Madison Kiefer-Green ‘27 and Desiree Valiante ‘27 are the first McGeorge students in nearly 20 years to receive the Diversity and Inclusion Fellowship. 

Two University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law students were selected to participate in the Diversity and Inclusion Fellowship, sponsored by the Environmental Law Section (ELS) of the California Lawyers Association (CLA). Through the fellowship, the students will complete an 8–10-week placement with public agencies or nonprofit organizations. The fellowship also provides stipend (up to an $8,000 in 2026), mentorship, membership in ELS, networking, and access to ELS’s annual Environmental Law Conference at Yosemite.®

Madison Kiefer-Green ‘27 and Desiree Valiante ‘27 were awarded the ELS Diversity & Inclusion Fellowship for summer 2026. They join alumnus Joshua Roberts ’09, who received the fellowship in 2007, as part of a distinguished group of McGeorge students selected for the fellowship since its inception in 2005. This program supports students pursuing careers in environmental law by pairing students from diverse backgrounds with government agencies and public interest organizations in California.

“I’m deeply honored to have been selected for this environmental law fellowship, and I am proud to represent McGeorge in the program for the first time,” Kiefer-Green said. “I’m even more excited to share this opportunity with one of my closest friends and colleagues. It’s a meaningful chance to advance work I care deeply about while learning from leaders in the field, and I’m especially grateful for Professor [Jennifer] Harder’s unwavering mentorship.”

The ELS of the CLA is a leading statewide community of attorneys, policymakers, and scholars focused on environmental, energy, land use, and natural resource law.

"This fellowship is genuinely life-changing,” Valiante said. “I’m thrilled to experience this with Madison. We bonded through 1L, becoming great friends. I truly believe that Professor Harder’s guidance and mentorship allow me to flourish into opportunities like this."

The CLA created the Fellowship back in 2006 and, in 2022, began to publish articles regarding the recipients' fellowships in its biannual publication, Environmental Law News. Kiefer-Green and Valiante will be featured post-fellowship in an issue tentatively slated for publication in January/February of 2027.

McGeorge Professor Jennifer Harder teaches courses in water, environmental, and administrative law. She also serves as the Co-Director of McGeorge’s Water & Environmental Law Concentration and as McGeorge’s Faculty Director for Online Learning.

“I am thrilled to see McGeorge students Desiree and Madison recognized by the ELS Fellowship program, a highly competitive statewide honor,” Harder said. “They are thoughtful, committed advocates for justice with a strong understanding of the complexities of law and governance. Their selection reflects exceptional talent and hard work, and I am proud to see them represent McGeorge as 2026 ELS Fellows.”

Harder has been affiliated with ELS's Executive Committee for the last eight years, with seven of those years also spent serving Editor-in-Chief of ELS’s Environmental Law News. Due to time conflicts the last few years, Harder has had to drop out of deliberations over fellowship selections so the news of Kiefer-Green and Valiante’s selection was “100% a surprise — a really amazing surprise.”

McGeorge offers a concentration in water and environmental law for the JD, LLM, MPP, and MSL degrees, giving students opportunities to become experts across all levels of natural resources law and policy. McGeorge also offers a student-run organization, Water Law Society, that seeks to interest students in water resources law and connect them to professionals in the field.