Master of Environmental Studies

MES candidate Greg Kelder was named Dean's Scholar this year for his impressive achievements in the MES program. An insurance lawyer working in environmental litigation for the last two decades, his concentration is in environmental policy; he will receive his MES degree later this year.

"I'd been keeping my eye on the MES program and finally began it 20 years out of law school," he says. "It's been wonderful and I've been getting a different appreciation for environmental issues. The insurance industry has been at the forefront of pollution risk assessment for years, but I wanted to get on the other side of pollution and learn about ways of preventing it before it happens. MES is a remarkable program. I've enjoyed every single course I've taken, and it's really been an enlightening and fascinating experience."

In addition to his excellent course work, Greg has gone above and beyond in contributions both to this master's program and to the field of environmental studies.

In the Spring of 2008, Greg and another student accompanied MES lecturer and adviser Stan Laskowski as representatives of Penn and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on a trip to Jordan to help train officials from nations from North Africa and the Middle East on institutional capacity building as it relates to environmental work. Greg led his own session at this meeting. "Government leaders, representatives of NGOs, and business leaders from around the world gathered to focus on solving the world's water crisis," he says. "It was an amazing experience." 

Last August, Greg attended the 2008 World Water Week Conference in Stockholm, Sweden with a group of Penn students. This week-long event was attended by several thousand water experts from around the world. While at the conference, Greg participated in discussions related to water policy and regulation.

In January of 2009, Greg was chosen by the Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership to be one of only three non-MBA students to participate in the Wharton Antarctica Leadership Venture. (See "MES Students Go to the Ends of the Earth" elsewhere in this newsletter.) 

He has also been instrumental in helping to develop fundraising and legal help for the Philadelphia Global Water Initiative. This enterprise brings together groups from the Philadelphia region who work on water-related problems and policy locally and worldwide. "Without Greg's help," comments Dr. Bordeaux, "many of PGWI's recent initiatives would not have occurred."