Fall 2009 Meyerhoff Visiting Professor: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

November 11, 2009 |

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — a staunch preservation advocate who is widely recognized as the country’s most prominent environmental attorney — will come to Goucher College on Wednesday, November 11, at 8 p.m. in Kraushaar Auditorium to discuss "Our Environmental Destiny: How to Get There in Troubled Economic Times."

Kennedy is appearing as Goucher’s Fall 2009 Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Visiting Professor. This event is free and open to the public, but tickets must reserved in advance by calling the Goucher College Box Office at 410-337-6333 or by e-mailing boxoffice@goucher.edu. There will be a book signing following the lecture; books will be available for purchase.

Time magazine named Kennedy one of its “Heroes for the Planet” in 1999 for his work as chief prosecuting attorney for Hudson Riverkeeper, a nonprofit group that works to protect the ecological integrity of the Hudson River and its tributaries.

In 1999 he helped co-found the Waterkeeper Alliance, which united “keepers” of various waterways to form a global movement of on-the-water advocates who patrol and protect more than 100,000 miles of rivers, streams, and coastlines. It has nearly 200 participating member organizations and is one of the fastest-growing grassroots environmental movements in the world, spanning six continents — North and South America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa.

His biggest successes as a legal advocate for the environment include assisting several indigenous tribes in Latin America and Canada in negotiating treaties to protect their  traditional homelands and leading the fight to protect New York City’s water supply. The New York City watershed agreement, which he negotiated on behalf of environmentalists and New York City watershed consumers, is regarded as an international model in stakeholder consensus negotiations and sustainable development.

Kennedy is also a clinical professor and supervising attorney at Pace University School of Law’s Environmental Litigation Clinic and is co-host of Ring of Fire, a nationally syndicated weekly program on Air America Radio that focuses on progressive democratic politics.

He has helped carry on his family’s political legacy by serving as assistant district attorney in New York City early in his career and by working on several political campaigns, including the presidential bids by Edward M. Kennedy in 1980, Al Gore in 2000, and John Kerry in 2004.

Kennedy is the author of the New York Times’ bestseller Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy (2004), St. Francis of Assisi: A Life of Joy (2005), The Riverkeepers: Two Activists Fight to Reclaim Our Environment as a Basic Human Right (1997), and Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr.: A Biography (1977). His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Nation, Outside Magazine, The Village Voice, and many other publications. His award-winning articles have been included in anthologies of America’s Best Crime Writing, Best Political Writing, and Best Science Writing.

Kennedy is a graduate of Harvard University. He studied at the London School of Economics and received his law degree from the University of Virginia Law School. Following graduation he attended Pace University School of Law, where he was awarded a master’s degree in environmental law.

The Jane and Robert Meyerhoff Visiting Professorship was created to bring distinguished scholars, teachers, and practitioners to Goucher’s campus to advance local and national dialogues on pressing issues of our time. Previous speakers have included Thomas L. Friedman, the three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and world-renowned author, and Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai, the Kenyan environmental and political activist who, in 2004, became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.