LSU G&A alum to lead Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy
Chris Dalbom (LSU G&A M.A. 2006) has been named the Director of the Tulane University Water Resources Law and Policy Institute.
A native of Kansas who received his undergraduate degree at the University of Kansas, Dalbom moved to Louisiana to attend graduate school at LSU – the plan was that he would teach geography someday. He reconsidered that idea even as he navigated the culture shock that is southeastern Louisiana.
“It was culture shock until I came to understand south Louisiana as an extension of the Caribbean,” Dalbom said.
He studied cultural geography with Dydia DeLyser and learned he wanted to do more applied work, which led him to El Salvador through the Peace Corps where he was a youth development volunteer and rediscovered his passion for environmental work.
“I loved geography because it felt like a discipline of study that touched on every aspect of life,” said Dalbom. “I feel lucky that I’ve found that again, not only with law and policy but also with water. Water, and how we interact with it, determines everything that is possible today and everything that is going to be possible tomorrow. From our very survival to a just energy transition to every good and service that makes life easier, water law and policy have a huge role to play. The more we pay attention to it and understand how it can be best stewarded, the less calamitous our future can look.”
After graduation from Tulane Law School in 2012, he became a postgraduate research fellow and later a program manager there. In 2018, he was tapped to become Assistant Director, working under the leadership of Professor Mark Davis, a nationally-recognized researcher in water law, whom he is succeeding as Director.
All the while, Dalbom has been teaching, mentoring and creating spaces for students and others to follow their passion at the intersection of environmental issues and the law.
“I’ve been lucky to have my work combine my passions of serving my adopted home of Louisiana and other similarly situated places and of teaching and creating spaces for others to exercise similar passions, problem-solving, and innovation,” said Dalbom, who also serves as Assistant Director of the Tulane Center for Environmental Law and the Deputy Faculty Director of the Law School’s online Master of Jurisprudence programs in Environmental and Energy Law.
You can read more in the Tulane University article Law alum, professor to lead Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy.