Effects of Climate Change on Natural Disasters Wednesday, May 2nd at 1 PM
AZ Water Conference Chair Panel Discussion Facilitator
Marie Pearthree has over 35 years of experience in the water industry. Positions she has held have included President of the AZ Water Association; Deputy General Manager of the Central Arizona Project; Principal Project Manager at CH2M; and Deputy Director, Tucson Water Department. A registered civil engineer, she also holdsa Bachelor of Arts in Geology from Oberlin College, Ohio and a Master of Science from the University of Arizona in Geosciences.
Assistant Director of UtilitiesCity of Miramar, Florida
Ms. Bain has almost 38 years of experience in the water industry, largely working in the public sector. She currently serves as the Assistant Director of Utilities in the City of Miramar, Florida. Robin is a die-hard Hokie, with both a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering from Virginia Tech. She’s a registered professional civil engineer in Arizona and Florida, a Board Certified Environmental Engineer, and 4 x 4 Operator Certifications in Arizona. In addition to her kids and grandkids, Robin cherishes being the recipient of AZ Water’s 2014 Environmental Stewardship Award, WateReuse Association’s 2012 Person of the Year Award, and in 2016, her induction into the Virginia Tech Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni.
Surface Water Resources Manager Salt River Project
Charlie Ester is the Surface Water Resources manager at the Salt River Project (SRP). SRP is a water and power utility founded in 1903 which serves the majority of the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Surface Water Resources group is responsible for weather forecasting in support of power and water operations, watershed monitoring, runoff forecasting, reservoir operations planning, flood emergency reservoir operations, and drought preparedness. Charlie is the past chairman of the Oak Creek Watershed Council, a member of Carpe Diem West’s Leadership Team and Healthy Headwaters consortium, and promotes SRP’s Watershed Stewardship role through an expanding internal monitoring effort, a research program with Arizona’s universities, and by participation with the Forest Service and other collaborators on various forest and watershed restoration efforts. Charlie has been with SRP more than 34-years and is a 1983 Hydrology graduate of the University of Arizona.
Director University of Arizona SW Climate Science Center
Gregg Garfin is Associate Professor in Climate, Natural Resources and Policy, in the University of Arizona’s School of Natural Resources and the Environment, and University Director of the Southwest Climate Science Center—a partnership between the USGS and the University of Arizona. His research focuses on adaptation to drought, extreme climate and weather events and a changing climate. In his extension work, he convenes dialogues with resource managers and planners, in order to plan for and reduce climate-related risks. He is the lead author for the Southwest chapter in the Fourth National Climate Assessment.
Director The Cadmus Group’s Climate Security, Adaptation, and Resilience Practice & Solutions
Ms. Emily Wasley has more than 13 years of experience working with a variety of private, nonprofit, academic, and government organizations on domestic and international climate change research, policy, and strategy. She serves as Director of Cadmus’ Climate Security, Adaptation, and Resilience Practice where she manages an interdisciplinary team leveraging Cadmus’ technical, policy, and modeling expertise to help clients understand their risks and vulnerabilities and identify the most appropriate solutions and opportunities to prepare, adapt, and sustainably thrive in a changing climate. Prior to Cadmus, Ms. Wasley served as the Inform Decisions and Adaptation Science Program Manager for the U.S. Global Change Research Program (overseen by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy), as well as a science translator for Federal agencies developing their Agency Adaptation Plans, as a technical climate expert supporting the Administration’s Preparedness Pilots, and as contributing author of the Third National Climate Assessment’s Adaptation Chapter.
Ms. Wasley is a certified Change Management Advanced Practitioner (CMAP) and Decision Making for Climate Change professional. She holds an M.A. in Environmental and Natural Resources Policy and a B.A. in Public Policy and Environmental Studies. Ms. Wasley also serves as an Adjunct Fellow for the American Security Project and a member of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Resilience Working Group.
Deputy Director, AZ Dept of Emergency & Military Affairs (DEMA) Director, DEMA's Division of Emergency Management
Wendy Smith-Reeve serves as both the Deputy Director of the Arizona Department of Emergency & Military Affairs (DEMA) and Director of DEMA’s Division of Emergency Management.
As Director of Emergency Management, Smith-Reeve manages the state’s emergency preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation efforts for Arizona. As Deputy Director for DEMA, she supports the agency Director/Adjutant General in ensuring agency alignment with the Governor’s vision and priorities.
Smith-Reeve joined DEMA’s Division of Emergency Management in September 1996. During her 21-year tenure at DEMA, Smith-Reevehas supported and/or managed state response and recovery efforts for more than 90 state disaster declarations, and 12presidential disaster declarations. She is a member of the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA), and currently serves as Past-President. Smith-Reeve also supports multiple committees, councils and groups which all have a strong link to emergency management.
Making the Media Work for You Thursday, May 3rd at 10 AM
Director, AZ Water Association Panel Discussion Facilitator
David Iwanski graduated from Marquette University with a B.A. and received his J.D. from Pepperdine University School of Law. He served 4 years on active duty with the Army and then went to work for Arizona Congressman Eldon Rudd as the Appropriations Committee staffer.
Subsequent positions include Director of the Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs for the Bureau of Reclamation, as Glendale's first Water Resources Director, as Executive Vice President for the Arizona Agri-Business Council, as Goodyear's Water Resources Manager, and as a consultant. Mr. Iwanski also served on the Avondale City Council and is currently the Executive Director for the AZ Water Association.
Chief Communications and Development Officer Imagine Schools
Rhonda Cagle serves as Chief Communications and Development Officer for Imagine Schools, a national non-profit charter school organization. Imagine Schools has 4,000 employees, 56 campuses, and serves approximately 32,000 students in nine states. Her responsibilities include corporate and crisis communications, legislative affairs, and development.
In times of urgent response, Rhonda balances legal and HR sensitivities with the need to provide credible, consistent, and clear communication across a spectrum of media outlets and audiences. She serves as corporate spokesperson and communicator, drawing from a background of strategic planning and execution, writing, editing, and internal and external communications.
Associate Publisher & Arizona News Service Editor AZ Capital Times
An award-winning journalist, Luige covers state politics and oversees the newsroom of the Arizona Capitol Times. He also manages the business units of Arizona News Service. In addition, Luige edits the Yellow Sheet Report and the Legislative Report, Arizona’s premier political tipsheets. He is a native of the Philippines and previously worked in Manila for the nation’s largest daily newspaper, The Philippine Daily Inquirer. At the Inquirer, he covered crime, labor, elections and national security. He was also part of the paper’s special projects team and covered several coup d’état attempts in his home country before moving to the United States in 2006. Luige graduated with honors from the school of journalism at the University of Philippines. He joined the Arizona Capitol Times shortly after moving to Arizona. He has won numerous local and national awards in the U.S. for his reporting about politics, including earning first place for politics and government reporting in the Arizona Press Club’s annual contest.
Dean of the Arizona Capitol Press Corps Capitol Media Services
Considered the dean of the Arizona Capitol Press Corps, Howard “Howie” Fischer has been a journalist for 48 years. He has covered the state Capitol since 1982. Howie started Capitol Media Services in 1992 so he could concentrate on legislative issues. His work regularly appears in more than a dozen papers statewide, as well as in public radio stations. Before starting Capitol Media Services, Howie worked for various publications in Arizona, including Arizona Daily Star, Bisbee Review, Sierra Vista Herald, New Times and Phoenix Business Journal, as well as news director for KSUN in Bisbee. Howie has been in Arizona since 1974. Previously, he worked for the Post-Standard in Syracuse. He lives in Laveen with his wife, five cats, and outnumbered dog.
Governor’s Office Reporter AZ Capital Times
In addition to the governor’s beat, Rachel covers the Corporation Commission and energy/environmental issues for the Arizona Capitol Times. Originally from North Dakota, Rachel earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and international studies from Minnesota State University-Moorhead, where she headed the school’s student newspaper. After graduation, she worked with AmeriCorps to build mentoring and service-learning programs for minority college students in Washington state. She then got a master’s degree in mass communications at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where she worked for the school’s wire service, Cronkite News. She interned at ABC15 in Phoenix and was a fellow with the News21 program at Cronkite. After graduation, she covered city and county government for the Rochester Post-Bulletin in Rochester, Minn., before returning to Phoenix
State Government ReporterArizona Republic
Mary Jo currently is a state government reporter at The Arizona Republic, an assignment that includes covering the Legislature, following the policy developments lawmakers enact, and showing how those policies are carried out by state agencies. And, of course, keeping an eye on the politics that drive policy decisions. At The Republic, she has covered a variety of beats, ranging from education to transportation to the environment. State government reporting seems to pull allof those areas together. She is a resident of central Phoenix and a proud resident of the F.Q. Story neighborhood. When not running around the state Capitol, Mary Jo enjoys gardening, hiking, tending to her neglected household and singing in a women’s chorus at Phoenix College. She also helps run a journalism contest that features the best work in 14 Western states, and in the process, raises money for First Amendment causes. Mary Jo is a native of Omaha, Nebraska and a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she earned degrees in journalism and French. She also earned a diploma in international development at the Flinders University of South Australia.
Perspectives on the Evolving Water Policy in AZ Friday, May 4th at 10 AM
Director, Tucson WaterPanel Discussion Facilitator
Tim Thomure is the Director of Tucson Water, providing potable and reclaimed water service to 720,000 people in southern Arizona. Tucson is widely recognized for its industry-leading water conservation ethic and a resilient water supply portfolio that provides water reliability to a desert region. Tucson has a prime interest in the Colorado River, holding the largest M&I subcontract for CAP water in the state. Tim is a licensed PE with 23 years of experience working in public utilities, private industry, and consulting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois and a Master of Engineering degree from the University of Arizona. He serves on the Board of Trustees for the AZ Water Association (AWWA / WEF), is Past President of WateReuse Arizona, and serves on the National Board of the Water Environment & Reuse Foundation (WE&RF).
Water Program LeadThe Nature Conservancy
Scott Deeny is the Water Program Lead for the Arizona Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. In that capacity, Scott supervises all water projects that the Conservancy is involved in across the State, and also serves as the Conservancy’s voice on statewide water policy and legal issues. Prior to coming to work for the Conservancy, Scott practiced water law for 16 years in both private and public practice, specializing in water rights litigation. As an attorney, Scott represented the Arizona Department of Water Resources in all areas of water law, as well as numerous clients on water rights issues in private practice.
Senior Director Environmental Defense Fund
Kevin Moran, Senior Director, EDF Western Water Program, directs strategy and operations for EDF’s program in the seven Colorado River Basin states. EDF works to reverse groundwater depletion, incentivize farmers and ranchers to conserve water in ways that benefit ecosystems, and balance water supply and demand in the Colorado River Basin. Kevin approaches water management issues with a public policy and strategic communications expertise developed over 20 years, more than a decade of which was in corporate leadership. Kevin earned a B.A., History, from Brown University, a J.D. from ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, and an MBA, Thunderbird School of Global Management. He is based in Phoenix.
Director Kyl Center for Water Policy
The Kyl Center promotes research and collaboration to build consensus-supported water policy solutions for Arizona and the West.
Current projects focus on municipal water resilience, developing Arizona’s future water leaders and finding ways to resolve claims in Arizona’s four-decades-long water rights lawsuits.
My parents really wanted me to be an engineer or a scientist. Somehow, I wound up with a law degree.
Sarah Porter is the inaugural director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University's Morrison Institute for Public Policy. Established in 2014, the Kyl Center promotes research, analysis, collaboration and open dialogue to build consensus in support of sound water stewardship solutions for Arizona and the West. Sarah came to the Kyl Center from the National Audubon Society, where she served as the Arizona state director and led Audubon's Western Rivers Project, a multistate initiative to protect and restore important river habitats in the Intermountain West. Before joining the staff of Audubon in 2006, Sarah spent fourteen years as an attorney in private practice, specializing in complex commercial litigation. She serves on Governor Ducey’s Water Augmentation Council, University of Arizona's Water Resources Research Center's External Advisory Council, the Phoenix Parks and Recreation Board, Phoenix’s Environmental Quality and Sustainability Commission and several other community boards. A native of Phoenix, Sarah received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and her J.D. from Arizona State University College of Law. In January, Sarah was named by the Arizona Republic as one of “Sixteen Arizonans to Watch in 2016.”