Regina M. Buono, J.D., Ph.D., is a nonresident scholar at the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and a Senior Attorney at the Environmental Law Institute.

She previously served as the Baker Botts Fellow in Energy and Environmental Regulatory Affairs at CES. Prior to joining CES, she was an associate with McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore, LLP, in Austin, Texas, focusing her practice in the areas of water, administrative, and endangered species law. She has also worked in various roles with the Texas legislature and as a consultant to oil and gas companies, designing a habitat credit exchange to achieve compliance with the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Her research interests include water governance, water and energy, urban resilience, and adaptive governance and law as related to nature-based solutions to environmental challenges. During the summer of 2019, she participated in the Young Scientists Summer Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria, working with the Governance in Transition subgroup of the Risk and Resilience section to advance her research on law and nature-based solutions.

Buono received a B.A. in international relations and political science and a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Arkansas, a J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law and an M.Sc. in water science and governance from King’s College London. She received her doctorate in public policy from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin.

Contact at [email protected] or 713-348-2217.