Susan L. Stephens is a Shareholder in the Tallahassee, Florida office of Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson, in its Land Development, Zoning & Environmental and Administrative Law Groups. She focuses on complex land development matters and issues of environmental and administrative law, including rulemaking practice and procedure and administrative litigation. She is board certified by the Florida Bar in State and Federal Government and Administrative Practice. She has represented clients before various federal, state, regional, and local environmental agencies in connection with obtaining, and defending administrative challenges to, proposed and final environmental permits for regulated activities, and in various rulemaking and policy development initiatives, with a special focus on wetlands, stormwater management, and state and federal listed wildlife issues. She also represents clients on compliance and enforcement matters associated with environmental permits and regulated industrial and commercial activities. Susan has served in leadership roles on various SEER committees, including Sponsorship, Marketing, Endangered Species (now Biodiversity), and Water Quality & Wetlands. She has also served on the SEER Trends editorial board and the SEER Executive Council. Susan graduated from the Florida State University College of Law in 1993 with highest honors and is a member of the Florida Bar. In her free time, Susan likes to enjoy the outdoors, hike, travel, read, and watch old movies. Kim Diana Connolly is a Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Advocacy and Experiential Learning at SUNY-University at Buffalo School of Law (previously she was faculty at the University of South Carolina School of Law). Professor Connolly received her undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Morehead Scholar. She received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1993. Before joining the law faculty in 1999, Professor Connolly worked at a number of Washington, D.C. law firms specializing in environmental law. Prior to law school, Professor Connolly was the director of the North Carolina Rural Communities Assistance Project, Inc., and also served as a VISTA Volunteer. Professor Connolly directs the Environmental Advocacy Clinic, and teaches a variety of other courses. Her areas of academic interest include natural resources and public lands law, access to justice, and restorative practices...and her scholarly works have appeared in a number of journals and other publications. She speaks regularly at national and international conferences (many on Zoom these days!). Sarah P. Jarboe is an experienced environmental attorney practicing at English Lucas Priest & Owsley, LLP. She represents clients on environmental matters, including Clean Water Act Section 404, NPDES permitting, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Clean Air Act, and Superfund. Her practice includes environmental permitting, enforcement matters, regulatory interpretation, environmental litigation, and negotiations with federal and state agencies. Ms. Jarboe has worked on many “waters of the U.S.” (WOTUS) matters, often joining consultants in the field to collaborate on the legal aspects of wetlands delineations and jurisdictional determinations. She currently serves as co-counsel in litigation challenging EPA’s WOTUS rule, and she co-authored Chapter 22, Wetlands Considerations in Real Estate Transactions, in the American Bar Association’s (ABA) fifth edition of Environmental Aspects of Real Estate and Commercial Transactions: Acquisition, Development, and Liability Management. Ms. Jarboe is an active ABA member, participating in the Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources’ (SEER’s) Leadership Development Program (2014–2015) and serving on SEER’s 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022, and 2024 Fall Conference Planning Committees. Ms. Jarboe graduated from Vanderbilt University Law School, where she was managing editor of the Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review Journal. Before joining ELPO, she served as a law clerk for Kentucky’s Supreme Court Chief Justice.
