manager to Vice President of Wildlife Conservation. My primary roles were developing and implementing programs, fundraising and recruiting and managing staff. I updated NWF’s strategies to address the looming threat of climate change at a time when the issue was not seen as a clear and present danger by many in the conservation community. I built a coalition focused on educating policy makers about the business case for carbon pricing and recruited renewable energy industry leaders to the steering committee. I created and led NWF’s programs to strengthen the resilience of wildlife and habitats to climate change and promote renewable energy development with wildlife safeguards.

Working closely with Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) and agricultural organizations, I led the team that helped craft the Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2007, a bipartisan bill providing tax incentives to landowners for endangered species conservation. Key provisions of the bill were enacted as part of the 2008 Farm Bill. 

I litigated on behalf of NWF and other environmental groups, winning a variety of high-impact cases to protect the ivory-billed woodpecker, Key deer, Florida panther, gray wolf and Swainson’s hawk. Several of these rulings led to important federal policy reforms. I was honored to represent 72 wildlife conservation groups in an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in the Court’s first-ever climate change case, Massachusetts v. EPA.

Steptoe & Johnson, Washington, D.C., 1988 - 1994 

As an Associate Attorney, I represented large corporate clients in a wide array of complex litigation matters, including racketeering cases against corrupt reinsurance executives. I negotiated multimillion-dollar settlements and recruited high-profile clients. I won precedent-setting pro bono victories in environmental and housing cases. 

U.S. District Court, Jacksonville, Florida, 1986-1988

I served as a Law Clerk for the Honorable Susan H. Black.

Education

Stetson University College of Law, J.D. cum laude, 1986

University of Virginia, B.A. Economics, 1983