(Eagle News) – Maxine Burkett, a professor from the University of Hawaii’s (UH) Richardson School of Law, has been appointed by the Biden Administration to serve as Senior Advisor with the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC). She will be working with Secretary John Kerry on international climate change issues and negotiations.
“This is welcome news for island communities like ours and demonstrates how committed the Biden Administration is to building an extraordinary team to tackle the climate crisis,” said U.S. Senator Brian Schatz. “Hawaii continues to produce national leaders in the climate and energy space that are helping navigate our country and, now in the case of Professor Burkett’s appointment, the entire globe forward.”
Burkett, who has been teaching law at UH since 2009, has also served as a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. In 2015, she was appointed to serve on the Federal Advisory Committee for the Sustained National Climate Assessment.
Burkett has also written extensively on climate change issues with a particular focus on climate justice by developing policy tools to address climate change impacts on frontline communities in the United States and around the world.
“As someone born in an island community in Jamaica, as an immigrant to the United States, and now raising my children in an island community here in Hawaii, I’m very excited to bring these perspectives to the table as 21st century climate policy is developed,” said Burkett. “It is time to treat the climate crisis like the emergency it is and I’m proud to be joining an Administration that is restoring our international standing on climate issues and being crystal clear that equity must be part of all climate solutions.”
Maxine Burkett will be taking a leave of absence from Richardson Law School during her service as a presidential appointee and will be stepping down from several local and national boards.
Her appointment is the second for a faculty member from the UH Richardson School of Law. Shalanda Baker, an energy law professor, was recently nominated by the Biden Administration to serve as the Director of the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity at the Department of Energy.
(Eagle News Service)