Faith Rivers James

Faith Rivers James has served as executive director of the Coastal Conservation League since 2022. James, a native of Mount Pleasant, has said that she feels a deep connection to the landscape of the region, and has long worked to preserve it. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, James spent much of her career as an attorney, practicing at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld and serving as counsel and senior policy adviser to the Majority Leader in the U.S. House of Representatives. Later, she was executive director of the South Carolina Bar Foundation. During her time there, James worked in partnership with the Coastal Community Foundation to launch the Heirs’ Property Preservation Project. Eventually, James moved into the education field, teaching at Vermont Law School, where she focused on property and environmental issues, and at Elon University School of Law, where she was associate dean of experiential learning and leadership. James returned to the Lowcountry in 2018, serving as the assistant provost for leadership and chair of the Department of Leadership Studies at The Citadel. Four years later, she was able to put her love for conservation and preservation of rural landscapes and natural resources into action in her work with the Coastal Conservation League.