Melissa K. Scanlan has been practicing water and environmental law since 1999 when she founded Midwest Environmental Advocates, Wisconsin's first nonprofit environmental law center. After serving as Executive Director and leading numerous cases to protect air and water, she has opened Melissa K. Scanlan, LLC, a consulting firm focused on teaching, writing and promoting social enterprises engaged in water policy, sustainability and environmental justice. In the Spring of 2011, she served as an Adjunct Professor at Marquette University Law School where she taught about the Clean Water Act. She has worked to launch the interdisciplinary Center for Water Policy at UW-Milwaukee's School of Freshwater Sciences. A 2011 On the Commons Fellow, Ms. Scanlan is actively engaged in researching and writing about the Public Trust Doctrine. Ms. Scanlan earned a law degree and Master of Science in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from the University of California-Berkeley.