Ursa Heidinger
Associate Attorney
Ursa’s primary job responsibilities in SELC’s Charleston office are litigation, administrative advocacy, and working with clients and partners. A typical day might find her helping fight an illegal water pollution permit at an outdated coal plant, like the one she took on in Georgetown, S.C.
“I appreciate SELC’s place-based model because it gives our work integrity,” she said. “It is critical to know the spaces and communities we are working to protect, and this model allows us to develop those deep relationships.”
“The southeast is a critical region when it comes to tackling the climate crisis. It faces serious climate impacts, is a place where significant clean energy development has the potential to take place, and also hosts sites of major environmental degradation. I’m proud of our work to shutdown fossil fuel infrastructure, including coal power plants, which contribute greatly to the climate crisis and delay a transition to a renewable energy grid.”
Before joining SELC, Ursa worked on and researched some of these environmentally degraded sites, including where offshore drilling takes place in the Gulf of Mexico. “These issues—confronting the climate crisis and the legacy of industrial pollution in the South—are of major concern and importance to me, and I am very grateful to be able to help our states and the communities that live in them address them,” she said.
Ursa is excited to assist SELC’s work protecting Cainhoy Peninsula. “Risky development there threatens endangered species and exacerbates climate risks,” she said.
Ursa grew up in the small, agricultural town of Westhampton, Mass., and the Outer Banks in North Carolina is her favorite spot in the South. “They’re home to beautiful beaches and communities, and some of the best food I’ve ever had!”
- J.D., New York University School of Law; Review of Law and Social Change
- B.A., Columbia University, cum laude