Professor Banner studies water resources, climate change and environmental justice. This research combines geoscience and chemistry to examine streams, aquifers, caves, and tree rings, and it takes him to Barbados, Guam, and Texas among other places. Professor Banner is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, a member of UT’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers, and currently is a finalist for the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching, which is the largest teaching prize in the country.

Mr. Burns is a member of the firm’s Energy, Environmental and Natural Resources Section, and he focuses his practice on environmental law and its intersections with natural resources, development, construction, commercial transactions, litigation, manufacturing, and waste. In his construction practice, he provides counsel regarding the financing, development and construction of construction projects, including related construction, design, engineering and architectural agreements, and concerning the purchase, remediation, construction and development of brownfields and “green” buildings. Mr. Burns holds two engineering degrees and is certified as an accredited professional under the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standard issued by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Becky Johnson P.G. – Chair of the Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists
Ms. Johnson is a board certified professional geoscientist and geologist, an environmental science professor at Texas Christian University, and consultant/trainer with more than 26 years of experience. She is a founding member of the Society of Texas Environmental Professionals Sustainability Chapter, and a volunteer with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality EnviroMentor Program. She served for the last 10 years as past president/officer of Society of Texas Environmental Professionals. Ms. Johnson received a bachelor’s degree in Geology from the University of Texas at Arlington and a master’s degree in Environmental Science and Hydrogeology from Texas Christian University. 

Ms. Lathrop is licensed as a professional land surveyor in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, and as a professional planner in New Jersey. She holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and has been involved in surveying since 1974 in projects ranging from construction to boundary to environmental land use disputes. Ms. Lathrop is also a certified floodplain manager through the Association of State Flood Plain Managers (ASFPM) and a Certified Floodplain Surveyor through the New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors. A former adjunct instructor at Mercer County College in New Jersey, she has also taught as part of the team for the licensing exam review course at Drexel University in Pennsylvania. Ms. Lathrop has been teaching seminars for surveyors since 1986 and has been writing articles for surveyors since 1983. She is a contributing editor for The American Surveyor magazine, and she has four articles included in the American Bar Association’s text, Land Surveys: A Guide for Lawyers and Other Professionals. She and Stephen V. Estopinal, PLS, PE co–authored a book titled Professional Surveyors and Real Property Descriptions: Composition, Construction, and Comprehension, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in 2011. She is also on the faculty of GeoLearn, a web-based educational provider. Ms. Lathrop is a past president of the New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors and of the National Society of Professional Surveyors, and she has served on the Board of Directors for the American Association for Geodetic Surveying.

Charles “Charlie” Werth – Professor and Bettie Margaret Smith Chair in Environmental Health Engineering University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Charles J. Werth is a Professor & Bettie Margaret Smith Chair of Environmental Health Engineering in the Department of Civil, Architecture and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He joined the UT faculty in August of 2014, after spending 17 years on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Werth’s research and teaching focus on the fate and transport of pollutants in the environment, the development of innovative catalytic technologies for drinking water treatment, and the mitigation of environmental impacts associated with energy production and generation. He is presently the Principal Investigator of an NSF NRT on “Reducing Energy Barriers for Novel Water Supply Use in Sustainable Agriculture”, as well as on other NSF, DOD and DOE grants.