Curriculum VitaeBiography
As the associate vice president of ocean conservation practice at New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life (ACCOL), Sarah Reiter applies her nearly two decades of interdisciplinary, solutions-based expertise to lead key aspects of the Aquarium’s ocean conservation agenda. In this role, Sarah bridges between subject matter experts across various sectors and at the intersection of science, law and innovation, to achieve meaningful ocean conservation impact for communities, marine wildlife and habitats, and the emerging blue economy.
Sarah joined the Aquarium as a law professor and the head of an observer delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations from the Vermont Law and Graduate School. She began her career as an oceanographer and meteorologist for the U.S. military and applied her leadership experience and technical expertise as she transitioned into ocean conservation work that has spanned research on the ocean’s seafloor to its uppermost polar region and includes previous experience at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of General Counsel, the Center for Ocean Solutions at Stanford University, and Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Publications
Articles
An Upwelling of Support for the Ocean-Climate-Biodiversity Nexus: Progress toward Institutionalization at COP26 (with Caroline Fullam, Aaron L. Strong, and Angelique Pouponneau) Sustainability and Climate Change Vol. 14, No. 6 (December 2021).
"A Framework for Operationalizing Climate-Just Ocean Commitments Under the Paris Agreement" (with Cheng, L., Pouponneau, A., Taylor, S., Wedding, L.) Frontiers Climate Law and Policy (October 28, 2021).
Wedding, L.M., Reiblich, J. Gourlie, D., Reiter, S., E. Hartge and A. Guerry. Coastal ecosystem service and climate adaptation policy assessment. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLICY (in prep).
Melius, M., Reiter, S., Newkirk, S., The Coastal Act, Power Plants, and the Case for “Undevelopment,” 18 VT. J. ENVT’L L. 4 (2017).
Legal Advocacy
Chapters
Presentations
Panel Moderator, Ocean/Water Pollution Panel, Vermont Journal of Environmental Law Symposium: The World of Waste in a Wasteful World (October 16, 2021).
Moderator, “A World of Waste in a Wasteful World: Ocean/Water Pollution Panel,” Vermont Journal of Environmental Law Symposium. (October 2021).
"From California to the Clarion Clipperton Zone, a deep dive on the evolution, design principles and function of networks of marine protected areas, with a focus on how ecological law can play a role in ongoing treaty negotiations for marine biodiversity on the high seas," EL&G Webinar Series, Ecological Law and Governance Association (June 2021).
"The New High Seas Treaty," Environmental Studies Program, Dartmouth College, November 17, 2020.
Assessing Ambition and Conditionality in Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement, MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management program, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford (November 11, 2020).
"International Ocean Governance - Applications at the Science-Policy Interface," MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management program, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford (October 28, 2020).
Moderator, "Nature-Based Solutions," Vermont Journal of Environmental Law Annual Symposium, Vermont Law School (October 16, 2020).
“An Ocean-Climate Strategy to Achieve Ocean-Climate Health,” 11th Annual Colloquium on Environmental Scholarship, Vermont Law School, (September 26, 2020).
"The Future of the Public Trust: The Muddied Waters of Rockweed Management in Maine,” Ocean and Coastal Law Journal Symposium on Innovations and Aquaculture and Law, Bath, Maine (March 27, 2020).
Awards & Accomplishments
Awards, Honors or Grants
Honorary Research Associate, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford (June 2019)