Be it her scholarship, pro bono work, or policy reform efforts, 2L Mackenzie Van Valkenburgh has little use for silos. Perpetually collaborating and cross-pollinating, she’s wasted no time making a meaningful impact at Berkeley Law.
Van Valkenburgh leads the school’s Youth Advocacy Project, is CFO of its Water Law Society, and holds key roles at two top journals (California Law Review associate editor, Ecology Law Quarterly publishing editor). She also serves as student leader of the Pro Bono Program’s Berkeley Law Alternative Services Trip (BLAST) to Kentucky, where students will help the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center provide much-needed legal services during spring break.
Van Valkenburgh is also the lead author of a new research paper published in Coastal Management — three years in the making — that investigates wastewater pollution along the California coastline. Written with eight co-authors, it outlines a policy solution roadmap for coastal managers to mitigate the rising threat of ocean acidification and hypoxia.
A Center for Law, Energy & the Environment merit scholar who spent 20 months as a Natural Resources Defense Council researcher and policy consultant before law school, Van Valkenburgh describes the motivations driving her vast environmental law work.
Growing up in California’s Sacramento Valley meant that water was a luxury. During the drought of 2011–2017, my hometown of Yuba City — a diverse low-income agricultural community — faced stringent water restrictions and steep water bills throughout our extremely hot, dry summers. We also faced other environmental harms, including wildfires, agricultural pollution, threats of flooding and dams breaking, and poor air quality.
These early encounters with environmental injustice and the disproportionate burdens felt by low-income communities are what sparked my academic interest in environmentalism. This motivated me to study environmental science in college, where I became deeply immersed in the interconnectivity of human activity and our ecosystems.
In my senior year at UCLA, I began working on a project with the Natural Resources Defense Council and UCLA, crafting policy recommendations for the California State Water Resources Control Board designed to improve marine water quality and wastewater recycling laws in California in order to mitigate ocean acidification and hypoxia (OAH). I led our policy research efforts, combing through hundreds of pages of existing policies on wastewater discharge and OAH to forge a more protective path forward.
This work initially resulted in a 142-page report and a presentation to members of the State Water Board, and recently culminated in the publication of our paper, “A Solution Mitigating Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia (OAH) in Coastal Marine Ecosystems.” It was extremely rewarding to publish this research as an open-access paper so our policy solutions can reach a global audience.
At Berkeley Law, environmental advocacy remains at the heart of my career pursuits. Berkeley’s environmental law community is full of interesting, collaborative people whose shared perspectives are invaluable to producing effective environmental lawyers. Meeting so many passionate students in Ecology Law Quarterly and helping to publish cutting-edge environmental legal scholarship, as well as working with experienced advocates in the Environmental Law Clinic, has only furthered my commitment to advancing environmental justice.
The environment is everything — including us — and attending law school has emphasized how social and legal justice is inextricably linked with environmental justice. I’m extremely grateful to have worked with incarcerated youth in the Youth Advocacy Project and to have gone on BLAST Kentucky to work with lawyers who provide rural legal services to their communities. It’s an honor to help lead both of these projects this year in continuation of their justice-advancing missions.
I’ve also stayed true to my water-loving roots through membership and leadership in the Water Law Society (WLS), an organization which carves out a niche for water-focused law students. WLS often works with other Berkeley Law organizations, such as the Native American Law Students Association, to highlight critical issues surrounding water quality and water rights, including hearing from Tribal water experts and researchers from the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. WLS is a fantastic example of how expansive environmental advocacy can come from even a relatively small legal field.
I’m a firm believer in the fact that environmentalism can and should be a universal value. Right now, while environmental progress is being subjected to serious attacks, it’s more important than ever to try to build bridges towards collective protection of the environment. I’m so grateful that my work before law school and my involvements at Berkeley Law have given me so many opportunities to take action towards environmental change.
Through leading pro bono projects that advance social equity, participating in Berkeley Law’s robust environmental community through Ecology Law Quarterly and the Water Law Society, and starting a public interest environmental law career, I’m excited to keep fighting for a more just, sustainable world –– for my hometown, for the Bay Area, and for all of us.