An activist and attorney specializing in environmental law, Kennedy was named one of Time magazine’s “Heroes for the Planet” for his success in helping lead the fight to restore the Hudson River.
He also was named one of Rolling Stone‘s “100 Agents of Change.”
On Thursday, October 2, Kennedy spoke to a lively crowd at Elmhurst College about green capitalism.
A professor of environmental law at Pace University and the author of Crimes Against Nature and other best-selling books, Kennedy is co-director of the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace.
Kennedy also is the president of Waterkeeper Alliance, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and co-host of radio show Ring of Fire. He is a partner on the CleanTech investment team of Silicon Valley’s VantagePoint Capital Ventures, the environmental advisor to Napo Pharmaceuticals, and serves on numerous boards.
Earlier in his career, he served as an assistant district attorney in New York City. The New York City watershed agreement, which he negotiated on behalf of environmentalists and New York City watershed consumers, is regarded as an international model in stakeholder consensus negotiations and sustainable development. Further, Kennedy worked on environmental issues across the Americas, and has assisted several indigenous tribes in Latin America and Canada in successfully negotiating treaties protecting traditional homelands.
Kennedy’s talk at Elmhurst was sponsored in part by BMO Harris Bank, and was part of the Rudolf G. Schade lecture series at Elmhurst College.