Vicki Arroyo

Vicki Arroyo is the executive director of the Georgetown Climate Center of Georgetown University Law Center where she is also a visiting professor. She oversees the Center’s work at the nexus of climate and energy policy, supervising staff and student work on climate mitigation and adaptation at the state and federal level. She teaches “experiential” environmental law courses to both law and public policy students.



She previously served at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, most recently as the Pew Center’s vice president for Domestic Policy and General Counsel. For over a decade, she directed the Pew Center’s policy analysis, science, adaptation, economics, and domestic policy programs. She also served as managing editor of the center’s book and oversaw publication of numerous reports and policy briefs.

In addition to teaching at Georgetown Law, she has taught courses on environmental policy and climate change at Catholic University, George Mason University’s graduate public policy program, and Tulane Law School. Previously, she practiced environmental law with Kilpatrick Stockton and other private firms and served in two offices at U.S. EPA: the Office of Air and Radiation and the Office of Research and Development where she reviewed development of standards under the Clean Air Act. From 1988 - 1991, she created and directed the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality’s policy office, and briefly served as Governor Buddy Roemer's environmental advisor.

She has recently served on California’s Economics and Allocation Advisory Committee advising California Air Resources Board on cap-and-trade design; on the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) external advisory committee; and on a National Academy of Sciences Transportation Research Board Committee on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. She is currently serving three year terms on an advisory committee to the National Science Foundation and as a member of the Board of Trustees for the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (a consortium of 77-PhD granting research universities which oversees NCAR). She also serves on the editorial boards of the Climate Policy journal and the Georgetown International Environmental Law Review.

She holds a B.S. in biology, high honors, from Emory (double major in philosophy); a masters of public administration from Harvard (top honors in program), and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Georgetown Law, where she was editor-in-chief of The Georgetown International Environmental Law Review.