URBANWATERPATHWAYS.ORG - Key Persons
Alexandra Lizano is a third-year J.D. candidate, expected to graduate in May 2020 with concentrations in environmental and water law. She graduated from the University of California, Davis with a B.S. in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning in 2017. In addition to her research on water infrastructure in San Antonio, Texas, she serves as the Executive Editor of the Texas A&M Journal of Property Law and President of the Agriculture Law Society. Her areas of legal interest include water, endangered species, land use, and solid/hazardous waste. Previously she has worked as an intern with the US Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division, a summer associate at a California law firm, a research assistant for a solo practitioner in Texas, and a research fellow for the National Agriculture Law Center.
Alexis Long is a second year J.D. candidate at Texas A&M University School of Law, and serves as a teaching assistant for Academic Support; Torts; and Legal Writing, Research, and Analysis courses. She graduated cum laude with a B.S. degree in bioenvironmental sciences from Texas A&M in 2016. Alexis' professional interests include water, natural resources, and environmental law. Her research interest includes domestic and international water and property rights, and she is presently comparing municipal water infrastructure in the West Bank and Puerto Rico for a class project. She is also conducting research on municipal water infrastructure in Los Angeles, California and Sandbranch, Texas. During summer 2018, Alexis spent two weeks in Israel studying water rights and dispute resolution among institutions and communities in Israel, as well as between Israelis and Palestinians.
Alexis Yelvington is a third-year J.D. candidate at Texas A&M University School of Law concentrating on environmental and water law. Alexis received her bachelor degree in political science from Texas Tech University, where she focused on international public policy. While at A&M, Alexis participated in a field study in Israel where she researched water law and policy in the region. Through her involvement with the natural resource program, she has conducted research on legal mechanisms to mitigate flooding in Texas cities and coastal communities. In 2019, Alexis served as a summer law clerk for the Environmental Protection Division in the Office of the Texas Attorney General.
Anna Van Degrift is a 3rd year Ph.D student in the Department of Geography at Texas A&M University. She holds a M.A. in Geography from Syracuse University. Her Master's research investigated the introduction of the Peruvian 2009 national Water Resources Law and the local politics of implementing river basin councils in a central highland watershed. Broadly, Anna's interests involve a concern for systemic marginalization of people and places in relation to water governance policy; water users' everyday strategies of access and control of water; hydro-social relations as predicated upon diverse understandings of the value of water.
Brooke Salisbury graduated from Texas A&M University with a major in Environmental Studies with a minor in Geography. This is her second semester on the project. In the summer of 2019, she was a Mickey Leland Environmental Intern for Oncor Electric, where she worked in waste management. She is an active member of several organizations on campus such as the Student Geosciences Council where she is the secretary and part of the Corporate Relations Committee, a member of Women in Geosciences, and the Environmental Programs Involvement Committee. She became interested in working with water and the world water crisis after going to Costa Rica for a service-learning.
Catherine Rosas is an Environmental Geoscience student at Texas A&M University, minoring in Geography and Meteorology. Her academic focus is in Human Impact, with interests in solving environmental issues at the crossroads of human systems and natural resources. She is involved in several organizations including National Geoscience Honors Society, Women in Geosciences, Energy Research Society and Latinos in Science and Engineering. Catherine is passionate about providing marginalized communities sustainable access to natural resources, particularly clean water and is excited to be involved in this project.
Cierra George is an Environmental Studies major at Texas A&M University. Currently, she is involved on campus as treasurer of the Environmental Programs Involvement Committee, student council member on the TAMU Honor Council, and an officer in her Christian sorority Kappa Phi Beta. Cierra has been a member of the Texas A&M chapter of Wine to Water since her freshman year, where she embraces her passion for the global water crisis through service-based action.
Cindy Figueroa is a first-year Masters student in the Department of Geography at Texas A&M University. Cindy graduated from Texas A&M with a B.S. in Environmental Studies and a minor in Meteorology in 2019. Prior to attending graduate school, Cindy interned with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Water Policy Staff where she gained experience working with federal water policy and performed a benefit-cost analysis on improving impaired waters in Florida. Cindy now works as a graduate research assistant with the Pathways to Sustainable Urban Water Security project. Her current research will employ Q-methodology to examine perceptions and understandings of global water sector actors regarding how they envision their role and technologies in sustainability goals.
Courtney Gately is a recent graduate of Texas A&M University School of Law and holds a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from Kansas State University and a Master of Science in Nonprofit Management from Northeastern University. As a law student, Courtney was appointed to be the president of the Energy and Natural Resources Group, selected as a board member of the National Food Law Student Network, served on the board of the Agriculture Law Society, co-chaired the law school's first Environmental Justice Conference, and was awarded the G. Rollie White Agricultural Law and Policy Scholarship. Her research as a law student focused on industrialized agriculture's impact on water quality. She completed two legal internships with the Environmental Protection Agency (Regions 6 and 7), as well as with Resource Environmental Solutions.
Daniel Howell is a third year J.D. candidate at Texas A&M University School of Law focusing on natural resources law. He has conducted research on international treaties and transboundary water agreements in relation to Israeli-Palestinian wastewater policy while interning with the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel. He also researched the European Union's history, structure, and operations and how, in the future, it may take on characteristics of a federal government. Currently, Daniel is working with Professor Nancy Welsh researching mediation observational data, and conducting a comparative study for Professor Eckstein on desalination opportunities in Israel and Texas. Following law school, he plans to work for state government or a non-governmental agency.
Dr. Amanda Fencl was a Postdoctoral Research Associate (2019-2021) leading the California and Australian case studies, and a current Visiting Research Fellow (2021-) with the project. They're currently a AAAS Science, Technology and Policy Fellow with the Millennium Challenge Corporation. As an interdisciplinary environmental geographer, they research how environmental governance arrangements (re)produce uneven access to water resources to both build and undermine resilience to future changes. They completed their Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California, Davis in July 2019 through the UC Davis Center for Environmental Policy and Behavior. Amanda's dissertation research explored the ways in which California's water governance system is adapting to changing environmental conditions and extreme events, like drought. Prior to UC Davis, they were a Staff Scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute's US Center and has a B.A. in International Relations and Environmental Studies from Tufts University.
Dr. Christian Brannstrom is a Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Geosciences. His research focuses on social and political aspects of renewable energy and unconventional fossil fuels in Texas. He also studies geographical dimensions of wind-power expansion in Brazil, where he has partnered with geographers at the Universidade Federal do Ceará. He regularly hosts visiting scholars interested in theoretical and empirical dimensions of environmental governance. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, Texas Sea Grant, and the TAMU Glasscock Center for Humanities Research, and Brazilian funding agencies.
Job Titles:
- Postdoctoral Research Associate
Dr. Gretchen Sneegas is a Postdoctoral Research Associate who critically examines food, energy, and water as key mediators of human-environment interaction. As a human geographer with interdisciplinary training, she combines critical social theory and mixed methods to examine resource governance in times of disturbance and conflict. Her research seeks to understand the deeply uneven landscapes of power which shape and constrain how people interact with diverse resources. Dr. Sneegas completed her Ph.D. in the Geography Department at the University of Georgia, where she developed ‘critical Q methodology,' an innovative mixed methods approach combining critical discourse analysis and standard Q methodology. She has used critical Q methodology to examine environmental discourse, behavior, and knowledge as the products of diverse social and political contexts. In her work with the Pathways to Urban Sustainability X-Grant, she is coordinating multiple case studies in Texas, California, Australia, Israel, and at the global corporate sector scale. Her focus within the project uses critical Q methodology to examine diverse perspectives on desalination technologies at each of these case study sites. Visit her Personal Website to learn more.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Texas Water Resources Institute
- Professor of Water Resources
Dr. John Tracy is the Director of the Texas Water Resources Institute, has extensive experience working at the interface between water resources research, practice and policy over the past 20 years. As Director, Tracy works to connect Texas A&M University faculty and staff with a wide range of local, state, federal and private entities, to develop and move forward initiatives that address pressing water resources issues facing Texas, the region and the nation.
Dr. Tracy is also a professor of water resources in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering in the Dwight Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M University. He joined Texas A&M in the fall of 2015 and has been involved in a wide range of research initiatives focused on understanding and developing sustainable water resource management practices across the western United States, including the western High Plains, Northern Plains, Great Basin and Pacific Northwest hydro-climatological regions. Before becoming a part of TWRI, Dr. Tracy received his Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering at Colorado State University in 1980, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering at the University of California at Davis in 1986 and 1989, respectively. He started his academic career at Kansas State University in the Department of Civil Engineering in 1989, where his research focused on modeling phytoremediation processes, and developing models to aid in the conjunctive administration of surface and groundwater rights.
Job Titles:
- Director for the TAMU Institute for Science
Dr. Kent Portney, is the Director for the TAMU Institute for Science, Technology, and Public Policy and has long experience as a thought leader in the area of urban sustainability. Recently he has advanced work on the Texas A&M water-food-energy nexus collaboration leading the water governance node for the San Antonio case study. Dr. Portney came to the Bush School's Department of Public Service and Administration in 2014. He was appointed director of the Institute for Science, Technology and Public Policy in September 2016 after serving two years as a Senior Fellow in the Institute. In 2018 he was named the Bob Bullock Chair in Government and Public Policy. He was on the Tufts University faculty since 1979 and served as department chair in political science and directed the Graduate Program in Public Policy and Citizen Participation. Most recently, he was director of the Water and Research Program at the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy (CIERP) at Tufts' Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Florida State University, his master's from the University of Connecticut, and his bachelor's from Rutgers University, where his studies focused on public administration and public policy.
Job Titles:
- Postdoctoral Research Associate
Dr. Kyungsun Lee is a Postdoctoral Research Associate with long-standing research interest is to examine the governance of socio-technical system toward sustainability by focusing on how innovative environmental technologies are developed, diffused, and implemented in contemporary society. Her doctoral dissertation research explored how to promote and govern socio-technical systems transitions toward sustainability drawing on the experience of implementation of Eco-Industrial Parks in South Korea and Japan. In her work with the X-Grant project explores how desalination and wastewater reuse technologies deliver sustainability transition of urban water systems by using systematic review, global production network analysis, and social network analysis. Visit her Personal Website to learn more.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scientist at the Texas Water Resources Institute
Dr. Lucas Seghezzo is Senior Research Scientist at the Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI), Professor of Environmental Sociology at the National University of Salta, Argentina, and Independent Researcher with Argentina's National Research Council (CONICET). He is also scientific advisor of the Latin America Focal Point of the Land Matrix Initiative, an independent global monitoring initiative that promotes transparency and accountability in land issues. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from Wageningen University, the Netherlands, and was awarded the Dow Energy Dissertation Award for best Ph.D. thesis on the sustainable use of resources and energy under the auspices of the Netherlands' Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences. His current research focuses on sustainability assessment, social-ecological systems, political ecology, social perspectives on social-environmental issues, water and sanitation safety plans, decentralized sanitation, and environmental justice. His work has been financed, among other institutions, by the European Union, the German and French development agencies, the Swiss Network for International Studies, and others. He has experience in the public sector as the Director General of Environmental Protection of the Municipality of Salta, Argentina; and in the private sector as Senior International Consultant for the Lettinga Associates Foundation in the Netherlands, designing small- and large-scale industrial and domestic wastewater treatment plants and providing trainings on environmental technology in several countries across the world.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Chemical Engineering at Texas a & M University
Dr. Mark Holtzapple, has been a professor of chemical engineering at Texas A&M University for 33 years. He focuses on developing sustainable technologies, including conversion of waste biomass to fuels and chemicals; high-efficiency compressors, expanders, and engines; and water desalination. His vapor-compression desalination technology is as efficient as reverse osmosis, but is more robust. This "zero-discharge" technology produces concentrated brine usable as a source of minerals, such as magnesium and potassium. Dr. Holtzapple has received numerous awards for his research, including the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award offered by the president and vice-president of the United States.
Dr. Robert Greer, Assistant Professor of public budgeting and finance in the Bush School of Government and Public Service, is an expert in state and local financial management and has published in the areas of debt management, municipal security markets, and water infrastructure financing. His recent publications focus on issues of governance structure and their relationship to infrastructure finance and debt management. Current projects continue this work by considering complex networks of special districts and the connection between their fiscal capacity and performance. His work has been published in Public Administration Review, Policy Studies Journal, Public Budgeting & Finance, Municipal Finance Journal, Urban Studies, Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, and Public Finance Review. Greer earned both his MPP and PhD from the Martin School of Public Policy and Administration, University of Kentucky, and has a BA in economics and business administration from Trinity University and an MPA from University of North Texas. He was the recipient of the 2012 Emerging Scholar Award from the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) and was also awarded the Hatton W. Sumner Scholar Award.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture
Dr. Sierra Woodruff is an assistant professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning. Her research focuses on how planning can better address environmental and climatic change. She currently has several NSF-funded projects to examine the relationship between social networks, plan coordination, and urban resilience to flooding. She also is leading a project to quantify and compare the policies cities across the U.S. have adopted to build resilience.
Elizabeth Ramey is a third year J.D. candidate at Texas A&M University School of Law where she is focusing on energy and environmental law. Elizabeth obtained her Bachelor in Environmental Geoscience from Texas A&M where she researched the use of ocean buoyancy gliders to monitor the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone, oxygen isotopes in mollusk shells to measure seasonality in Panama, and biodiversity impacts from modernization in the Peruvian Amazon. In law school, Elizabeth has researched land titling in Ghana, water law and policy in Israel, and renewable energy incentives and barriers in the US. She is the managing editor of Federal Taxation of Oil and Gas Transactions and is a research assistant for several professors in tax, energy, water, and intellectual property law. She is also a citations editor on the Texas A&M Law Review. During summer 2018, Elizabeth interned with the Department of Energy's Office of the General Counsel in Washington, D.C.
Emily Gill is an Honors student at Texas A&M University, where she majors in Geographic Information Systems and Technology with a focus track of Human Systems and Services. She has always been interested in combining science with human need and is taking several classes relevant to that field of study. Emily was an active member of a freshman leadership organization, Aggie Fish Club, and is a member of the Student Geosciences Council and Geography Society.
Heather Dyer is a second year J.D. candidate at Texas A&M University School of Law. Prior to law school, Heather received her Master's in Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs where she concentrated in public finance and researched alternative funding models for higher education institutions. While working on her undergraduate and graduate degrees, she worked at the Texas Capitol and assisted various legislators with policy analysis related to transportation, higher education, finance, and natural resources. Heather currently serves as Vice-President of the Public Interest Law Fellowship and plans on pursuing a career in litigation after graduation. Her areas of interest are tax, natural resources, and the intersection of law and policy.
Jaron Capps is a senior at Texas A&M University majoring in GIST and minoring in Urban & Regional Planning and Environmental Geosciences. With this, his post-academic career aspirations are to pursue these linkages to mitigate and spread awareness of society's impact on the environment. In all, he is always educating himself on the everchanging environment and strives to understand spatial relationships between our actions and the potential unseen consequences.
Kalli Johnson is a recent graduate of Texas A&M University, majoring in Environmental Geoscience with a GIST minor. Kalli worked remotely for the Environmental Protection Agency, where she did GIS work and mapped facilities that have undergone RCRA clean-up processes, or had controls in place to mitigate for potential hazardous risks to human health and the environment. Her interest in water began freshman year, where she took a class about the world water crisis and conducted research in Costa Rica. She was Vice President of Wine To Water, member of Women in Geosciences, and the Student Geosciences' Council.
Kurt E. Lyell is a Texas A&M studying Civil Engineering major with a minor in Sustainable Architecture and Urban Planning. He has been interested in sustainability from an early age, for example, in high school he went and lobbied in support of Texas Renewable Energy Industries Alliance's (TREIA) efforts in the 84th Texas legislative session.
Lindsey Pressler is a second year Master of Public Service and Administration candidate (exp. 2022) at The Bush School of Government and Public Service, and graduated with a BS in Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Texas A&M University in 2020. She graduated Magna Cum Laude, with Engineering Honors, and as an Undergraduate Research Scholar. Her undergraduate thesis was on quantifying microplastic in soil and researching how they impacted soil health. Her thesis is published in OAKTrust. Furthermore, she also participated in a research project studying onsite wastewater treatment systems. Her engineering senior design project was a decentralized wastewater treatment plant in Ecuador. Lindsey has also been involved with ASPIRE, a freshmen seminar class, for three years in various leadership roles, including serving as the community service coordinator. Lindsey is passionate about protecting the environment and helping people have access to the natural resources they need.
Ms. Sydney Beckner was a Research Associate at the Texas Water Resources Institute (2019-2021). She is currently the Water Program Manager for the Hill Country Alliance. Sydney's research interests include urban water security and environmental governance. She holds a B.S. in Environmental Geoscience and recently obtained her M.S. in Geography, both from Texas A&M University. For the X-Grant project, Sydney led Q-Method studies in the Texas study sites of Corpus Christi, San Antonio and El Paso. She has experience with the methodology and governance regimes in Texas from her Master's work on understanding social perspectives on the controversial Vista Ridge Pipeline.
Nichole Mehlhaff is a second year Masters student in the Department of Geography at Texas A&M University working on her thesis regarding the roles of food banks in minority communities as they relate to food insecurity and food accessibility. She graduated with geoscience writing and research skills from Texas A&M in 2019 with a Bachelors in Environmental Studies. In addition to her thesis research, she serves as an assistant researcher and program coordinator for the Pathways to Sustainable Urban Water Security project.
Petra Garza graduated from Texas A&M University in December 2020 and worked on the project since Fall 2019. She is majoring in Environmental Studies with a focus in Global Environment systems. She is a member of the environmental program involvement committee. She went on a mission trip to Haiti to teach the people about clean water and to bring the resources for clean water filters. Ever since that mission trip, she has been passionate about bringing people clean water.
Prabodh Gedam is a second year Master of Public Service and Administration candidate (exp. 2021) at The Bush School of Government and Public Service and is interning as research assistant. As a student researcher, Prabodh is working on water security metrics and is developing a comprehensive & exhaustive framework to be utilized in long-term research and decision-making efforts. He completed Bachelor's studies in Chemical Engineering and currently as part of Master's studies he is pursuing quantitative and qualitative analysis methods along with latest programming tools as utility. His committed involvement of the past with civic-engagement groups and an understanding through community lenses helps him approach issues and bridge the gap between decision makers and people on receiving ends.
Ryan Earl graduated from Texas A&M University in December 2020 as a major in Geographic Information Science and Technology with a focus on computation, design, and analysis and this is his first semester working on the project. As a student researcher Ryan has worked with the department of Sociology to study segregation patterns in historic Census data, healthcare shortage areas, and maternal mortality in Texas. Ryan also serves as a volunteer mapper for the Humanitarian Open Street Map to aid in natural disaster response internationally. He became interested in the X Grant project after entering the field of civil engineering and seeing the importance of water/wastewater master planning to continued community growth through his work on the overall water plans for Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Seth Boettcher is a second year J.D. candidate at Texas A&M University School of Law. He graduated with a B.S. degree in petroleum engineering from Texas Tech University in 2017. In addition to researching municipal water infrastructure and freshwater alternatives in El Paso, Texas for Professor Gabriel Eckstein, Seth serves as a teaching assistant for the Academic Support program at law school. During summer 2018, he interned with Federal Magistrate Judge K. Nicole Mitchell in the Eastern District of Texas. Seth's career interests include energy, environmental, natural resources, and intellectual property law. His research interests include environmental law, land use, and property rights.
Victoria Harrington is a second year Masters student in the Department of Geography at Texas A&M University. She graduated with B.A. degrees in Geography and Anthropology from the University of Florida in 2019, where she first gained field experience with survey- and interview-based research. Her research focuses on how water insecurity shifts from being an acute to chronic issue post-natural disaster. Specifically, she will focus on how Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath impacted the water systems of communities in the Golden Triangle - Port Arthur, Beaumont, and Orange -as well as the current status of recovery at the household level. By utilizing a political ecology framework, she will be able to draw relationships and connections on what communities are most vulnerable to water system failures in relation to their socioeconomic status.