Introduction to 2025 ELS Diversity and Inclusion Fellows

Every year, the Section grants a number of fellowships to bright and motivated law students to help finance their summer jobs practicing environmental, energy, land use, and/or natural resources law at a participating government agency or public interest organization. The Section also matches the Fellows with mentors who practice in the field, and provides webinars, career panels, get-togethers and more, so the Fellows can meet other section members and attorneys. And to cap it all off, the section invites Fellows to attend the Environmental Law Conference at Yosemite^® in October, with free conference registration. You can learn more about the fellowship and its sponsors on the Section website.  

In our July eNews, we profiled six of the Section’s 2025 Fellows. We are pleased to introduce the rest of our 2025 class of Fellows in this edition. Their profiles and photos are below. Please join us in congratulating these students on their academic and professional successes!

Raquel Olivia Acosta – UC Berkeley School of Law

Raquel grew up in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago and graduated from Michigan State University (MSU), where she received her degree in Social Relations and Policy with a minor in Science, Technology, Environment, and Public Policy and a minor in Peace and Justice Studies. Her background and personal experiences in agriculture and stewardship led her to explore the intersection of environmental advocacy and social justice, with a focus on the disproportionate impact of climate change on marginalized communities. In law school she has served as President of Women in Tech Law, Environmental Justice Organizer for Ecology Law Quarterly, student leader of the pro-bono Climate Migration and Displacement Project, and participates in the Disability Rights Project and various other public interest initiatives. Raquel is working this summer with Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment.

Dexter Lim (Dex) – UC Berkeley School of Law

Dex is a first-generation professional student at the UC Berkeley School of Law. Having lived in the Pacific Northwest and the Mojave Desert, Dex grew up surrounded by the diversity of nature and learned how communities rely on the health of their environment. In high school, Dex decided to pursue a legal career dedicated to environmental justice. Before attending law school, they co-founded grassroots environmental organizations in Nevada, taught K-12 environmental science, and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Nevada Las Vegas with a B.Sc. in earth and environmental science. Dex is currently working with Communities for a Better Environment and will continue community-focused legal work in their upcoming 2L year with the UC Berkeley Environmental Law Clinic, while also serving as an Environmental Justice Editor for Ecology Law Quarterly and Co-President of the Berkeley Law student government.

Maggie Masers – UC Irvine School of Law

Maggie is a rising 3L at the University of California Irvine School of Law. Maggie currently interns with Earthjustice as a summer law clerk for the California Regional Office. They received their bachelor’s degree in biology at the University of Washington and then spent five years tutoring students in Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Science. During law school, Maggie interned for the Health & Welfare clinic at the East Bay Community Law Center; finished as a semi-finalist for my school’s intramural Moot Court; put on events as part of the executive boards for both Environmental Law Society and Outlaw; and worked on various pro-bono projects for organizations like the ACLU, Center for Progressive Reform, and UCI’s Transgender Legal Assistance Clinic. Her passion for environmental law developed through seeing the visible impacts of corporate pollution as a lifelong Bay Area resident, and as a child of Vietnamese refugees who suffered the devastating impacts of  Agent Orange on her community.

Pamela Linares Gutierrez – UCLA School of Law

Pamela is a first-generation student at UCLA School of Law. She earned her Bachelor’s degree at UC Santa Barbara where she studied Environmental Studies and Chicana/o/x Studies. Pamela’s experiences before law school as a housing rights advocate solidified her interest in pursuing a legal education. At UCLA Law, she is involved in various organizations and programs such as the Environmental Law Society and the Public Interest Law and Policy program. She is committed to utilizing her education and lived experiences to help advance social equity and environmental protection. This summer, Pamela is working at the California Department of Justice’s DOJ’s Environmental Justice and Protection Section in Los Angeles.