Georgetown Law

Sara Colangelo is the Director of the Environmental Law & Policy Program and an Adjunct Professor of Law. She is the 2020 recipient of the Georgetown Law Fahy Teaching Award. Professor Colangelo oversees the Environmental Law J.D. and LL.M. programming for the Law Center, and teaches multiple courses in Environmental Law. Professor Colangelo’s areas of specialty are environmental litigation and enforcement: She speaks at conferences, appears in the media, and provides Congressional testimony on these topics. Professor Colangelo is an Honorary Member of the Scientific Committee for the Global Pandemic Network, and she serves on the boards of the Georgetown Environmental Law Review and the Georgetown Environment Initiative.

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 upon graduating law school. 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: The John Marshall Award and The Attorney General’s Award for Outstanding Contributions from a New Employee.

Professor Colangelo graduated cum laude from Georgetown Law, where she was a research assistant to Professor Richard Lazarus, worked in the environmental section of the Institute for Public Representation Clinic, and served on the Georgetown International Environmental Law Review. She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and received the William Gaston Premium Scholarship at Brown University, where she graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in International Relations on the Global Environment Track.