Pete DeMarco graduated in 2014 with a JD from the Law School and a MS from the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) at the School of Earth Sciences. He focused on the connections between poverty, race, and environmental law. He will work as a Ford Fellow with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s litigation team in Washington, D.C., conducting impact litigation aimed at protecting public health and the environment.
After receiving his B.A. in Political Science from Furman University, Pete attended the University of Ghana at Legon on a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship. He researched agricultural policy and food security and received a MA in African Studies. He then moved to Charleston, South Carolina where he helped establish IES Labor Services, a social enterprise that empowers homeless and near-homeless workers through temporary employment. At Stanford, Pete was Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Stanford Environmental Law Journal and Co-Director of Curriculum for the Afghanistan Legal Education Project. He spent his summers at San Francisco Baykeeper and the Divisions of Natural Resources, Land Law, and Environment at the California Attorney General’s Office. He volunteered with the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, California Rural Legal Assistance, and Community Water Center. His E-IPER Capstone project helped Community Water Center identify the dairies and the dairy practices that pose the greatest threat of contaminating the drinking water of disadvantaged communities in the Tulare Lake Basin with nitrate.