Dr. Nicky Sheats, Esq.

Director, Center for the Urban Environment of the John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy, Thomas Edison State University

Dr. Nicky Sheats, Esq., is the director of the Center for the Urban Environment of the John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy at Thomas Edison State University and has defined the primary mission of the Center as providing support for the environmental justice (EJ) community.  Among the issues he works on are air pollution, climate change, cumulative impacts, developing EJ legal strategies and increasing the working capacity of the EJ community. 

Sheats was a founding member of the NJ EJ Alliance, EJ Leadership Forum, EJ and Science Initiative and an informal NE EJ Attorneys Group. He has been appointed to the NJ Clean Air Council, EPA’s Clean Air Act Advisory Committee and National EJ Advisory Council, and was a co-author of the human health chapter of the 2014 national climate assessment. Early in his career Sheats practiced law as a public interest attorney. He holds a B.A. from Princeton University and earned a Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences, J.D. and M.P.P. from Harvard University.