Earthjustice is proud to announce that Erika George has joined the organization’s Board of Trustees.

George is a renowned legal scholar who is the Samuel D. Thurman Professor of Law at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law, where she teaches constitutional law, international human rights law, international environmental law, and seminars in corporate citizenship. In addition, she is the director of the University of Utah’s Tanner Humanities Center where she oversees academic research, educational enrichment, and public outreach on environmental issues.

A highly respected expert in human rights, sustainability, diversity, gender equality, and corporate social responsibility, George previously worked as a fellow with Human Rights Watch, where she conducted human rights investigations in South Africa on women’s rights, children’s rights, violence, the right to education, and rights abuses related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and later served as a consultant to the organization. George has testified before international human rights treaty bodies, foreign governments, and has briefed the international media on international human rights law, racial discrimination, and gender violence. She serves on the editorial board of the Business and Human Rights Journal and is on the Advisory Council of the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights.

“I felt compelled to apply my expertise towards promoting solutions to the challenges presented by the climate crisis and racial injustice, and it was Earthjustice’s long history of important impact litigation and the emphasis on community and partnership that particularly stood out to me,” says George. “As the organization grows and considers ways to engage globally, I am excited to contribute to that expansion in outreach and impact.”

George holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served as an articles editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. She also holds an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago. George is the author of the forthcoming book Incorporating Rights: Strategies to Advance Corporate Accountability to be published by Oxford University Press in 2021.