Lindi Widell

Lindi Mutius Widell is the founder and inaugural Director of the Center for Environmental Networks (CEN) and the architect of the annual Connections Summit. The Connections Summit brings together over a hundred leaders from the environmental movement from across the political, geographic, and programmatic spectrum. In addition to this annual convening, CEN sponsors virtual and regional meetings and provides expert resources to movement leaders.

Lindi is also a Visiting Professor of Law at Vermont Law & Graduate School, working with the Environmental Justice Clinic, coaching student clinicians, and handling cases related to waste, biofuels, and toxics, and the Class of 1946 Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies at Williams College, where she teaches “Toxics, Justice, and the Law.”

Previously, Lindi worked as the inaugural Director of the Harvard University Climate Action Accelerator, where she was the innovative mind behind Harvard Climate Action Week and Harvard@NYCW. At Harvard, Lindi also served as the Director of the Sustainability and Global Development Practice programs. She served as the Chief of Staff of the Sierra Club from 2017-2020, and has held executive management roles at the Trust for Public Land and the Environmental Defense Fund. Lindi began her legal career with Flaster/Greenberg and Fox Rothschild, and ran the government affairs team at the Representative of German Industry and Trade, a branch of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Action, in Washington, DC. She has represented clients from American Express, GEICO, and Porsche, to Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustees, the YWCA, teenagers in the juvenile justice system, sex workers, churches, family foundations, community groups in Camden, NJ, and she founded a pro-bono legal clinic in Lyons, NJ to serve homeless veterans. She began her environmental justice career working with the Association for the Protection of the Environment in Cairo, Egypt.

After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy, Lindi attended Williams College, graduating with honors in 2003. She earned her ALM in Environmental Management from Harvard University in 2005, magna cum laude, and graduated from Vermont Law School in 2008, earning the Excellence in Appellate Advocacy Award and the Black Law Students Distinguished Service Award. Lindi serves on the boards of Defend Our Health, The Summit Foundation, and the Trust for Public Land. In her free time, Lindi enjoys kayaking, winter sports, hiking, gardening, and, as her stepson says, “ tea, tacos, and dogs.”