Aleja Cretcher

Aleja Maria Cretcher saw first hand, the effects of environmental harm on the health of her family members, and decided to attend law school to gain the tools necessary to combat systems that subjugate the most vulnerable. She is passionate about creating a world where communities are empowered to envision proactive and transformative change for themselves and their future generations. In law school, she externed with the Community Partnerships team at Earthjustice and spent her summers interning with Communities for a Better Environment and the Natural Resources Defense Council. She also served as the Environmental Justice Chair for the Environmental Law Society and as the Co-Symposium Editor for the school’s Law Review, where she planned a 2-day legal symposium that platformed tribal sovereignty. Aleja is pursuing a career in environmental justice law in which she plans to use environmental and civil rights laws to promote health protections for environmental justice communities in California. More specifically, she hopes to transform former oil fields located in environmental justice communities into community land trusts for the development of parks, community centers, and affordable housing. Aleja is a 3L at the UCLA School of Law where she is specializing in Critical Race Studies and Environmental Law.