The Wyss Scholars Program

Terra Baer is a J.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where she is the Student Director of the Yale Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic, co-president of the Yale Environmental Law Association, and a LEAP Fellow, among other roles. She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with honors from the University of Chicago with bachelor’s in environmental and urban studies and law, letters, and society. Before law school, Terra worked in legal academia researching extractive energy market regulation and design to inform the US energy sector's climate and land use policy, focusing primarily on coal mining and reclamation.

Recognizing that reclaiming abandoned mine lands requires more than ecological restoration, Terra is committed to using the law for accountability and renewal. She is particularly interested in strengthening policies that hold corporations responsible for the environmental damage they leave behind, securing funding for large-scale land reclamation projects, and ensuring that communities historically dependent on extractive industries are not left behind during the clean energy transition. As a law student, she is focused on developing legal strategies that bridge environmental protection and social justice frameworks, advocating for policies that restore degraded landscapes while creating sustainable economic opportunities for affected communities.