Thanks to a generous grant from the Mysun Charitable Foundation, Miami Law’s Environmental Justice Clinic recently hired Daniela Tagtachian as its inaugural Mysun Foundation Fellow.
The Environmental Justice Clinic provides advocacy assistance to communities discriminated against by public and private actors in the contexts of the built and natural environment. The clinic’s work lies at the intersection of civil rights, poverty law, public health, and environmental protection.
Tagtachian, a graduate of the University of Chicago and University of Michigan Law School, has a background in poverty law and will enable the Clinic to expand its education, research, policy, and advocacy work on the built environment.
“Miami Law is delighted to welcome Daniela,” said Professor Anthony Alfieri, Director of the Center for Ethics & Public Service and Founder of the Environmental Justice Clinic.
“She will enable the Clinic to enlarge the scope of our education, policy, and advocacy work in the fields of both the built and natural environment, and moreover, to expand the breadth of our community and university-wide interdisciplinary partnerships in the fields of environmental protection and public health. We are grateful for the generosity of the Mysun Foundation in supporting this important work.”
In addition to supporting the Clinic’s work on the natural environment in the Old Smokey and Dunbar toxic tort cases, Tagtachian will be taking on new community projects addressing the environmental and public health consequences of municipal practices that adversely and disproportionally affect the well-being of low-income communities of color. Her work includes a campaign to remedy the adverse effects of displacement and resegregation in low-income, predominantly African American communities.
After she graduated from law school,Tagtachian served as a researcher for the Policy Working Group on Global Development and Humanitarian Response and received a fellowship to work with the Slave Labor and Human Trafficking Clinic at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil.
After returning to the United States, she worked for Hogan Lovells US LLP as a Litigation and International Arbitration Associate. In addition to chairing the Miami office’s Women’s Initiative Mentoring and Citizenship Subcommittee, her pro bono work included serving as the attorney ad litem for a child in foster care and evaluating the case of a prisoner of conscience from Turkey.
Most recently, Tagtachian was recognized with the Dr. King Drum Major Award from PUSH for Excellence for her contributions to education and social justice.
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