Helping Justice Flow
“Water quality, sanitation and drinking water — all of this needs to be protected,” Campbell-Ferrari says. “Water is one of the most basic issues of human dignity, and at the moment, many laws don’t demonstrate that governments care.”
In her role, Campbell-Ferrari consults with politicians to help them write water-focused legislation. She often travels to places where there is little legal framework for environmental protections and citizens need help building it from the ground up. In partnership with the U.S. Ambassador’s Water Experts Program, she’s provided legal guidance to decision-makers in countries such as El Salvador and South Sudan. “I help them build relationships and programs and help them consider how they can implement important laws,” she says.
Campbell-Ferrari says she has always been interested in holding powerful people accountable. At Bucknell, she double-majored in political science and Spanish and played an active role in student government. She received a Fulbright scholarship to conduct research in Spain, where she focused on studying water law and watershed management. That experience inspired her to study environmental law at George Washington University Law School.
As a lawyer, she has worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Water Program, the U.S. Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division’s environmental crimes section, and the U.S. Department of Energy.
“Law and policy are one of the most important tools we have for managing our water resources responsibly,” she says. “I want the law to show that we care.”