Melissa Scanlan
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Melissa Scanlan 1999 fellow
Bold Idea
Provide high quality legal services that support a multicultural, grassroots social movement; build local leadership; and implement innovative solutions to environmental problems.
Organization
Midwesterners are a people rooted in their land. That bond can be traced from a time when lakes and rivers formed the backbone of villages and transportation for European settlers. This connection with the land is even more significant for the Native American communities that preceded European settlement. Despite this connection, the region faces many environmental problems, from toxic fish to pollution from livestock factories. The Midwest Environmental Advocates (MEA), Wisconsin's first and only nonprofit environmental law center, provides legal and technical assistance to grassroots groups promoting environmental justice in the Western Great Lakes region. MEA provides high-quality legal service to support a diverse social movement, builds local leadership, and implements innovative solutions to environmental problems. The center also runs an Advocacy Network of pro bono attorneys to represent individuals and groups on environmental issues. MEA has already vastly improved conditions in the Midwest.
Biography
Raised in a rural area of Wisconsin, Melissa Kwaterski Scanlan returned to her home state in 1999 to open Midwest Environmental Advocates. She initially received two fellowships that allowed her to work for the public interest. Melissa received a law degree and a master of science from the University of California-Berkeley. While at Berkeley, she received several scholarships and awards, including the 1999 Harmon Award for the Best Environmental Law Writing at UC-Berkeley and the Alvin & Sadie Landis Scholarship in Water Law. She is the author of two law review articles involving property rights, titled "The Evolution of the Pubilc Trust Doctrine and the Degradation of Trust Resources: Courts, Trustees, and Political Power in Wisconsin" and "The End of Welfare and Constitutional Protections for the Poor: A Case Study of the Wisconsin Works Program and Due Process Rights."
