Joseph MacDougald

CIRCA Director of Applied Research | Professor-in-Residence

School of Law

Expertise: environmental law and policy, land use regulations and policy

Joseph A. MacDougald was appointed professor-in-residence and the executive director of UConn Law’s Center for Energy and Environmental Law (CEEL) in 2011, after serving as an adjunct professor for several years and as a visiting scholar in the fall of 2009. He regularly teaches Land Use, Climate Law, and Renewable Energy Law, as well as instructs and oversees the work of students in CEEL’s externship clinic.

Professor MacDougald, a 1996 graduate of UConn Law, holds a B.A. from Brown University, an M.B.A. from NYU, and a master’s degree in environmental management from Yale University’s School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, where he divided his coursework between policy classes in the forestry program and environmental law offerings at Yale Law School. Prior to pursuing a fulltime teaching career Professor MacDougald spent twenty years in private industry, serving as general counsel, CEO, president, board member, and ownership group representative of an international biomaterials company that, under his direction, was sold to a Fortune 500 company in 2009.

A longtime resident of Madison (CT), Professor MacDougald, who researches, writes and lectures in the fields of environmental law, energy law, constitutional law and land use law, served for more than ten years on Madison’s Planning and Zoning Commission, including six years as its chairman. Currently, he serves as a town selectman and a member of the board of the Madison Land Conservation Trust. Professor MacDougald also has served as a board member or volunteer for numerous other non-profit institutions. Most recently, he was appointed to the board of the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority.