Oceana
Washington, D.C.
Committed to international biodiversity conservation, wildlife law, and environmental justice, Shashank will join Oceana as a Redstone Fellow in Public Service. He will participate in global and domestic legal action to protect coastal communities and preserve the “blue planet:” combating overfishing, habitat destruction, oil and plastic pollution, and the decimation of species like whales, sharks, and sea turtles.
In 2024, Shashank received his J.D., cum laude from Harvard, completing over 1,000 hours in pro bono service. During law school, he was involved in the Animal Law Society, Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, and Environmental Law Review. He worked as a student attorney in the Harvard Animal Law & Policy Clinic and a clinical extern for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of the General Counsel. Over his summers, Shashank interned for the International Fund for Animal Welfare and Earthjustice’s Oceans Program. He was also a Teaching Fellow for Natural Resources Law and a Research Assistant to Professor Stilt.
Shashank won the Animal Law & Policy Program Writing Prize for his paper, Living Ancestral Beings: Ecological Lessons from Sawfish and First Law. He is a recipient of the Asian American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts’s Dow Fund Scholarship and Harvard’s Presidential Public Service Fellowship. He was also awarded the T.A. Barron Fellowship for Public Interest Environmental Law, Chayes International Public Service Fellowship, and Dan and Rae Emmett Family Foundation Fellowship. Born in Hyderabad, India and raised mostly in Houston, Texas, Shashank graduated from Cornell University with distinction, and was honored by the Class of 2019 for community leadership. Before law school, he held positions at several ecological organizations, including the United Nations Environment Programme. In his free time, Shashank enjoys animated media, history trivia, and Thai cuisine.