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Chris DeScherer

Director, South Carolina Office

Chris serves as the Southern Environmental Law Center’s leader and principal spokesperson in South Carolina. He directs the Charleston office’s overall legal advocacy program including litigation, policy advocacy, and public outreach and education. Working closely with attorneys and communications staff, the South Carolina office delivers strategic and collaborative work that gets results throughout the state.

“I grew up visiting family in Charleston and spending summers here at the beach, and exploring tidal creeks,” Chris said.

I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to wake up every day in the Charleston community where I live, have roots, and spent so much time growing up.

Chris DeScherer

What motivates me is knowing that the work we do is helping to preserve the special place throughout the Lowcountry and South Carolina so my kids and future generations can enjoy them.”

Chris opened SELC’s Charleston office in 2007 and since also has worked on coastal, wetlands, and infrastructure issues. Climate change particularly threatens Charleston with rising seas and more powerful storms, and in recent years Chris led the development of SELC’s growing work to make the southeast coast more resilient. 

“We are working to fend off large-scale development in our most vulnerable, flood-prone areas,” he said, “while also helping to protect places like the Phillips Community and other under-resourced communities that will bear the brunt of climate change and flooding on the coast.”

Prior to opening the South Carolina office, Chris spent six years in SELC’s Atlanta office, focusing on protecting Georgia’s coastal marshlands, hammocks, and wetlands. There’s also a special place inland for this University of Virginia graduate. He has “a soft spot and many fond memories of his years in Charlottesville, exploring the Blue Ridge Mountains, and paddling the James River with friends.”

  • Conservation Law Foundation
  • Cahill Gordon & Reindel
  • Smith Anderson
  • J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, Georgetown University Law Review
  • B.A., University of Virigina