Clinic Faculty & Staff

Clinic Director

Sara Colangelo is an Associate Professor of Law and the Director of the Environmental Law & Justice Clinic. She is the 2020 recipient of the Georgetown Law Fahy Teaching Award. From 2015-2021 Professor Colangelo served as Director of Georgetown’s Environmental Law and Policy Program, teaching multiple courses in environmental law. Her scholarship is forthcoming or has appeared in the California Law Review, Harvard Environmental Law Review, in the book Environmental Law Before the Courts: A US-EU Narrative, and other law journals. Professor Colangelo has served as lead and co-author for U.S. Supreme Court amicus briefs, testified before Congress, and is a frequent contributor to media outlets. She is also a member of multiple boards and committees on environmental protection, scholarship, science, and public health.

Previously Professor Colangelo served as a trial attorney for the Environmental Enforcement Section (EES) of the Environment and Natural Resources Division at the Department of Justice for many years. She joined the Division through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. At EES, she managed complex civil environmental enforcement cases for pollution control and cleanup of hazardous waste sites to negotiated or litigated resolution, appearing on behalf of the United States in trials across the country. Professor Colangelo received multiple awards from the Environmental Protection Agency and from the Environment Division for her work. In addition, she was nominated for two awards from the Attorney General.

Professor Colangelo is a graduate of Georgetown Law, where she was a student in the Clinic she now directs. She also served as research assistant to Professor Richard Lazarus and was a member of the Georgetown International Environmental Law Review. She holds a B.A. from Brown University, where she graduated magna cum laude, was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and received the William Gaston Premium Scholarship.

Graduate Fellows

Emily Kath Schlidt is a supervisory attorney and clinical fellow at Georgetown’s Environmental Law & Justice Clinic. In this role, Emily supervises students working on environmental matters on behalf of communities with environmental justice concerns and co-teaches the Clinic’s seminar course.

Emily joined the Environmental Law & Justice Clinic from private practice, where she focused on environmental litigation, environmental compliance counseling, renewable energy financing, and environmental due diligence for a variety of real estate and transactional matters. While in private practice, she devoted significant time to pro bono matters, including assisting the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Toxics in drafting a report to advise the United Nations Human Rights Council on the right to science in the context of toxic and hazardous substances, resulting in honorary recognition during The Cyrus R. Vance Center’s 2021 Celebration of International Pro Bono Excellence.

Emily holds a J.D. from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, where she was the Managing Editor of the Journal of Law and Social Policy. Following law school, Emily clerked for the U.S. District of Wyoming.

Corrina Carter is a graduate of Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. At Lewis & Clark, Corrina earned an Environmental and Natural Resources Law Certificate with Distinction, participated in the Earthrise Law Center Clinic, and served on the board for the school’s chapter of OutLaw. She also clerked for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice, the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Oregon, and the Office of General Counsel for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. More recently, she began her legal career as an Honors Program attorney in DOJ’s Environmental Enforcement Section, where she gained experience litigating under CERCLA, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and other environmental statutes.

Before law school, Corrina completed an MFA in Creative Writing, taught freshman composition at Iowa State University, and worked as an environmental educator at Osprey Wilds Environmental Learning Center in Sandstone, Minnesota. During her time as an environmental educator, she was the primary caretaker for a sassy but adorable porcupine named Spike. Corrina’s hobbies include reading, writing, birding, and listening to true crime podcasts.

Clinic Manager

Niko Perazich is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the clinic. Prior to Georgetown Niko worked at various DC-area law firms as a paralegal. Niko is a graduate of Middlebury College and is married with two young children.