Abre' Conner

Abre' Conner, Esq., is a civil rights attorney and the director of the Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at the NAACP, where she serves on the organization's senior leadership team. In this role, Conner oversees strategy and collaboration across the NAACP to address environmental racism, applying a civil rights perspective to the disproportionate environmental burdens faced by Black communities. She is recognized nationally for her work on water infrastructure, fossil fuel dependence, and the environmental and community impacts of artificial intelligence data centers. Conner leads the NAACP's "Stop Dirty Data" campaign and developed the "Frontline Framework" to guide advocacy around data center development across the United States.

Conner's career is rooted in public interest law and racial justice. She previously served as directing attorney of health at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, leading litigation and advocacy on health equity for historically excluded communities. Earlier, she was a staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, focusing on civil rights and environmental justice for residents of the Central Valley and rural communities of color. Conner also worked at the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment in Delano, California, advocating alongside migrant farmworkers, and served as an associate in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. Her early career included positions at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights.

At the NAACP, Conner has guided the organization in addressing major environmental justice issues. She testified before Congress during the Jackson, Mississippi, water crisis and helped lead advocacy efforts that contributed to the deployment of $600 million in federal aid for the city's water infrastructure. Conner filed a federal discrimination complaint on behalf of Jackson residents, prompting the Environmental Protection Agency to open a civil rights investigation into the state's response. Her campaigns, including "Make Polluters Pay" and efforts to end fossil fuel dependence, support state and federal policy reforms on clean transit, water infrastructure, and disaster resiliency.

Beyond her work at the NAACP, Conner holds leadership positions in the legal and environmental sectors. She serves on the American Bar Association Board of Governors and Earthjustice Board of Trustees, and was appointed to the Environmental Protection Agency's HBCU-MSI Advisory Council. As the elected assembly speaker for the ABA Young Lawyers Division, Conner led the adoption of a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis, which became official ABA policy. She is also a faculty member in the Environmental Policy and Management Program at the University of California, Davis. Conner is a graduate of American University Washington College of Law and the University of Florida. She has been named to TIME's "The Closers" list, recognized as a Top 40 Under 40 Nation's Best Advocate by the National Bar Association, and named a Top 40 On the Rise Attorney by the ABA Young Lawyers Division. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Essence, Cosmopolitan, and American Bar Association Journal.