Commencement 2025: Honorary Degree Lecture

Julia Olson, co-executive director and chief legal counsel for Our Children’s Trust, will present, “Children’s Climate Rights: Foundation of Democracy.”

Olson founded Our Children’s Trust in 2010 to empower young people to secure their climate rights, protect their futures, and save our planet. In August 2023, they made history with Held v. State of Montana, the first children’s constitutional climate trial resulting in a landmark win for youth. In June 2024, with Navahine v. Hawai‘i Department of Transportation, Our Children’s Trust achieved the first settlement agreement of a youth-led constitutional climate case directed at decarbonizing transportation. 

Today, Olson directs the organization’s cutting-edge legal strategy and has served as lead counsel on the pathbreaking federal cases, Juliana v. United States and Genesis v. EPA. Olson has received numerous awards, including the Kerry Rydberg Award for Environmental Activism (2017), Rose-Walters Prize for Global Activism (2018), Katharine & George Alexander Law Prize (2022), and Berkeley Law’s Environmental Leadership Award (2024). In 2023, TIME100Climate called her one of the world’s most influential leaders driving climate action. Olson received her JD from University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, and her BA from University of Colorado.

You can also tune into the livestream by clicking here.

We look forward to seeing you!