Directors

Aaron Baker- UC Hastings '08
Aaron was born in San Diego. He received his B.A. from UC Berkeley and his M.A. from the University of Chicago. Aaron first found his interest in water law and policy, as have so many others, in the pages of Marc Reisner's Cadillac Desert. After practicing water law for two years at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, in Santa Barbara, Aaron has recently returned to the Bay Area and is now serving as General Counsel for the 8 Shields Institute.

Elizabeth Sarine- UC Berkeley '12
Elizabeth Sarine joined Remy Moose Manley, LLP, in 2012 as an associate. Her practice covers the California Environmental Quality Act, the State Planning and Zoning Law, the National Environmental Policy Act, the federal Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, among other land use and environmental issues. Elizabeth participated in the Water Education Foundation's 2014 Water Leaders Class.
During her years at Berkeley Law, Elizabeth served as symposium co-chair for the 2012 California Water Law Symposium, which presented eight dynamic panels on the theme of "Water and Growth: the Imperative for Sustainable Approaches to Uncertainty." Ms. Sarine received the Alvin and Sadie Landis Prize for her article, The Supreme Court's Problematic Deference to Special Masters in Interstate Water Disputes (2012) 39 Ecology L.Q. 535.

Originally from Taiwan, Elizabeth lived in Belize for four years before starting sixth grade in Shasta Lake City, California. She made Sacramento her home in 2001 and has been very active in the community. Elizabeth's favorite national park is Lassen Volcanic National Park, where she spent four summers as an interpretive park ranger and forestry aid technician.

Thomas Hicks - University of San Francisco '05
Tom Hicks is a California water law, real property, and conservation attorney who represents public interest organizations, landowners, and others on public policy, transactional, and select administrative and litigation matters. Before law school, Tom was an energy and water policy analyst at the Natural Heritage Institute and the founder and Executive Director of the Headwaters Institute. He has interned at the San Francisco Office of the City Attorney, California State Water Resources Control Board, and American Rivers.

Tom founded and chaired the inaugural California Water Law Symposium sponsored by leading northern California law schools and is a Board Member. He is the author of the Water Education Foundation Layperson's Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as the most thorough explanation of California water rights law available to non-lawyers. Tom is a former whitewater raft guide, kayaker, and Colorado Outward Bound instructor. He holds a JD from the University of San Francisco School of Law and a BA from the University of Vermont.

Susan Gilbert-Miller, Ph.D - University of San Francisco '11
Susan Gilbert-Miller graduated magna cum laude from the University of San Francisco School of Law. She served as Chair of the 2010 California Water Law Symposium, which received the American Bar Association's Section of Environment, Energy and Resources Law Student Project of the Year Award. Susan obtained a Ph.D. from the Institute of Development, Policy and Management (IDPM), Department of Economic and Social Sciences, University of Manchester, England, with comparative research on international water policy. During law school, she worked as a Law Clerk for the Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division in Washington D.C.; U.S. EPA's Office of Regional Counsel, Region 9; and the Natural Heritage Institute. Currently, Susan is a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of Labor where she works to realize the goals of Executive Order 13514, Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance.

Madeleine Weisz - UC Davis '14
Madeleine Weisz is currently a Water Master with the State of Montana Water Court. She graduated from University of California, Davis School of Law in 2014. While a student at UC Davis, Madeleine actively pursued the study of water law. She participated in the California Water Law Symposium as a co-chair of the event in 2013 and as a panel co-chair in 2014. She also co-founded the Water Association of Law and Policy at King Hall. Madeleine joined the CWLS board in 2015.

Steve Westhoff - UC Davis '13
Steve Westhoff is an attorney at the California State Water Resources Control Board’s Office of Chief Counsel, where he advises primarily on water rights matters and previously worked on the Board's financial assistance and underground storage tanks programs. He graduated from UC Davis School of Law in 2013 with Environmental Law, Pro Bono, and Public Interest Law certificates. During law school, he interned at numerous state agencies, served as a research assistant to Professor Richard Frank, was an active member of the Environmental Law Society, and was an editor of Environs. He was also a student co-chair of the Water Law Symposium in 2013.