Vicki Arroyo

Executive Director, Georgetown Climate Center

Vicki Arroyo is the Executive Director of the Georgetown Climate Center at Georgetown Law, where she also serves as the Assistant Dean of Centers and Institutes and a Professor from Practice.

She oversees the Center’s work at the nexus of climate and energy policy, supervising staff and student work on climate mitigation and adaptation at the state and federal level. She teaches “experiential” environmental law courses to both law and public policy students.

She previously served at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, including serving as the Pew Center’s Vice President for Domestic Policy and General Counsel. For over a decade, she directed the Pew Center’s policy analysis, science, adaptation, economics, and domestic policy programs. She also served as Managing Editor of the Center’s book and oversaw publication of numerous reports and policy briefs.

In addition to teaching at Georgetown Law, she has taught courses on environmental policy and climate change at Catholic University, George Mason University’s graduate public policy program, and Tulane Law School. Previously, she practiced environmental law with Kilpatrick Stockton and other private firms and served in two offices at U.S. EPA: the Office of Air and Radiation and the Office of Research and Development where she reviewed development of standards under the Clean Air Act. From 1988 - 1991, she created and directed the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality’s policy office, and served during some of that time as Governor Buddy Roemer's environmental advisor.

Professor Arroyo has served on several federal panels, including those reviewing economic modeling of climate legislation (DOE’s Energy Information Administration) and on climate change adaptation along the Gulf Coast (Climate Change Science Program). She currently serves on the Executive Committee of the National Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences and as a member of the Board’s study committee on the future of the interstate highway system. She also serves on the Board of Advisors of the Institute of Transportation at UC Davis. She previously served for seven years on the Advisory Board to the National Science Foundation’s Geosciences Directorate, and for three years on the Board of Trustees to the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.  She previously served on the external advisory committee to the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and on California’s Economics and Allocation Advisory Committee. She currently serves on editorial boards of the Climate Policy journal and The Georgetown Environmental Law Review. As a student at Georgetown, Professor Arroyo served as Georgetown International Environmental Law Review’s Editor-in-Chief.

She holds a B.S. in biology, high honors, from Emory (double major in philosophy); a Masters of Public Administration from Harvard (receiving the Don K. Price award for academic achievement and commitment to public service, the top honors in her program), and a J.D., Magna Cum Laude, from Georgetown Law, where she was Editor-in-Chief of The Georgetown International Environmental Law Review.