• Project Lead, WCEL IUCN Oceans Specialist Group, Ocean Rights

• NatGeo For Nature Advisor

• Steering Committee, UN Ocean Decade Coordinating Office on Connecting People and the Ocean (2024-present)

• Advisory Council and Working Group Member, Antarctica Rights Alliance

• Advisory Board (previously Executive Committee) for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN, 2018- present)

• Member of the IUCN's World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL, 2017-present)

• Named as one of 15 Youth Ocean Leaders taking on the world internationally by the Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA, 2018)

• Expert Member, UN Harmony with Nature Initiative

• Master’s in Environmental Law and Policy, Vermont Law School (summa cum laude)

• B.S. in Biology with a Marine Emphasis, Western Washington University

• Developed a robust legal assessment for the initiative to advance legal personhood for Whales in the Pacific and provided input to the He Whakaputanga Moana (Declaration for the Ocean 2024). Drafted template legislation for Pacific jurisdictions to legally recognise the rights of whales (ongoing).

• In collaboration with the Ministry of the Environment of the Republic of Panama, Vanuatu, and Gallifrey Foundation, drafted and negotiated IUCN Resolution 8.055 "Advancing and Ethical human-Ocean relationship.” Received a 92% approval among members at the 2025 IUCN World Conservation Congress.

• Led drafting and strategy of ‘We are the Ocean and the Ocean is Us: Underpinning Principles of Ocean Rights’ and the 2023 Omnibus Resolution on Oceans and Law of the Sea Proposal to initiate dialogue on Ocean Rights led by Cabo Verde and Monaco. Strategically and legally guiding the initiative towards a Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights, identified in 2023 as 1 of 5 gamechanger movements for the Ocean. 

• ​Assisted with campaign strategy and development, and legal drafting, for specific Rights of Nature initiatives including: the Rights of the Southern Resident Orcas in Washington State, USA, national law in the Philippines, Aruba’s proposed constitutional amendment, the rights of sea turtles in Panama and more.

• Developed a guideline for the incorporation of Rights of Nature into marine protected area governance.

• Developed and coordinated comment letters regarding the recovery of the southern sea otter and threats to delisting.

• Assisted with amicus brief preparation for successful federal court litigation on US Marine Mammal Protection Act public display criteria (a case featured in the documentary Born to be Free).

• Coordinated and co-drafted a legal assessment on alternative legal pathways to address the threat of deep-seabed mining.

• Explored and presented ‘Opportunities for Aquariums to Address Plastic Pollution.’

• Bender, Michelle, Ocean Rights Communications & Advocacy Toolkit (2025).

• Bender, Michelle and Takoko, Mere, ‘Ocean Rights: Reimagining the human-ocean relationship’ published in The IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy’s (CEESP) 24th Issue of Policy Matters "Reimagining conservation: Toward a flourishing future” (2025).

• Bender, M, Slobodian, L, Gjerde, K M, Cullet, P, Singh, P and Olson, C, The Rights of Nature and Legal Personhood in an Ocean Context, Ocean Yearbook Vol. 39. 

• Bender M and Bustamante R, Reimagining fishing in the Anthropocene through a rights of nature lens (2024), JHRE 15:2, pp:158-182.

• Bender M, Bustamante R, Leonard K, Living in relationship with the Ocean to transform governance in the UN Ocean Decade (2022), PLoS Biol 20(10):e3001828. IFL Science video.

• Chami R, Bender M, Bramley B, Cosimano T, Iles R, Nieburg D, Rosa E, Takoko M and Fullenkamp C, How legal personhood and markets can partner to help save the whale (2024), Front. Ocean Sustain.

• Contribution to The Ocean Race Educational booklet, Generation Ocean.

• Bender, Michelle and Dunne Elizabeth, From Regulation to Responsibility: A Call to Recognise the Southern Resident Orcas’ Inherent Rights, EcoMagazine (2022). 

• Bender, Michelle and Evans, Jacqueline, Transforming our Relationship with the Ocean- changing values to ensure conservation (2020), Human Development Forum, A Better World Vol. 6, pp. 24-27

• Bender, Michelle, Do conservation plans to protect vital marine ecosystems need to do more? (2020), Ecological Citizen, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 115-16

• Bender, Michelle, Ocean Rights: The Baltic Sea and World Ocean Health, Sustainability and the Rights of Nature in Practice, CRC Press, 2020, pp. 237-256.

• Bender, Michelle, As nature evolves, so too does MPA management need to evolve, Biodiversity, 2018, 19(1–2), pp. 131–136.

• Using Science, Knowledge & Tools to operationalise the BBNJ Agreement, IOC-UNESCO BBNJ Training, Module M3. Training 6: The inherent value of marine biodiversity (2026).

• Keynote speech, Ocean Rights, SeaWilding Conference (2025).

• Keynote speech, “Ocean Rights: human and nonhuman rights to a healthy Ocean”, One Ocean Science Congress (France, 2025).

• The Ocean Race Summit: Presenting Ocean Rights (2023).

• Western Washington University Environmental Speakers Series presents: Ocean Rights (2023).

• Keynote speech, Capitol Hill Oceans Week Sea: The Future, 2022 (~29:40).

• Towards a Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights, Monaco Oceans Week (2022).

• Should Orcas have rights? Port Townsend says yes, King5 Seattle news (2022).

• Ocean Rights in Gathered Light Magazine, Issue 5 (begins on page 130).

• UNOC3 in Renewable Matter. 

• Whale Personhood in Inside Climate News.

• Ocean Rights in Oceanographic Magazine.

• Whale Personhood in Atmos.

• Ocean Vision Legal (Ocean Litigation and Ocean Rights) in Mondaq. 

• Whale Personhood in CNN.

• Ocean litigation and risks for investors to rise in the next decade in  Invest ESG

• Could the Ocean Attain Legal Rights? in Fair Planet

• Michelle Bender — fighting for the rights of Mother Ocean in Daily Maverick

• Ocean rights, like human rights, is about shifting our core values, Monaco Life

Based in Washington State, Michelle spends her free time outside, backpacking, hiking, and paddleboarding with her pomeranian Oliver and partner. She enjoys nature photography and mentoring young professionals.