Leading at the Frontlines: Burkett and Trautmann to Keynote Environmental Law Summit

Dr. Virginia Burkett, chief scientist emeritus at the United States Geological Survey, will serve as a keynote speaker at this year’s 31st Annual Tulane Environmental Law & Policy Summit. She joins Franziska Trautmann, co-founder and CEO of Glass Half Full, as one of two keynote speakers for the student-led event. 

A Mississippi native and long-time Louisiana resident, Burkett has led climate change research at both the state and federal levels for more than 50 years. At the U.S. Geological Survey, she served as chief scientist for Global Change Research and associate director for Climate and Land Use Change, guiding national efforts to better understand sea-level rise, land loss, and environmental transformation across vulnerable coastal regions. 

Her work has focused on wetlands, global change, and low-lying coastal systems. Over the course of her career, Burkett has been appointed to more than 70 commissions, committees, science panels, and boards, and has authored roughly 100 journal articles, book chapters, and reports. She previously served as secretary and director of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, bringing scientific expertise into state-level policy leadership. 

With a career dedicated to understanding and responding to environmental change, Burkett brings deep scientific insight and regional experience to this year’s program and to the broader conversations at the Summit. 

This year’s Summit, themed Frontlines of the Future, continues a three-decade tradition of student-led dialogue on environmental law and policy issues shaping the Gulf South and beyond, bringing together more than 40 speakers from across the legal, scientific, policy, nonprofit, and community sectors.

The Summit will take place March 5-7, 2026, at Tulane Law School. Learn more here.