Alyse Bertenthal's research and teaching focus on intersections between environmental law, criminal law and procedure, and environmental justice. Drawing from her interdisciplinary training in law and social science, Dr. Bertenthal current research focuses on two areas of intersection between legal and environmental ideologies, discourses, and practices: (1) the everyday practices of conservation law enforcement; and (2) the problems of access to environmental justice in the courts and regulatory systems.

Dr. Bertenthal's work has been published or is forthcoming published in a wide range of law reviews and peer-reviewed journals, including, among others: British Journal of Criminology, Law & Policy, Law & Social Inquiry, Theoretical Criminology, UC Davis Law Review, UCLA Law Review, Washington Law Review, and Wisconsin Law Review. In 2024, Dr. Bertenthal was named an American Bar Foundation/JPB Access to Justice Scholar. Her research has been supported by grants and fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Science Foundation.

Committed to collaboration across disciplines, Dr. Bertenthal is a past chair of the American Association of Law Schools Law & Anthropology Section. She is a Member Scholar at the Center for Progressive Reform, a Faculty Affiliate with the Wake Forest Center for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, and a Faculty Affiliate with the Wake Forest Race, Inequality, and Policy Initiative. In 2022, she was appointed to the Legal Resource Task Group of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Organization of Scientific Area Committees and serves a member on the Wildlife Forensics Subcommittee.

Dr. Bertenthal earned a B.A. from Yale University, a J.D. from The University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Criminology, Law and Society from University of California, Irvine.