Research Team
Jack Sautter, PhD, JD
Global Energy Fellow
Jack earned a BA from New York University, an MA and a PhD from the University of Nebraska and a JD from Vermont Law School. He is currently working on his LLM with a specialization in energy and environmental law. He has worked as a human rights NGO representative at both the United Nations headquarters in New York and in Geneva, Switzerland. He has also worked in investment banking/corporate finance in New York City and Lincoln, NE. Jack has published peer-reviewed and law review articles on subjects concerning agricultural energy policy, international climate change agreements, state regulation and climate change, and the effects of restructuring on electricity markets, as well as authoring a book on political decision making. He is currently a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps and will be an active duty JAG officer upon the completion of his fellowship at Vermont Law School.
Jim Landis, JD
LLM Fellow
Jim Landis is a Judge Advocate General officer pursuing an LLM under the Navy’s post-graduate education program. He earned a bachelor of science in honors English from the U.S. Naval Academy. After nuclear propulsion training and several years as a submariner (earning qualification as submarine engineer) culminating in a tour of duty as a nuclear propulsion instructor at an operating nuclear prototype, Jim earned his JD with honors from the University of North Carolina School of Law. While in Chapel Hill, N.C., Jim served as an Honor Court Justice, managing editor of the North Carolina Journal of Law and Technology and as a co-coordinator of the Environmental Law Symposium for the N.C. Bar Association CLE program. He led the very first UNC Moot Court Mediation Advocacy Team to first place in regional competition. His JAG experience includes tours as defense attorney in Washington D.C., physical evaluation board attorney in Bethesda, Md., regional staff judge advocate in Washington D.C., and command judge advocate of USS NIMITZ in San Diego, where he completed two major deployments standing watch as Officer of the Deck. He has published legal works in the North Carolina Journal of Law and Technology and the Naval Law Review. Jim and his wife (a VLS MELP student) have renovated historic homes outside of Washington D.C. and in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Megan Billingsley
MELP Candidate
Megan Billingsley graduated from the George Washington University in 2003 with a BA in international affairs concentrating in environmental resources. Since then she has worked with several consulting firms in the Washington, D.C., area focusing on energy and environmental issues. Ms. Billingsley spent several years working on the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) inventory, which identified oil and natural gas resources on all federal lands and the restrictions to developing those resources. She has also contributed to similar studies involving coal development in the Powder River basin and an analysis using GIS and other data to determine where geothermal development could occur on federal lands. The results of the geothermal development analysis were used to determine the new royalty rate mandated by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Ms. Billingsley is an MELP student at the Vermont Law School and is interested in the issues surrounding energy resource development on public lands.
Katelyn Bush
JD Candidate
Katelyn Bush is a 2007 graduate of Alma College in Alma, Michigan, cum laude, with a double major in Political Science and History. Before coming to law school, Katelyn spent a semester at the University of Aberdeen in Aberdeen, Scotland, studying Soviet Russian history and World War II Europe. At Alma College, Katelyn completed her senior Political Science thesis on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and Good Neighbor Agreements, which she presented at the Hawai'i International Conference on Social Sciences in Honolulu in May of 2007. At Vermont Law School, Katelyn has worked at the South Royalton Legal Clinic under the staff immigration attorney, is a research assistant for the Cornell Library, and is a Senator for the Student Bar Association.
Johnathan Hladik
JD Candidate
Mr. Hladik earned his BS in environmental economics and natural resources from the University of Nebraska in 2007. He spent time working in legal research prior to law school, as well as acting as a research assistant for the U.S. Geological Survey at the Nebraska Water Science Center. Jonathan is pursuing both his JD and MS in environmental law while remaining active in campus groups and volunteer activities. Now in his second year at VLS, he is a member of both the Institute for Energy and the Environment and the Land Use Institute, bringing to us a focus on land management and sustainable agricultural practices.
Patrick Joy
JD Candidate
Patrick Joy is a JD candidate at Vermont Law School. Patrick received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Vermont in 2002 with a double major in political science and English. After graduation, Patrick worked as a journalist at The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, covering a wide range of subjects from sports to city government. Patrick moved to the Caribbean Island of St. Croix in 2004 to pursue a position at The Virgin Islands Daily News, covering environmental issues and territorial government, among other issues. Patrick returned to the mainland in 2006 and enrolled at VLS in the fall of 2007. He will intern this summer with the Conservation Law Foundation.
Sara Kelly
JD Candidate
Sara Kelly graduated cum laude from Connecticut College with a BA in International Relations and Religious Studies in 2003. While at Connecticut, Sara focused her research on alternative methods of conflict resolution. She spent a summer working as an archaeology research assistant in Israel and Jordan, interned with the World Conference on Religion and Peace at the United Nations headquarters in New York City and worked with the Department of Gender Studies at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda to produce the 8th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women. After graduating, Sara moved to Bozeman, Montana where she spent three years working in development and event management for a non-profit arts and culture center. Sara also worked on a number of election campaigns and sat on the board of the Northern Rockies Bioneers Conference during her three years in Montana. She spent the summer of 2006 interning with the Northern Rockies office of the Wilderness Society, where she worked on energy development in Wyoming. Sara is currently pursuing her JD at Vermont Law School, where she is a staff member of the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law.
Michael Kennedy
JD Candidate
Michael Kennedy is a JD candidate at Vermont Law School. He graduated from Colby College in 2004 with a BA in sociology. For the three years prior to law school, Michael worked in New York City as a manager of business operations in the customer marketing and sales department at ESPN. He oversaw the development and enhancement of internal and external constituent relationships, refined the process for sales operations, and assisted in the development of the internal sales operating system. This past summer, Michael interned with the Network for New Energy Choices, which works to promote policies that ensure safe, clean, and environmentally responsible energy options. In the summer of 2009, Michael will be working as a summer associate with Latham & Watkins LLP in New York City. His interests include the effects of energy policy on global climate change and the affordability of renewable energy resources.
Aaron S. Lotlikar
JD Candidate
Aaron S. Lotlikar is a third-year joint JD/MELP candidate at Vermont Law School. Prior to attending VLS, Aaron has worked with several entrepreneurial ventures and has played an active role in a number of non-profit advocacy organizations. Most recently, Aaron served as the Director of Operations for Renewable Choice Energy where he oversaw general business operations. During his first two years at VLS, Aaron has served as the student co-chair of the VLS Campus Greening Committee, and Vice President of the VLS chapter of Phi Alpha Delta. This past summer, Aaron worked as a student clinician at the VLS Environmental and Natural Resources Legal Clinic. This year, Aaron represents his class as a Student Trustee to the VLS Board of Trustees, and is a teacher’s assistant for an Appellate Advocacy professor. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in Communications from John Carroll University in 1999.
Anna Skubikowski
JD Candidate
Anna Skubikowski is a second-year joint JD/MEM candidate at Vermont Law School and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Before coming to VLS, she worked at the World Bank Group in Washington D.C., as a junior professional associate at the Global Environment Facility Secretariat, which funds projects in the developing world with global environmental benefits. In the summer of 2008, she interned at the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. Anna is interested in energy and climate change as development and poverty issues, and in how multilateral agreements and public-private partnerships can help countries reduce emissions while ensuring economic competitiveness and improving local environmental conditions. Anna received a BA in comparative literature from Barnard College, Columbia University, in 2001, and an MA in Italian literature from Harvard University in 2004.
Kari Twaite
JD Candidate
Kari Twaite is a JD candidate at Vermont Law School, and is concurrently pursuing an MEM at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Kari graduated cum laude from Bowdoin College with a BA in environmental studies and government and legal studies. While at Bowdoin, she focused her independent research on climate change policy and chemicals regulation in the European Union, and interned at the Maine Energy Investment Corporation and environmental NGOs in the United States and Scandinavia. After college, Kari joined an environmental consulting firm in Washington, D.C., where she worked with the Department of Energy, utility companies, and private sector clients to develop and coordinate energy efficiency programs. Kari will return to D.C. for the summer of 2009 as a summer associate at Beveridge & Diamond, P.C.
