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Clark University
School of
Climate, Environment, and Society
Lou Leonard
Dean Leonard begins his tenure as Dean in May 2025

Lou Leonard, JD

Inaugural D.J.A. Spencer Dean of the School of Climate, Environment, and Society

Lou Leonard, JD, has been appointed inaugural dean and will formally join Clark in May. He brings extensive experience in climate and ecological change. Lou previously served as dean of the Falk School of Sustainability and Environment at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he also led operations of the Eden Hall Campus, a sustainability-focused living-learning laboratory. Prior to that, Leonard was a visiting scholar at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, D.C., and senior vice president for climate and energy at the World Wildlife Fund for over a decade, where he participated in negotiations leading to the Paris Climate Change Agreement and helped launch initiatives such as the We Are Still In coalition.

Leonard, an environmental lawyer, has practiced and taught international and domestic energy and conservation law in both the government and private sectors for over 25 years. He served as special counsel to the Secretary of the Interior, specializing in water law and Native American rights, where he was chief U.S. negotiator for agreements bringing new water supplies and funding for tribal reservations.  

Leonard also worked as a senior associate for Latham & Watkins, LLP, specializing in California natural resources and energy issues. In 2006, he accepted a Fulbright Senior Scholarship to teach law at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. He previously served as a member of the boards of directors for the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, an innovative business trade association that he helped create, and the U.S. Climate Action Network, the largest network of U.S. civil society organizations focused on the climate crisis. 

Leonard co-founded One Earth Sangha, a hub of learning and community for the growing community of teachers, practitioners, and local activists working at the intersection of mindfulness and the emotional dimensions of ecological and social crises. 

He earned his bachelor’s from Georgetown University and his juris doctor from Boston College Law School.