Our Team

Patrick DeArmey, Chesapeake Legal Alliance
Patrick DeArmeyPatrick DeArmey is a Staff Attorney at the Chesapeake Legal Alliance. Patrick joined CLA in January 2020. At CLA Patrick predominately works on matters involving water quality and water resource protection and water permitting. He also represents clients in litigation and conducts pollution investigations and compliance sweeps. As a CLA staff attorney, he brings experience with the Clean Water Act, administrative law, and environmental permitting. Prior to CLA, Patrick was an attorney with the Environmental Action Center for three years.

Brian Gumm, Center for Progressive Reform
Brian GummBrian Gumm is the Communications Director at the Center for Progressive Reform. Prior to joining CPR in March 2016, he spent nearly a decade in several roles at the Center for Effective Government. Brian's previous public interest experience includes time with the Alliance for Healthy Homes, American Farmland Trust, and the Center on Wisconsin Strategy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has been quoted by a number of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal and The Dallas Morning News, and his work has appeared in several publications.

Angela Haren, Chesapeake Legal Alliance
angela harenAngela Haren is the Director of Legal Innovation at the Chesapeake Legal Alliance. She joined CLA in October, 2019. Angela applies her extensive experience in law, public policy, and coalition building to develop unique, innovative strategies with partners and communities to address the worst sources of Bay pollution. Angela also provides assistance to clients through CLA's Direct Client Services Program and leads training sessions through CLA's Community Legal Education Program. As an environmental and natural resource attorney, Angela has focused her career on the intersection of land, freshwater, and marine resource protection. Prior to joining CLA, Angela was the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper and directed advocacy, enforcement, and water quality monitoring programs to protect and restore Baltimore's waterways.

Evan Isaacson, Chesapeake Legal Alliance
evan isaacsonEvan Isaacson is the Director of Policy and Research at the Chesapeake Legal Alliance. As Director of Policy and Research, Evan helps provide strategic insight to CLA staff and volunteer attorneys based on legal, policy, and data-driven research and analysis. Evan also provides legal assistance to Maryland clients through CLA's Direct Client Services Program. Prior to joining CLA, Evan was the Chesapeake Bay Policy Analyst at the Center for Progressive Reform where he advocated for rigorous implementation of the Chesapeake Bay cleanup plans and effective enforcement of the Clean Water Act. Before that Evan served as a senior analyst for the Maryland Department of Legislative Services, where he provided nonpartisan advice and support on environmental law and policy issues, including bill drafting, fiscal analysis, and regulatory oversight.

Taylor Lilley, Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Taylor Lilley is the Environmental Justice Staff Attorney at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Taylor works to develop litigation to address disproportionate environmental impacts on vulnerable and marginalized communities. As part of this work, Taylor works with departments across CBF to develop relationships with community leaders and grassroots organizers throughout the watershed. Taylor is an active member of the District of Columbia Bar.

Jon Mueller, Chesapeake Bay Foundation
jon muellerJon Mueller is the Vice President for Litigation and the Richard T. Pelham Chair for Litigation at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Jon served as the first director when the department originated in 2004 and has served as vice president since 2007. Jon handles both administrative and judicial matters, manages the department's five attorneys, and assists in the management of the organization. He also has written environmental articles for legal publications and speaks at environmental conferences. He teaches a seminar on the Clean Water Act as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland King Carey School of Law.

Doug Myers, Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Doug Myers is the Maryland Senior Scientist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, where he’s served since 2013. He reviews and advises on policies affecting the health of Chesapeake Bay’s waters and species especially from the agriculture, urban stormwater, and navigational dredging sectors. He has spent his career in diverse fields and locations such as fisheries and marine mammal biology in the Bering Sea, environmental education and coastal resource management on the Texas Gulf Coast, and wetlands policy and coastal habitat restoration in Puget Sound for forage fish species, salmon, and endangered Southern Resident orcas.

Tom Pelton, Environmental Integrity Project
Tom PeltonTom Pelton is the Director of Communications and the Center for Environmental Investigations at the Environmental Integrity Project. He joined EIP in 2014 after working as a journalist for The Baltimore Sun, where he was twice named one of the best environmental reporters in America by the Society of Environmental Journalists. He is author of the book, The Chesapeake in Focus: Transforming the Natural World, published by Johns Hopkins University Press. He hosts the weekly public radio program and podcast, The Environment in Focus.

David Reed, Chesapeake Legal Alliance
david reedDavid Reed is Co-Executive Director of the Chesapeake Legal Alliance and the Director of CLA's Advocacy Center. Dave has been with CLA since 2020 and was previously the Executive Director at the Environmental Action Center prior to its merger with CLA. During 2020, Dave has brought the Environmental Action Center's analytical and environmental advocacy centered approach to representing clients. Combining an environmental science and legal background, Dave provides our clients and partners with both environmental law experience and knowledge of terrestrial and estuarine ecological systems. Prior to joining CLA and his tenure with the Environmental Action Center, Dave worked in private practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, including environmental consulting within the Bay region. 

Kristin Reilly, Choose Clean Water Coalition
kristin reillyKristin Reilly is the Director of the Choose Clean Water Coalition. Born and raised in Maryland, her passion for clean water started at an early age. As Director, Kristin strategically advances the Coalition's work to restore and protect local rivers, streams, and the Chesapeake Bay by leading the coordination of more than 250 member organizations across the watershed. By working to create a collective voice for the watershed, Kristin helps to build the communications and advocacy capacity of Coalition members to create change. She joined the Choose Clean Water Coalition in 2016, previously serving as the Coalition's Communications Director.

Abel Russ, Environmental Integrity Project
abel russAbel Russ is a Senior Attorney at the Environmental Integrity Project. Abel works on litigation and research related to coal ash, agricultural sources of water pollution, and risk assessment. He joined EIP in 2010 after graduating from Vermont Law School, where he served as an editor of the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law and as a clinician with the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic. Prior to law school, Abel worked in the field of human health risk assessment as a research associate and as a toxicologist.

Katlyn Schmitt, Center for Progressive Reform
katlyn schmittKatlyn Schmitt is a consultant at the Center for Progressive Reform. She joined CPR in 2020 to work on environmental policy, enforcement, and advocacy. Before joining CPR, Katlyn spent four years working as the Legal and Policy Director for Waterkeepers Chesapeake, where she provided legal assistance to Waterkeepers and advocated for legislative and regulatory priorities in Maryland, D.C., Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

Paul Smail, Chesapeake Bay Foundation
paul smailPaul Smail is the Director of Litigation at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Paul's responsibilities include developing and prosecuting cases and appeals pertaining to land use, wetlands, and discharge permits. He has more than a decade of experience working on a variety of Maryland environmental law and land use matters, both with CBF and in private practice. Prior to earning his law degree, Paul worked for state and federal environmental agencies and was a faculty research assistant for Dr. Walter Boynton at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons, Maryland, in the study of estuarine ecosystem ecology.

Ariel Solaski, Chesapeake Bay Foundation
ariel solaskiAriel Solaski is a Staff Litigation Attorney with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. She works to reduce air and water pollution that harms environmental and human health throughout the Bay watershed. Ariel represents CBF in federal and state rulemakings and litigation on issues including nitrogen oxide and ozone pollution, tailpipe emission standards for cars and trucks, mercury and air toxics from power plants, water quality certification for hydropower dams and natural gas pipelines, and water pollution permitting. Ariel is licensed in New York and the District of Columbia.

Amanda Van Houten, Chesapeake Bay Foundation 
Amanda Van Houten serves as paralegal for the Litigation Department and Executive Assistance to the Vice President for Litigation at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. She works closely with all Litigation staff attorneys and serves as a liaison with other CBF departments. Amanda provides paralegal support, serves as financial manager, and oversees the daily operations of the department. Prior to joining the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in 2013, Amanda worked as a senior paralegal in private practice for law firms in Ellicott City and Baltimore City, Maryland.

Brittany Wright, Chesapeake Bay Foundation
brittany wrightBrittany Wright is a Staff Litigation Attorney at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. She is a licensed Maryland attorney, specializing in environmental law. At CBF, Brittany has worked on a variety of cases and projects across state and federal issues, including climate change, federal rollbacks of greenhouse gas emission regulations, offshore drilling, and hydropower dam water quality certifications. Brittany's recent cases include challenging the repeal of the Clean Power Plan and litigating the regulatory changes to the definition of "Waters of the United States" under the Clean Water Act.