On June 12, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that Fordham Law Professor Atinuke Adediran will serve the agency as a senior advisor on racial justice on a yearlong Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) assignment.
Adediran will be working in the newly-formed Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, where she will advise on policy and legal issues related to race equity and the environment. She is tasked with analyzing the administration of the EPA’s civil rights, affirmative employment, and diversity programs, making policy recommendations on national civil rights issues, and implementing strategic plans for civil rights programs.
The advisory role draws on Adediran’s expertise on race, business, social impact and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, including her recent research into how companies have responded to the racial reckoning as part of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement.
“I am humbled to have been selected by the EPA as a leading authority on law and equity to serve in an agency that seriously considers how law, regulations, and policy impact communities of color, and how institutions can work together towards a more equitable society,” said Adediran.
“At a time when ESG has become so significant in the private sector, thinking about the intersection of the environment and underserved communities has become particularly critical on the national level. As a scholar of institutions, race, and law, I am thrilled to use my expertise to make communities more liveable and safe.”
This new role comes on the heels of a number of recent accolades Adediran has been awarded in recognition of her research, including Fordham University’s Distinguished Research Award in Interdisciplinary Studies, the Russell Sage Foundation Presidential Research Grant, and a “Equality, Law and Social Justice” summer research residency at King’s College London.