Tom Mullikin, J.D., Ph.D.

Research Professor

Contact Tom Mullikin, J.D., Ph.D.

Coastal Science Center 151F

Office hours: by appointment

Education

J.D., University of South Carolina
Ph.D., Organizational Leadership, Columbia International University
B.A., University of South Carolina

Biography

Tom Mullikin, Ph.D., J.D., is a senior environmental attorney, author, professor, and award-winning documentarian whose environmental and energy law practice has taken him to every continent on earth where he has represented numerous multinational corporate clients and the United Nations (UN).

Mullikin is a retired senior military officer, Army Judge Advocate General Corps, and retired Major General/Commander of the S.C. State Guard (2018).

Mullikin is the founding chair of the gubernatorially established S.C. Floodwater Commission. Serving as a research professor at Coastal Carolina University (School of Coastal Environment), Mullikin has also served as a professor of practice at the University of South Carolina (Hospitality, Retail, and Sport Management), adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, and a visiting professor at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Galapagos campus. He serves as a member of the S.C. Energy Advisory Council; is co-chair of the International Environmental Law Committee of the American Bar Association; membership officer for the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA) Environmental Law Committee; Fellow of the American Bar Foundation; director of the Mullikin Institute for Environmental Law and Policy at Coastal Carolina University; chairman of Global Eco Adventures; and director of the Galápagos Academic Institute for the Arts and Sciences (GAIAS) Foundation, a nonprofit corporation with its purpose dedicated to raising awareness and support and to raise funds for research, inclusion, education, and cultural activities in Ecuador with focus on the Galapagos Islands and the Amazon Basin.

Together with his wife, Virginia Ann, Mullikin received the National Civic Leader Parents of the Year honors in 2019. He and Virginia Ann reside in Camden, S.C., and have four children: Mary Elizabeth; Alexandra (Tomlinson) and husband Brant; Thomas Jr.; and Margaret Charles (Whitney) and husband Will. They also have two grandchildren: a granddaughter, Anna Gibbs Tomlinson, and a grandson, Baylor Davis Tomlinson.

In addition to his myriad of awards, honors, and military decorations, Mullikin is a recipient of the ORDER OF THE PALMETTO, South Carolina’s highest award presented by the state’s governor.