Sharmila L. Murthy
About Sharmila L. Murthy
Sharmila L. Murthy serves as Director for Environmental Justice at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). Previously, she served as Senior Counsel at CEQ, where she supported CEQ’s work to advance the Biden-Harris Administration’s environmental justice agenda. Sharmila is currently on leave from Northeastern University, where she is a Professor of Law and Public Policy. Previously, Sharmila was a Professor of Law and Director of Faculty Scholarship and Research at Suffolk University Law School (on leave in 2021/2022 to serve at CEQ). Sharmila is an award-winning scholar, teacher, mentor, and leader. Her scholarship focuses on examining legal barriers to achieving environmental justice, improving access to water, and addressing climate change. She was named the 2021 Haub Environmental Law Distinguished Junior Scholar by the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University and also received the Charles P. Kindregan Scholarship Award from Suffolk University Law School in 2022. She has been recognized with three different teaching awards from Suffolk University, and received several awards for her mentorship of students, including being named Faculty Advisor of the Year by the American Constitution Society (ACS) in 2021. She also served as chair of the Environmental Law Section of the American Association of Law Schools, which received the Section of the Year Award in 2019 under her direction. Previously, Murthy was a visiting scholar and fellow at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she co-founded the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation Program at Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. In 2014, she was selected as a finalist for the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation. Murthy began her legal career as a public interest poverty lawyer. She was awarded a Skadden Fellowship to work with the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, where she received the New Advocate of the Year award from the Tennessee Alliance of Legal Services. Murthy also litigated complex and class action cases as an associate with Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein. She has also served on the boards of numerous non-profit groups. Murthy received her JD from Harvard Law School, her MPA from Harvard Kennedy School of Government and her BS in natural resources from Cornell University. She clerked for the Honorable Martha Craig Daughtrey on the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and was also a US Fulbright Scholar in India.