Biography

Director, Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program; Executive Director, Center for Ocean Solutions, Woods Institute for the Environment

Meg Caldwell '85 has dedicated her career to environmental law, having worked as an attorney, professor, and board member in the field. Her scholarship has focused on the environmental effects of local land use decisions, the use of science in environmental and marine resource policy development and implementation, and developing private and public incentives for natural resource conservation. In addition to her role as lecturer in law, Caldwell directs the Environmental and Natural Resources Law and Policy Program at the law school. Caldwell also has an appointment with the Woods Institute for the Environment where she serves as executive director of the Center for Ocean Solutions. The center is a collaboration between Stanford, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute whose core mission is to increase the impact of the natural, physical and social sciences on ocean policy.

A well-respected figure in environmental law, she was selected as the chair of the California Coastal Commission and served on that body for nearly three years. While chair of the Commission, Caldwell also served on the board of the California Coastal Conservancy. She was appointed by the State Secretary of Resources to the California Marine Life Protection Act Blue Ribbon Task Force for the central and north central coasts and is currently serving on the Third Phase Blue Ribbon Task Force for the south coast. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1994, Caldwell was an instructor at San Jose State University and the University of California, Davis; counsel for MicroCLEAN, Inc.; a member of the City of Saratoga Planning Commission; and an associate in the environmental law group of McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen.

In the News

• Stanford Researchers Speaking At U.N. Climate Change Meeting In Copenhagen
  Stanford Report, December 08, 2009
• Panel Backs No-Fishing Zones Off Southern California Coast
  LA Times, November 11, 2009
• State Panel Recommends Laguna Fishing Closure
  Orange County Register, November 10, 2009

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Environment and Energy Workshop
• Land Use

Programs

• Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program (ENRLP), Senior Lecturer in Law

Publications & Cases

• Deborah A. Sivas and Margaret R. Caldwell, A New Vision for California Ocean Governance: Comprehensive Ecosystem-Based Marine Zoning, 27 Stanford Environmental Law Journal 209 (January 2008).
• Reauthorization of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans of the House Committee on Natural Resources, 110th Congress (November 3, 2007) (statement of Meg Caldwell, Senior Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School, Member of the California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force).
• Meg Caldwell, Peter Morgan, Deborah Sivas, and Alicia Thesing, Local Initiatives to Implement the Endangered Species Act: The Challenge of Developing Habitat Conservation Plans, in The Endangered Species Act and Federalism: Innovative Uses of States and Local Governments for Species Conservation, Kaush Arha and Barton H. Thompson, eds., Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, forthcoming.
• Meg Caldwell and Craig Segall, No Day at the Beach: Sea Level Rise, Ecosystem Loss, and Public Access Along the California Coast, 34 Ecology Law Quarterly 533 (2007).
• Margaret R. Caldwell, Peter M. Morgan, Liba Pejchar, Gretchen C. Daily, and Carl Palmer, Evaluating the Potential for Conservation Development: Biophysical, Economic, and Institutional Perspectives, 21 Conservation Biology 69 (2007).
• Meg Caldwell, Proposition 90 Would Doom Coast to Over-Development, San Jose Mercury News, October 19, 2006, p. 18A.
• Caldwell, Margaret R. International Environmental Law (International Legal Developments in Review: 2003), 18 International Lawyer 477 (2004). (With Richard J. Ferris, Kevin T. Harroff, Nicole L. Leonard and Gwen Parker)

Affiliations & Honors

Professional Affiliations

• Member, Earth Systems, Program Advisory Committee
• Faculty Advisor, Interdisciplinary Program in Environment Resources (IPER)
• Faculty Mentor, Haas Center for Public Service Fellowships Program
• Member, Haas Center for Public Service Fellowships Program Fellowship Selection Committee
• Goldman Fellow Faculty Advisor, Goldman Honors Program, Center for Environmental Science and Policy
• Member, San Francisco Baykeeper Advisory Council