Speaker profiles are being added as we receive them. Please check back at a later date to see an updated list.
Robert L. Annear, P.E., Vice President, DHI Solutions
Robert L. Annear, P.E., is a Vice President for DHI, Water & Environment, Inc. in their Portland, Oregon office. Dr. Annear is principally involved in hydrodynamic and water quality modeling with a focus on regulatory permits and requirements, surface water system assessments, Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL), ESA, FERC relicensing of hydropower facilities and water quality management for multiple uses (supply, salmon, recreation etc.). He has 10+ years of experience in the development and calibration of hydrodynamic and water quality models (1-D & 2-D) throughout the U.S. He has additional experience developing water quality monitoring plans and conducting field work. Dr. Annear has also conducted numerous peer reviews of surface water models for agencies such as the U.S. EPA, Oregon DEQ, WA Dept. of Ecology, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. He has conducted research and projects in areas ranging from river and temperature modeling, riverine heat budgets, streambed heating, turbidity modeling, mixing zone analyses and permitting analyses. He also serves as a reviewer for various water resource and hydrologic journals and has served on EPA national water quality grant review panels.
Michael J. Cohen, Senior Research Associate, The Pacific Institute
Mr. Cohen’s work focuses on water use in the lower Colorado River basin and delta region and the restoration of the Salton Sea ecosystem. He is the lead author of three Pacific Institute reports on the Salton Sea and the Colorado River delta, and has contributed to several Pacific Institute reports on water use, including the highly regarded report, The World's Water 2008-2009. He is also the co-author of several journal articles on water and the environment in the border region. He is a member of the International Boundary and Water Commission’s Colorado River Delta Advisory Committee and the Water Education Foundation’s Colorado River Advisory Committee.
John Faundeen, Archivist, U.S. Geological Survey, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
Mr. Faundeen’s academic background is in Geography where he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Cloud State University and a Masters of Science degree from South Dakota State University. Beginning in 1985, he worked in the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center developing information systems for Earth observation researchers. He served as a technical liaison at the USGS Headquarters in Reston, Virginia, for three years before becoming the Chief of Data Management at USGS EROS in 1998. That role included archive management and information systems development. In 2001 he became the Archivist for USGS EROS, overseeing the management of the remotely sensed and cartographic science collections. In 2004 and 2007, he served as the Acting USGS Records Officer overseeing records management activities from a Bureau perspective. He has published over 30 papers and articles on topics involving information systems, archiving, and records management and has given invited talks or keynote addresses in Scotland, Portugal, Italy, South Africa, and China. Mr. Faundeen served two years as the Chair of the International Committee on Earth Observation Satellites Working Group on Information Systems and Services. In 2007 he was offered a research fellowship in Scotland for work involving the appraisal of scientific records.
Justice Greg Hobbs
Appointed by Governor Roy Romer to the Colorado Supreme Court April 18, 1996. Retained by Colorado voters after a two-year provisional term for ten year terms commencing January 1999 and January 2009. Practiced law for 25 years, with emphasis on water, environment, land use, and transportation.
Former partner, Hobbs, Trout & Raley P.C.; Partner, Davis, Graham & Stubbs; First Assistant Attorney General, Natural Resources Section, State of Colorado; Enforcement Attorney, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Law Clerk for Judge William E. Doyle, U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Vice-President, Colorado Foundation for Water Education; Co-Convenor, Dividing the Waters (Western Water Judges Project). Author of In Praise of Fair Colorado, The Practice of Poetry, History and Judging (Bradford Publishing Co. 2004); Colorado Mother of Rivers, Water Poems (Colorado Foundation for Water Education 2005), The Public’s Water Resource, Articles on Water Law, History, and Culture (Continuing Legal Education in Colorado, Inc. 2007), and Living the Four Corners, Colorado Centennial State at the Headwaters (Continuing Legal Education in Colorado, Inc. 2010).
B.A. History, Magna Cum Laude, University of Notre Dame, 1966. J.D.University of California at Berkeley 1971, Order of the Coif. Taught sixth grade in New York City and served with the Peace Corps in South America with wife, Bobbie, before law school. Wife, Bobbie. Children, Dan and Emily, grandchildren Joni, Kyle, Shannon, Ella and Quinn.
Dawn Paschal is Assistant Dean for Digital Library & ePublishing Services at Colorado State University Libraries. Currently, she directs staff responsible for managing and providing access to the Libraries’ electronic, archival, and other print collections; developing local digital collections; building the institutional repository; and coordinating and researching technologies. Prior to joining the faculty of Colorado State in 2001, she held various positions in cataloging and acquisitions at Northwestern University Library beginning in 1985. She received a B.A. in History from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire in 1983 and an M.A. in Library Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1984. Dawn has contributed to development of the Western Waters Digital Library since 2003.
Ken Rainwater is the Director of the Texas Tech University Water Resources Center and a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Texas and has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Rice University (1979), and M.S. (1982) and Ph.D. (1985) in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Ken has 25 years of experience in water resources and environmental engineering. He was president of the Texas Section of ASCE in 2006-07, and vice president for education in 2000-01. He served as co-faculty advisor of the Texas Tech University J.H. Murdough Student Chapter of ASCE from 1985 to 2004. He is currently a member of the ASCE Committee on the Academic Prerequisites for Professional Practice. He is a licensed professional engineer in Texas, a board certified environmental engineer (AAEE), and a diplomate water resources engineer (AAWRE).
He teaches courses in environmental engineering, engineering hydrology, water systems design, groundwater hydrology, groundwater contaminant transport, and water resources management. His research expertise is in problems of groundwater quantity and quality, remediation of soil and groundwater contamination, and water resources management. His research has been funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, Bureau of Reclamation, Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and Texas Water Development Board. He has been honored with several teaching awards at Texas Tech, including with the Abell Faculty Teaching Award and the President’s Excellence in Teaching Award.
Patricia J. Rettig joined the Colorado State University Libraries in March 2000. She began working on the Water Resources Archive in July 2001 and is now Head Archivist for it. Her duties involve all aspects of archival work, including acquiring, organizing, and describing collections, creating exhibits, maintaining websites, teaching classes, writing articles, and making presentations. In 2010, she received the CSU Libraries Faculty Award for Excellence. Patty earned her Master of Library Science from the University of Maryland in 1998 and worked in that institution’s Archives and Manuscripts Department for a year. A native of Ohio, Patty has enjoyed traveling around Colorado to see its water resources firsthand and meet the people involved.
Gregory C. Thompson is Associate Director for Special Collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah. He oversees the Special Collections Divisions of Rare Books, Manuscripts, University Archives, and Records Management Program, Multimedia, Book Arts, Middle East Library, and the Western Americana Collections. Prior to becoming head of Special Collections in 1983, he served for 15 years as a researcher and assistant director of the American West Center at the University of Utah. In this role, he worked with American Indian tribes across the west in developing their tribal archives and tribal educational programs. He holds a B.S. degree in Business and Finance from Colorado State University, Fort Collins; a B.A. in History with a teaching certificate from Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado; and a Master’s and PhD in History from the University of Utah. He currently serves as an adjunct instructor in history for the Department of History, University of Utah.
Linda Vida has been the Director of the Water Resources Center Archives (WRCA) located on the UC Berkeley campus for over 17 years. She manages a staff of 3 FTE and is in charge of collection development, outreach, fundraising, administration and special projects. Prior to her tenure at WRCA, Ms. Vida was Head Librarian at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Library in San Francisco (Region 9) and worked as a contractor for five years. She received her Masters in Library and Information Sciences (MLIS) from UC Berkeley in 1983. She has developed an extensive knowledge of water resource issues and is experienced in using available technology to make information and data accessible to a diverse audience. More information about WRCA can be obtained from the web site http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/WRCA/
Donald Worster is a native of California's Mohave Desert and a longtime resident of the Great Plains. Since 1989 he has held the Hall Distinguished Professorship in American History at the University of Kansas. During a career that spans four decades, he has published ten books on environmental history, the history of ecology, and the history of the American West, including most recently A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir (Oxford University Press, 2008). His book on the Dust Bowl of the 1930s (Oxford University Press, 1979) won the Bancroft Prize in American history. Other books include Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West (1985) and A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell (2001). He has held research fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Yale's Institute for Biospherical Studies. Formerly president of the American Society for Environmental History, he is currently the advisory editor for Cambridge University Press's book series, Studies in Environment and History. As senior research fellow at the Rachel Carson Center, Munich, Germany, his ongoing research focuses on Americans facing a world of limits.
Ilya Zaslavsky is Director of Spatial Information Systems Laboratory at San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California San Diego. His research focuses on distributed information management systems, in particular on spatial and temporal data integration, geographic information systems, and spatial data analysis. Ilya has been leading design and technical development in several cyberinfrastructure projects, including the national-scale Hydrologic Information System, which develops standards, databases, and services for integration of hydrologic observations. He has also developed spatial data management infrastructure as part of several large projects, in domains ranging from neuroscience (digital brain atlases) to geology, disaster response (NIEHS Katrina portal), regional planning, and conservation. Ilya received his PhD from the University of Washington (1995) for research on statistical analysis and reasoning models for geographic data. Previously, he received a PhD equivalent from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geography, for his work on urban simulation modeling and metropolitan evolution (1990).