Renee Martin-Nagle

Renee Martin-Nagle joined ELI  as a Visiting Scholar in April 2011 after a 25-year career in aviation, which included more than 20 years as chief legal officer for Airbus Americas, from which she retired in January 2011 as Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, Head of Environmental Affairs, Corporate Secretary and a member of the board of directors. The birth of her first grandson in April 2007 inspired her to dedicate the rest of her life to environmental causes, and that year she enrolled in the LL.M. program at George Washington University Law School, graduating in May 2010 with highest honors. Her LL.M. thesis, which proposes that water in fossil aquifers be viewed as the common heritage of mankind, received the 2011 Jamie Grodsky Prize for Environmental Law Scholarship.

Attracted by Martin-Nagle’s scholarly work with ELI, the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, invited her to pursue a PhD in law through a multidisciplinary program that stressed both international water law and hydrogeology.  She moved to Glasgow in 2015 was awarded a Ph.D. in June 2019.  Her research on governance of offshore freshwater produced both a monograph (Transboundary Offshore Aquifers: A Search for a Governance Regime) and a book (Governance of Offshore Freshwater Resources), as well as a number of other publications.  Renée is currently collaborating on a book addressing unconventional water resources.

During her time with ELI, Martin-Nagle has published numerous articles and spoken frequently on environmental issues in both freshwater and aviation.  In addition, she has taught international environmental law and policy at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, the University of Strathclyde Law School and Saint Francis University.  Currently she serves as President and CEO of A Ripple Effect PLLC, Treasurer of the International Water Resources Association, Vice-Chair of the Mount Aloysius College Board of Trustees, member of the five-person Municipal Authority of Ebensburg PA, Special Counsel at Eckert Seamans, and co-chair of the Sustainability Committee of the ABA Forum on Air & Space Law.