Chandra T. Taylor-Sawyer

Chandra is a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center and leader of its Environmental Justice Initiative. She works in the Southeast with SELC staff and partners to help alleviate the disproportionate burden of environmental harm on communities of color.

Chandra’s background includes water quality advocacy, water resource planning, inter-basin transfer permitting monitoring, stormwater permit monitoring, natural resources restoration planning, waste site clean-up, and advocating for better industrial hog operation regulations. She serves on SELC’s Management Committee, co-chairs the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, and has taught Environmental Justice, Law, Policy, and Regulation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.

Chandra holds a B.A. in Political Science and her J.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill, and is from Kinston, North Carolina. She enjoys gardening, travel, and outdoor activities with family and friends.