Nadia B. Ahmad

Nadia B. Ahmad, J.D., LL.M., M.Phil., is a dynamic scholar, educator, entrepreneur, and global leader operating at the intersection of environmental science, law, technology, and social justice. She has pioneered cutting-edge solutions by leveraging advanced AI and geospatial technologies to tackle climate resilience and environmental justice challenges globally.

She is a tenured Professor of Law at Barry University School of Law where she focuses on environmental law, climate justice, and emerging technologies. At Barry Law, she serves as Coordinator of the Environmental & Earth Law Certificate Program and teaches property, energy law, and environmental regulation with her work situated at the convergence of legal scholarship, data science, human rights, and environmental governance. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in Environmental Studies at Yale University, where her dissertation, “The Emergence of Evacuation Science,” presents an interdisciplinary framework to enhance hurricane evacuation preparedness and risk communication through the integration of machine learning, early warning systems, and environmental data.

Professor Ahmad has written over 50 scholarly articles and book chapters addressing energy siting, sustainable development, carceral geographies, loss and damage, and environmental federalism. Her scholarship has appeared in journals including the Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum, Virginia Environmental Law Journal, University of Miami Law Review, William & Mary Environmental Law & Policy Review, Kansas Law Review, and Fordham Urban Law Journal. She also serves as co-editor of the Land Use and Environmental Law Review (Thomson Reuters) and co-author of Environmental Justice: Law, Policy & Regulation (Carolina Academic Press). She is an Affiliated Faculty Member of Harvard Law School's Institute for Global Law and Policy and Fellow at Rutgers Center for Security, Race and Rights. Earlier, she was a Visiting Associate Professor at Yale Law School and the inaugural Visiting Assistant Professor of Enviromental Law at Pace Law School. 

Professor Ahmad co-founded Mudder AI, a climate technology platform that leverages artificial intelligence, geospatial analytics, and public data to strengthen disaster response and optimize evacuation strategies, supported by Yale Ventures, Climate Haven, Yale Planetary Solutions, Google, AWS, Yale Center for Business and Environment, and NSF I-Corps. Through this venture, she works with emergency managers, municipalities, and community groups to operationalize predictive tools that democratize climate intelligence. 

Education 

UC Berkeley, BA, Comparative Literature

University of Florida, JD

University of Denver, LLM in Natural Resources and Environmental Law and Policy

Yale University, MPhil in Environmental Studies

Current Advisory and Board Positions

Committee of Scholars for the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum
Academic Advisory Group for the International Bar Association's Section on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Law
Board of the Sustainable Development Strategies Group
Official expert for the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation (INBAR) Taskforce on Bamboo for Renewable Energy
Executive Committee Member of Progressive Democrats of America's Florida chapter

Co-Chair of the Environmental Justice Task Force for the American Bar Association

International Recognition and Observership
Official observer for the American Bar Association to COP28 in Dubai (2023)
Official observer for the American Bar Association to World Justice Forum (2025)
Part of global coalition recognized with the United Nations Human Rights Prize for advocating the right to a healthy environment (2023)

Past Leadership Roles
Chair of the Younger Comparativists Committee's Linkages and Engagement Advisory Group of the American Society of Comparative Law
Chair of the Florida Bar's Media and Communications Law Committee
Board Member of the City and County of Denver's Human Rights and Community Partnerships Advisory Board

Elected member of the Democratic National Committee (2021-2025)
Co-chair of the DNC Interfaith Council

Awards
Orlando Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree
Orlando Style Magazine 2024 Women of the Year
Fellow of the American Bar Foundation (elected 2017)
Google Women Techmakers Ambassador (selected 2023)
Work supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation