The Stegner Center was thrilled this year to learn it was the recipient of a newly established donor-advised fund at the Chicago Community Trust. The ESRR Endowment Fund for the Wallace Stegner Center will provide approximately $50,000 annually in funding. “Establishment of the new ESSR Endowment Fund,” noted Stegner Center Director Bob Keiter, “represents an important vote of confidence in the Stegner Center and its expanded programming activities that will enhance our ability to address today’s pressing environmental issues.”
The Stegner Center, as one of the top-rated environmental law centers in the Western United States, is home to a talented group of faculty fully committed to shaping environmental policy through their extensive scholarship, service on NGO boards and advisory committees, and education of future attorneys. The Stegner Center, however, has always been committed to reaching beyond the confines of the College of Law to teach the general public through its annual symposium, conferences, lecture series, and green bag series. In recent years, with generous funding from the Alternative Visions Fund of the Chicago Community Trust and the AHE/CI Trust of The Northern Trust Company, among other donors, the Stegner Center has been able to expand its programs to now include an Environmental Dispute Resolution program and a Research Fellows program.
The ESRR Endowment Fund will help to stabilize funding for both of the EDR and Research Fellows programs as they continue to move toward greater self-sufficiency and to grow strategically. The endowment funds will also enable the Stegner Center to consider additional programs and opportunities to promote public knowledge and education in environmental and natural resources law and policy.