Carlton Waterhouse

Carlton Waterhouse is an international expert on environmental law and environmental justice, as well as reparations and redress for historic injustices. He has lectured globally on climate justice and group-based inequality. In 2019, he testified before the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States, and in 2018 he completed a Fulbright research fellowship in Brazil examining race and police violence. After completing law school, Dr. Waterhouse began his career as an attorney with the United States Environmental Protection Agency where he served in the Office of Regional Counsel in Atlanta, Georgia and the Office of General Counsel in Washington, D.C. While at the EPA, he served as the chief legal counsel for the agency in several significant cases and as a national and regional expert on environmental justice, earning three of the Agency’s prestigious national awards. Dr. Waterhouse earned a Ph.D. in Social Ethics from Emory University. He is also a graduate of the Howard University School of Law, the Candler School of Divinity and the Pennsylvania State University. He is currently on a leave of absence from the Howard University School of Law where he serves as a Professor of Law and as the inaugural director the school’s Environmental Justice Center which is under development. Before joining the Howard University faculty in 2019, he served as a Professor of Law at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law where he directed the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Law Program. Drawing from his unique background, Dr. Waterhouse examines civil rights, human rights, and environmental issues from a multidisciplinary approach. He actively participates in national, local, and international organizations protecting civil rights and addressing environmental issues. In February 2021, he was appointed to serve in the Biden-Harris Administration as the Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Land and Emergency Management at the EPA.