David Mears JD ‘91, after two stints at Vermont Law School during which he held multiple leadership roles at the school, has announced that he will resign as Director of the Environmental Law Center (ELC) and will return to work in government or advocacy. David graduated from VLS in 1991, worked here from 2005 through 2011 as a professor and then head of the Environment and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC) before leaving to join the administration of Governor Peter Shumlin as Director of the Department of Environmental Conservation. David returned to VLS in 2015, first to again lead the ENRLC, then serving as Vice Dean of Faculty, and then most recently serving as Director of the ELC.
Vermont Law School thanks David for his time and service to the VLS community, and we wish him the best in his future endeavors.
The administration and the Board have started planning for David’s successor to lead the ELC and are truly excited by some of the new opportunities filling this position represents.
Vermont Law School is also currently hiring for new positions within the ELC in energy and agriculture. Also, starting July 1st, two experienced and respected environmental experts will be taking new roles in the administration. Sean Nolon is an award-winning expert in the field of environmental dispute resolution and will be serving as Vice Dean for Faculty. Laurie Beyranevand JD ‘03 was recently the associate director of CAFS and is widely respected in the field of food policy and will be serving as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs.
Additionally, as Colleen Connor JD ‘85, Chair of the Vermont Law School Board of Trustees, said, “When picking a new dean for Vermont Law School, we gave strong consideration to those candidates with experience and expertise in the environmental field. In choosing Tom McHenry to be the Dean and President of Vermont Law School we reconfirmed our commitment to make Vermont Law School a leader in environmental education with a deep bench of environmental faculty.”
For VLS and its leadership, commitment to the environmental programs is as strong as ever.
To properly live up to David’s legacy—and every leader of the ELC before him—Vermont Law School will continue to have the deepest roster of environmental law faculty and the largest catalog of environmental law courses in the country.