The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University is proud to announce that Professor Sonya Ziaja has been selected to receive the 2024-2025 Pace |Haub Environmental Law Distinguished Junior Scholar Award. The Haub Environmental Law Distinguished Junior Scholar Award is presented annually to an emerging junior environmental law professor who exhibits scholarly excellence and promise at an early stage in their career. The Haub Environmental Law Faculty solicits nominations from law professors throughout the country and selects a recipient from that pool of nominations. The award recipient is invited to present his/her recent scholarship to the Haub Law community.
Professor Sonya Ziaja is an Assistant Professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law where she teaches Environmental Law, Climate Adaptation, Law and Equity, and Property. Her research interests focus on the overlapping areas of environmental governance and law and technology and society. “Professor Ziaja’s background in geography, water policy, and law allow her to approach environmental law and the climate crisis from a unique viewpoint,” said Jason Czarnezki, Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law and Associate Dean of Environmental Law Programs and Strategic Initiatives. “Our Haub Law community will benefit tremendously from her shared practical and academic knowledge.”
Professor Ziaja’s scholarship has been widely published in journals such as Georgetown Law Journal, Ecology Law Quarterly, and Arizona State Law Journal, among other law reviews and peer reviewed journals. Her article, “How Algorithm Assisted Decision Making Is Influencing Environmental Law and Climate Adaptation” was selected to appear, condensed and reprinted, in the 2023 Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review. Her research has informed the climate adaptation strategy of the U.S. National Parks Service and the first climate adaptation regulation of investor-owned energy utilities in California.
“It is an honor to receive the 2024–2025 Pace | Haub Environmental Law Distinguished Junior Scholar Award,” said Professor Sonya Ziaja. “Haub Law’s Environmental Law Program is consistently recognized as the number one environmental law program in the United States, and I am honored to be recognized by the institution. Sharing my scholarship and research while learning from the Haub Law community is a privilege.”
Before joining the University of Baltimore School of Law, Professor Ziaja worked in energy regulation at the California Public Utilities Commission and was the research lead for the Water, Energy, Climate Nexus at the California Energy Commission. She holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Arizona, MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management from the University of Oxford, and JD from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.
Professor Sonya Ziaja will deliver the lunch keynote presentation on “A qualitative empirical assessment of whether and how environmental constitutional rights matter to state natural resource managers” at the 11th annual Future Environmental Law Professors Workshop organized and hosted by the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.
