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Speaker Bios
Dr. Alan Betts of Atmospheric Research in Pittsford has been an independent researcher on weather and climate for thirty years. He is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, the Royal Meteorological Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the past-president of the Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering. As Vermont’s leading climate researcher, he is a frequent speaker on climate change issues around the state, and last year served on two of the working groups of the Governor’s Climate Change Commission. He is a columnist for the Rutland Herald/Times Argus Sunday Environment section.
He holds a BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, England and a PhD in Meteorology from Imperial College, London. He was the American Meteorological Society Horton Lecturer in 2004, and the AMS Jule Charney Award winner in 2007.
Read abstract: “Bringing Scientists Out of the Ivory Tower” by Alan Betts, Vermont
Reggina Cabrera is the National Weather Service’s Hydrologic Services Division Chief for Eastern Region. Ms. Cabrera is a native from Chile and she holds an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering with minor in Hydraulics. In 1985 she moved to the United States where she got her Masters Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineer from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She continued her career in the US Geological Survey, Georgia District, where she worked mainly in the area of groundwater modeling in the coastal plain.
In 1994 she joined the NWS working as a hydrologic forecaster in the Southeast River Forecast Center, Georgia. While in that position, she served as chair for the AMS Board of Operational Government Meteorologists (BOGM) and she led an effort to write: “ “Hydrology and Meteorology, hand-in-hand,” A whitepaper submitted by the Committee of Hydrometeorological Education and published in BAMS in July 2005. In 2006, her interest and expertise in hydraulics brought her to work at the NWS Hydrology Laboratory, Office of Hydrologic Development, in Silver Spring, MD. While in that position, she lead a team to evaluate hydraulic models to be incorporated as part of the suite of models to be used nationally by the NWS field offices. She has been in her current position since January 2008.
Read abstract: "Climate-Change Impacting Hydrologic Forecasting"
Melanie Fitzpatrick is the NE Climate Impacts Scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Massachusetts. With degrees in Physics, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences, Dr Fitzpatrick has a background in polar science. Prior to joining UCS, Dr Fitzpatrick worked for many years as a researcher in glaciology at the Antarctic Cooperative Research Centre, Australia, and in Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. Over the last fifteen years she has conducted and supported various global change science programs in Antarctica. Dr Fitzpatrick was an expert reviewer for the United Nations IPCC reports in 2001 and 2007. Currently, her interests cover regional climate research, local and global impacts, and the communication of these findings to policymakers and the general public. She is passionate about education and outreach on the climate issue. She is currently managing a project for UCS on climate impacts specific to the state of Pennsylvania, combining state-of-the-art analyses with effective outreach to provide opinion leaders, policymakers, and the public with the best available science upon which to base informed choices about climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Read abstract: “Making information accessible: how the NE Climate Impacts Assessment informs decision-making”
Jim Fox is the Director of Operations for NEMAC (National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center) at UNC Asheville. In that position, he serves as the team leader and principal investigator for two major collaborations that deal with utilizing large environmental databases, spatial visualizations and other high end technologies to create products for decision making in complex situations. One project is in partnership with the US Forest Service and addresses threats to our nations’ forests; the other is the local engagement site for RENCI, the Renaissance Computing Institute for North Carolina.
He holds undergraduate degrees in Geology/Geophysics and Communications and a Masters Degree in Information Technology. He spent 25 years working in the oil exploration business, a job which took him all over the world. He left the oil business to return home to Asheville and pursue his passion of utilizing computer technologies to aid in complex decision making.
Mr. Fox has produced animations and visualizations for National Parks and Earth Science Museums nationwide, including the major museums in Denver and Houston. Prior to joining NEMAC last year, he led a team designing and installing several new interactive exhibits at the Colburn Earth Science Museum. He is very active in national professional societies including AAPG and AMS as well as local groups that support economic development and community collaborations.
Read Abstract: “New Tools for Regional Planners and Decision Makers - Water Resource and Flooding Issues in Western North Carolina”
Gerald Galloway is a Glenn L Martin Institute Professor of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, and a Visiting Scholar at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Institute for Water Resources. Prior to joining the Maryland faculty, he was Vice President for Geospatial Strategies, ES3 Sector of the Titan Corporation. A civil engineer, public administrator, and geographer, he also serves as a water resources and flood mitigation consultant to a variety of national and international government organizations. He has served as a Presidential appointee to the Mississippi River Commission and the American Heritage Rivers Advisory Committee and as Secretary of the U.S. Section of the Canada-U.S. International Joint Commission. In 1994, he was assigned to the White House to lead a committee in assessing the causes of the 1993 Mississippi River Flood. During a 38-year career in the military he served in various command and staff assignments in Germany, Southeast Asia and the United States, retiring in 1995 as a Brigadier General and Dean of the Academic Board at the U.S. Military Academy. In 2002 and 2005, he served as General Chairman of the American Water Resources Association National Water Policy Dialogues. He holds a Bachelor¹s degree from West Point, a Master¹s degree in Engineering from Princeton, a Master¹s in Public Administration from Penn State (Capitol Campus), a Master¹s in Military Art and Science from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill). He has been the recipient of the Association of State Flood Managers¹ Goddard-White Award, ASCE¹s Civil Government Engineer of the Year and Presidents¹ Awards, the SAME Academy of Fellows¹ Golden Eagle Award, the Julian Hinds Award of the Environment and Water Resources Institute of ASCE and the U.S. Geological Survey¹s John Wesley Powell Award. In 2005 he was named an Honorary Diplomate by the American Academy of Water Resource Engineers. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is a registered professional engineer in New York.
John Henz received a Bachelor’s of Science degree from University of Wisconsin. He earned a Master of Atmospheric Science degree at Colorado State University. John became a Certified Consulting Meteorologist (CCM) in 1980 and has been acknowledged as an expert in hydro-meteorology, flood warning systems and flood prediction.
He developed original radar-rainfall estimation and radar-hail size algorithms (HailTrak) that served the insurance industry since 1991. In late 2000 HDR Engineering purchased HMS to establish hydro-meteorological services for its water resources clients. John was later made a Senior Professional Associate (SPA) in HDR and has focused on the development of original water supply prediction techniques based on hydro-climate indices and the application of radar data to the development of enhanced design storm concepts for floodplain studies and the analysis extreme precipitation events for dam safety projects. John continues to innovate new hydro-meteorological methods.
The HDR meteorologists re-named their practice the Atmospheric Science Group in 2007 to reflect their broadening scope of practice. His recent work has branched into impacts of climate change on water supply, design storms and floodplain delineation. John enjoys working with teens in community programs. He’s an avid hiker, golfer and weather/nature photographer. His gardens are always blooming. He is on the AMS Board of Certified Consulting Meteorologists (BCCM), the AMS Board of Enterprise Economic Development (BEED) and Chair of the BEED’s Water Resource Committee. He is a member of AWRA-Colorado, AMS, CASFM, ASFPM, ASDSO, NHWC and GSA.
Read Abstract: “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late: A Private Sector Response to the Water Availability Conundrum”
Mark Lorie is a water resources planner for the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin, where he plays a lead role in water supply management and planning for the Washington, D.C. region. His role at the Commission includes data analysis, modeling and research to support rea-time drought operations and long-term water supply planning. Before joining the Commission, Mr. Lorie worked for the Institute for Water Resources of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His role at the Institute for Water Resources was to help develop a national program on Shared Vision Planning, a method combining transparent computer modeling methods and stakeholder collaboration to prevent or resolve conflicts around water resources planning issues. He played a key technical role on a multi-year, joint U.S.-Canadian Shared Vision Planning study on water levels management on Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River, including development of planning and decision-support models, evaluating impacts to hydropower and other sectors, and designing operational methods to balance economic and environmental impacts. In addition, Mr. Lorie worked for one year with the Baltimore District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, where he focused on regional water planning issues and implementation of Environmental Management Systems. Mr. Lorie has a Master’s degree in Environmental Management and Economics from The Johns Hopkins University School of Engineering, and a Bachelor of Science degre in psychology from the University of Connecticut.
Read Abstract: "What might climate change mean for water supply reliability in the Washington DC metropolitan area?"
Bradfield Lyon is a climate scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), a part of Columbia University's Earth Institute. His work at the IRI has focused on diagnostic investigations of climate variability on interannual timescales including causal mechanisms, regional manifestations, and the impacts of drought. He is involved in a number of IRI's regional climate risk management projects including water management in Manila, Philippines and impacts of drought on cattle management in northwest mexico. He has worked with regional planners on sustainable water supply issues in NY and is affiliated with Columbia's Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) investigating decision making under the risk of extreme climate events in the Hudson Valley of NY in the context of climate change.
Read Abstract: “Drought and Water Shortages - Looking Beyond the Climate Affiliation”
Edward Maibach With an enduring interest in the question -- How can we change the behavior of people on a population-wide basis? – Dr. Maibach has worked both ends of the "research to practice" continuum. He currently conducts translational research to identify how best to mobilize populations in support of public policies and individual behaviors that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help communities adapt to unavoidable consequences of climate change. Ed has previously been an Associate Director of the National Cancer Institute, Worldwide Director of Social Marketing at Porter Novelli, Chairman of the Board for Kidsave International, and a professor of public health at both George Washington University and Emory University. Prior to devoting his full attention to climate change, Ed focused on a variety of other important public health challenges including obesity control and physical activity promotion, tobacco control and adolescent substance abuse, immunization, and improving the health of our nation’s least affluent – and therefore least healthy -- residents. Ed earned his PhD in communication research from Stanford in 1990. One of his most memorable experiences was planning the $2 billion Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy) over the course of 100 extremely intense days.
Read abstract: “Overcoming Communication Pitfalls”
Dr. David C. Major is Senior Research Scientist at the Columbia University Earth Institute’s Center for Climate Systems Research. He completed his undergraduate work at Wesleyan University and the London School of Economics, and received the Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard. Dr. Major has been a faculty member at MIT and at Clark University, a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge, a senior infrastructure planner with the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and the New York City Water Supply System, and Program Director for Global Environmental Change at the Social Science Research Council.
He is the author, co-author or co-editor of twelve books on natural resources and infrastructure planning, environmental management, biography and literary studies. At Columbia, Dr. Major has been a leader in the development and application of effective methods for adapting infrastructure to the impacts of global climate change.
Chris Milly is a research hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey and is stationed at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey. His research investigates the global water cycle and its ties to climate and the biosphere. At GFDL, he helps out with climate model development from the terrestrial-process perspective. Lately, Chris yearns for the restorative ambiance of the ivory tower. He dwells with his wife and daughter near the drainage divide between the Raritan and Delaware River basins; his sons live neear San Francisco Bay and the Saint Lawrence River.
For more, http://www.google.com/search?q=christopher+milly
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=pcd+milly
Read abstract: Water planning and climate change: actionable intelligence yet?
David H. Moreau is Professor of Water Resource and Environmental Planning and Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is currently serving as Director, Water Resources Research Institute of the University of North Carolina. In addition to his academic responsibilities, Dr. Moreau is Chairman of the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission, the state’s regulatory body for water quality, air quality, and water allocation.
Dr. Moreau holds degrees in civil and environmental engineering. He earned his PhD from Harvard University in the field of water resources in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering.
He has served on a number of expert committees of the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences, including three current activities - Water Science and Technology Board, peer review committee for the federal interagency task force to evaluate of the hurricane protection system around New Orleans, and independent review of progress toward restoration of the Everglades. He previously served on NRC committees to advise the Pittsburgh region on management of water quality, to review agency studies of the Upper Mississippi navigation system, and review of studies by the International Joint Commission on operation of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Seaway. In a separate activity, he is currently serving on an advisory panel on reliability of the New York City water supply.
His research has focused on management of water resources at the urban and basinwide scales, including studies of protection of public water supply watersheds and management of public water supply systems under drought conditions.
Read abstract: Risk Assessment for Public Water Supplies: Lessons from the Southeast Drought of 2007-2008
David Purkey is the Director of the Water Resources Group at the Stockholm Environment Institute-US Center. SEI-US is one of six international research centers associated with SEI and Water Resources is one of six research programs pursue by the Institute. The US Water Group has a particular focus on the use of analytical tools to support sustainable water supply planning, the best known being the Water Evaluation and Planning, or WEAP, system. As the Director of the US Water Group, David manages the ongoing development and deployment of WEAP, which has been underway for over 15 years. There are now WEAP users around the world working on issues as diverse as climate change, infrastructure planning, and regulatory compliance. Much of the work on climate change impact and adaptation analysis is being conducted in coordination with water management entities implementing long-range planning initiatives. David has his B.A. from Carleton College and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis.
Read abstract: A Structured Process for Incorporating Climate Change Information in Water Resource Management
Scott Shuford worked in a variety of local government planning programs for over 25 years before starting his planning consulting firm, Shuford Planning Services, in 2007. He has worked in senior planning positions in Asheville (where he served as Planning and Development Director for the eight years prior to establishing his firm), in the cities of St. Petersburg and Clearwater in Florida, and in Wilmington and Carolina Beach in North Carolina. His experience in a wide range of local government settings attracted the attention of UNCA, NEMAC and NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, leading to a collaborative project designed to bring climate change science to urban and rural areas through the creation of a practical handbook for the professional planners that serve these areas.
Read Abstract: “What Urban Planners Want to Know about Climate Change and Water Resources"
Roland Steiner holds the position of Regional Water and Wastewater Manager at the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (providing water supply and wastewater services to Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, Maryland) where he is responsible for technical and financial arrangements concerning water supply and wastewater facilities shared among WSSC and other agencies. These include the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin (for reservoir and river water availability) and the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (concerning WSSC’s interest -- the largest of all users -- in the Blue Plains wastewater treatment plant). Prior to this position, he worked at the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin for 17 years on issues involving water supply, water quality, and associated land resources. He focused on water resource allocation and utilization among the three major water supply utilities serving the Washington, DC metropolitan area. His work included coordinating projects to: develop watershed management plans, implement methods to efficiently use water supplies, forecast future water demands and analyze potential new sources. Mr. Steiner holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University, respectively, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University. In previous positions, he taught Mathematics at the University of Baltimore; and worked in England and Wales for national and regional water and wastewater management agencies. Mr. Steiner is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Maryland.
Kevin Trenberth Originally from New Zealand, Dr. Kevin Trenberth is Head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He was a coordinating lead author or lead author of the 1995, 2001 and 2007 IPCC Scientific Assessment of Climate Change. He served on the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) 1999-2006 and chairs the WCRP Observation and Assimilation Panel. He is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society, the AAAS, and AGU, and an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. He has published over 400 scientific articles, including 40 books or book chapters, and over 175 refereed journal articles.
Read abstract: "Weather and climate in the 21st Century: what do we know? What don’t we know?" by Kevin Trenberth
Brent Yarnal's research interests bridge the physical and social sciences and integrate climate change, natural hazards, land-use change, water resources, and the use of environmental information in decision making. One of his two current research streams focuses on vulnerability to, and adaptation planning for present and future hurricane storm surges in the coastal zone of Florida. The other stream involves local and regional greenhouse gas emissions inventories and mitigation planning. Other recent work includes the role of climate information in water resource decision making. His degrees include an AB in History from the University of California at Davis, an MSc in Geography (with an emphasis on paleoclimatic change) from the University of Calgary, and a PhD in Geography (with an emphasis on contemporary climate variation) from Simon Fraser University.
Read abstract: "Vulnerability of 21st Century Water Resources in the Eastern US" by Brent Yarnal
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