By Silvia Osorio ’24
Sustainability advocate and industry professional Jerilyn López Mendoza has joined the LMU College of Business Administration to teach “Environmental Law, Policy & Ethics” in the new M.S. in Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Innovation (MSESI) program.
Jerilyn has over 20 years of experience working with organizations that are passionate about sustainability and taking care of the environment such as Coalition for Clean Air, Environmental Defense Fund and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control. She currently serves as regional organizer for The Climate Center.
In addition, Jerilyn was appointed by President Obama and served as a U.S. representative on the International EPA Advisory Committee for seven years. In this role, she helped convene and participated in quarterly public meetings throughout North America to examine environmental concerns affecting the entire continent.
“I plan to incorporate my industry experience in the classroom by having students look at the structure of the Joint Public Advisory Committee of the Commission on Environmental Cooperation which I served on,” said Jerilyn. “Students will look at the submission on legal matters and hear from guest speakers, including Felicia Marcus, who recently served as chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board and regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Pacific Southwest region during the Clinton Administration.”
Other guest speakers from various backgrounds in the environmental and climate change sectors will discuss how they have made a positive impact on the environment and their communities. For instance, when Jerilyn teaches climate change, its effects and solutions to her class, guest lecturers from the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator will talk about products and services they are developing to make a difference.
“Through these real-world examples, I hope to inspire students to think about their future and the things they want to bring to the world to make it a better place,” said Jerilyn.
Jerilyn has always had a strong passion for environmental justice and climate change that disproportionately affects disadvantaged communities. “I plan to focus on how social justice issues transfer over to environmental degradation in our communities, which tend to excessively impact people of color,” noted Jerilyn. “I want my students to understand this perspective in order to go out into the world and create products and services that are sustainable.”
“LMU has a wonderful reputation for its graduate programs and entrepreneurship program,” Jerilyn added. “I’m excited to teach law and policy in the environment to non-lawyers, not just reading cases and statutes but looking at all the different aspects of what is involved in environmental decision making and creating an environmental policy or legislation.”
