CLiME’s staffing model utilizes a combination of affiliated faculty and staff, project-based researchers and consultants, student research assistants, competitively selected CLiME Fellows and part- and full-time professional Research Fellows. Once affiliated with CLiME, always affiliated with CLiME.

Meet Our Staff

David D. Troutt

David Dante Troutt is Distinguished Professor of Law and Justice John J. Francis Scholar. David Troutt is the founding director of the Rutgers Center on Law in Metropolitan Equity (CLiME). He teaches and writes in four areas of primary interest: the metropolitan dimensions of race, class and legal structure; intellectual property; Torts; and critical legal theory. His major publications (noted below) include books of fiction and non-fiction, scholarly articles and a variety of legal and political commentary on race, law and equality.

DIRECTOR

Katharine L. Nelson

Katharine (Katie) Nelson is the new Assistant Director of the Rutgers Center on Law, Inequality and Metropolitan Equity (CLiME). Her primary role is the build out and oversee CLiME’s Housing Studies Initiative. Katie is a housing and community development expert, with sophistication in GIS, program evaluation, spatial analysis, and quantitative and mixed methods research. Her work emphasizes the role of finance in ongoing segregation and inequality, particularly in access to affordable housing and mortgage credit.

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR,  HOUSING STUDIES

Anna Griffith

Anna Griffith received her JD from Rutgers Law School--Newark in 2024. She previously studied public policy, history, and comparative constitutional law at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, graduating in 2019.

SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW

Katie Sferra

Katie Sferra is Program Coordinator for four of Rutgers Law School's Academic Research Centers, including CLiME. Previously, Katie worked in international education and served as an advisor to students on immigration-related matters at Princeton University. Katie received her Bachelor's degree in Anthropology from Montclair State University.