Areas of Expertise: Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, Coastal Zone Management Act, federal administrative law and litigation.

Sierra works to alleviate the greatest threats to imperiled species and their habitat throughout the Southeast, and in the coastal and marine environments on the East and West Coasts.  She has extensive experience fighting the expansion of offshore drilling and addressing the impacts of offshore energy development on marine wildlife.

Based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Sierra worked as an attorney for Defenders 2008-2013, and rejoined the Biodiversity Law Center in 2024.  From 2013-2024, Sierra served as a senior attorney and leader of the Coast and Wetlands Program for the Southern Environmental Law Center.  During that time, she represented Defenders and other partners in multiple rounds of litigation to save the world’s only wild red wolf population from extinction in the wild.  Sierra began her career as an associate attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center and a staff attorney for Ocean Conservancy.  Sierra earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Pomona College.