The Natural Resources and Environmental Law Program Welcomes Professor Warigia Bowman
August 19, 2024
The School of Law’s Natural Resources and Environmental Law (NREL) Program is thrilled to welcome Professor Warigia Bowman. Professor Bowman is a nationally known expert in in water, natural resources, energy, public policy and regulatory issues. She joins UNM from the University of Tulsa College of Law. Her recent scholarship has focused on the impacts of Covid-19 and coal on the Navajo Nation, reforming the doctrinal concept of safe yield in western water law, and consumer willingness to pay for a resilient electrical grid, among other issues.
Professor Bowman also has deep roots in the state – she is a third generation New Mexican and her entire k-12 education was in New Mexico public schools.
"I am thrilled to return to my home state of New Mexico," said Professor Bowman "UNMSOL is embedded in a Research 1 University with the critical mission of educating the next generation of attorneys for this beautiful and culturally rich state. New Mexico faces a variety of environmental challenges including the need to carefully steward the state's waters in an era of climate change. I look forward to helping craft appropriate solutions for New Mexico's delicate and varied ecosystems."
"We are so fortunate to have Professor Bowman join UNM School of Law," said incoming NREL Program Director Gabe Pacyniak. "Our students and community will benefit tremendously from having Warigia’s breadth of expertise—which includes water law, natural resources, and energy—not to mention her personal connections and knowledge of New Mexico."
Professor Bowman earned her doctorate from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where she was the Hauser Fellow for Nonprofit Management, her Juris Doctorate with honors from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, and her undergraduate degree in history from Columbia College of Columbia University in New York, where she was the Harry S. Truman Scholar for Public Service. After law school she served as an Honors Trial Attorney at the US Department of Justice in the Environment and Natural Resources Division.
