In Memoriam – CATF Board Chair Wendy Jacobs

On February 1, 2021, Wendy Jacobs, the Chair of CATF’s Board of Directors, died after a valiant struggle with an illness. Wendy joined CATF’s Board in 2016, and become our board Chair in 2018. Wendy first became associated with CATF through her position as the Emmett Clinical Professor of Environmental Law and Harvard Law School and Director of the school’s Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic, where she had a long and fruitful relationship with CATF. With Wendy’s support, Harvard Law School students from the Clinic assisted CATF’s legal team, by supporting research on numerous matters. Additionally, Wendy over the years worked directly with CATF Legal Director Ann Weeks to advance CATF’s mission, including research on the legal and technical framework for advancing carbon capture and sequestration.

Prior to her work at Harvard and her association with CATF, Wendy had a long and brilliant career as an environmental lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice and then in private environmental law practice.

Throughout her career, Wendy also maintained a strong focus on racial justice, and particularly on the unique environmental burdens that poor communities face. During Wendy’s all too brief tenure on CATF’s Board, she encouraged us to strengthen our ties to communities, and to seek to diversify CATF’s Board and staff to more closely reflect the broad range of populations that our work serves.

She will be sorely missed.