Elissa Torres-Soto

Elissa is a Staff Attorney interested in the relationship between pollution and human rights infringements. Prior to joining ELI, Elissa was the first-ever legal policy fellow at Maryland Sea Grant where she worked in close partnership with the Agriculture Law Education Initiative researching issues related to aquaculture, ocean and coastal law, coastal farming and climate resilience. She graduated from an LL.M. degree in Environmental and Energy Law from Georgetown University Law Center. During her LL.M she focused on deepening her knowledge on the accountability mechanisms for human rights infringements caused by transboundary pollution in the Inter-American region.

She interned in the Inter-American Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA) where she researched existing legal mechanisms that could help minimize the environmental impacts of gold mining in the Bolivian Amazon and coal mining in Colombia. She obtained a JD from the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico and she is admitted to practice law in Puerto Rico.