Directory Profile

Nicole Civita, JD, LL.M. is Sterling College’s Vice President for Strategic Initiatives in Craftsbury Common, Vermont. Her approach to the study of food is grounded in systems thinking and ethics, attentive to relationships of care and reciprocity, and framed by comprehensive law and policy knowledge. At Sterling, Nicole is leading implementation efforts on the College's ambitious 10 year strategic initiative which seeks to make paradigm-shifting and practical educational opportunities in ecological thinking and action inclusive, accessible and affordable while dismantling racism and bias in and through environmental education and agri-food systems change. She is also directing EcoGather, a collaborative learning network dedicated to the vitality and wellbeing of ecosystems, communities, and economies that partners.

Nicole previously served as the Sustainable Food Systems Specialization Lead in the Masters of the Environment professional graduate program at the University of Colorado Boulder and founded Project Protect Food Systems, a diverse coalition of immigrants, farmers, scholars, activists, unions, public health officials, and workers across Colorado to advocate for justice for food system workers and reduce agricultural exceptionalism in agricultural labor law. She has also served as a research scholar and adjunct professor with the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and its Global Food Ethics and Policy Program.

Nicole joined us in the LL.M. Program first as a student. She left her position as an associate attorney with Hogan Lovells in Los Angeles and New York to pursue her passion for our food system, and after completing her LL.M. degree, she stayed with us as a visiting professor. She helped to design our distance education initiative and our expanded curriculum, creating a number of our classes and helping us chart our way into the future of food law and policy. She led our Food Recovery Project and authored the widely circulated publication, Food Recovery: A Legal Guide.

Nicole has remained closely connected to us over the years, teaching a course for us most semesters and always helping to guide our curriculum.

Nicole holds a Master of Laws in agricultural and food law from the University of Arkansas School of Law; a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, from the Georgetown University Law Center; and a Bachelor of Arts in American studies and creative writing from Columbia University.