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Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016 (2016)

Chapter: Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23672.
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Appendix E

Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff

David B. Ashley (Chair) is a professor of engineering practice in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Southern California. Dr. Ashley retired as a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) in 2015 where he also served as its eighth president from 2006 to 2009. Prior to joining UNLV, President Ashley served as executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of California, Merced, and held the Shaffer-George Chair in Engineering. He has also served as dean of engineering at The Ohio State University and has held civil engineering faculty positions at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Ashley’s principal research and teaching activities are in the area of construction project planning, focusing primarily on risk analysis and management of large-scale, complex projects. His recent studies have addressed innovative project financing and new project procurement approaches. He has served on several NRC committees, including the Committee on Assessing the Results of External Independent Reviews for U.S. Department of Energy Projects and the Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress (since 2010). Dr. Ashley received a B.S. in civil engineering and an M.S. in civil engineering–project management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.S. in engineering–economic systems, and a Ph.D. in civil engineering–constructing, engineering, and management from Stanford University.

Mary Jane Angelo is a professor of law at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law and Director of the Environmental and Land Use Law Program. Her research areas focus on environmental law, water law, administrative law, biotechnology law, dispute resolution, pesticides law, law and science, and legal ethics. Prior to joining the faculty, Ms. Angelo served as an attorney in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of General Counsel and as senior

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23672.
×

assistant general counsel for the St. Johns River Water Management District. She has served on several National Research Council committees, including the Committee on Ecological Risk Assessment under FIFRA and ESA and the Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress (since 2010). She received her B.S. in biological sciences from Rutgers University and her M.S. and J.D. from the University of Florida.

William G. Boggess is a professor and executive associate dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University (OSU). Prior to joining OSU, Dr. Boggess spent 16 years on the faculty at the University of Florida in the Food and Resource Economics Department. His research interests include interactions between agriculture and the environment (e.g., water allocation, groundwater contamination, surface-water pollution, sustainable systems); economic dimensions and indicators of ecosystem health; and applications of real options to environmental and natural resources. Dr. Boggess previously served on the Oregon Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors and the Board of Directors of the American Agricultural Economics Association, and he currently serves on the Board of the Oregon Environmental Council. He served on the State of Oregon Environment Report Science Panel and has been active in the design and assessment of the Oregon Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. Dr. Boggess served as a member of the National Research Council Committee on the Use of Treated Municipal Wastewater Effluents and Sludge in the Production of Crops for Human Consumption, and on the Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress (since 2008) serving as chair of the fourth committee. He received his Ph.D. from Iowa State University.

Charley Driscoll (NAE) is university professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Syracuse University where he also serves as the director of the Center for Environmental Systems Engineering. His teaching and research interests are in the area of environmental chemistry, biogeochemistry, and environmental quality modeling. A principal research focus has been the response of forest, aquatic, and coastal ecosystems to disturbance, including air pollution, land use change, and elevated inputs of nutrients and mercury. Dr. Driscoll is currently a principal investigator of the National Science Foundation’s Long Term Ecological Research Network’s project at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and was a member of the NRC’s Panel on Process of Lake Acidification, the Committees on Air Quality Management in the U.S. and the Collaborative Large-scale Engineering Analysis Network for Environmental Research (CLEANER). He also has served on the Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress since 2006. Dr. Driscoll

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23672.
×

received his B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Maine and his M.S. and Ph.D. in environmental engineering from Cornell University.

M. Siobhan Fennessy is the Jordan Professor of Biology and Environmental Science at Kenyon College, where she studies wetland ecosystems, particularly how wetland plant communities and biogeochemical cycles respond to human disturbances such as altered land use and factors associated with climate change. Her work has resulted in the development of biological assessment methods for wetlands that were recently employed in the National Wetland Condition Assessment effort led by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She previously served on the faculty of the Geography Department of University College London and held a joint appointment at the Station Biologique du la Tour du Valat investigating human impacts to Mediterranean wetlands. She was a member of the U.S EPA’s Biological Assessment of Wetlands Workgroup, a national technical committee working to develop biological indicators of ecosystem condition. She recently co-authored a book on the ecology of wetland plants. Her current research focus is the alteration of ecosystem services that results from ecosystem degradation. Dr. Fennessy received her B.S. in botany and Ph.D. in environmental science from The Ohio State University. She served as a member of the National Academies’ Committee to Review the St. Johns River Water Supply Impact Study.

William L. Graf is University Foundation Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, at the University of South Carolina. His expertise is in fluvial geomorphology and hydrology, as well as policy for public land and water. Dr. Graf’s research and teaching have focused on river-channel change, human impacts on river processes, morphology, and ecology, along with contaminant transport and storage in river systems. His present work emphasizes the downstream effects of dams on rivers. In the arena of public policy, he has emphasized the interaction of science and decision making, and the resolution of conflicts among economic development, historical preservation, and environmental restoration for rivers. Dr. Graf has served as a member of the NRC’s Water Science and Technology Board and the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources and has served on numerous NRC committees, including the Geographical Sciences Committee and the Committee on Restoration of the Greater Everglades Ecosystem. He has served on the Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress since 2004. He is also a national associate of the National Academies and an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow. Dr. Graf earned a certificate of water resources management and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23672.
×

Karl E. Havens is a professor and director of Florida Sea Grant at the University of Florida. He has worked with Florida aquatic ecosystems and the use of objective science in their management for the past 23 years. His areas of expertise are in the fields of the response of aquatic ecosystems to natural and human-caused stressors, including hurricanes, drought, climate change, eutrophication, invasive species and toxic materials, with particular attention to Florida’s lakes and estuaries. Before coming to the University of Florida, Havens was the chief environmental scientist at the South Florida Water Management District. He received his B.A. from SUNY Buffalo, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from West Virginia University.

Wayne C. Huber is a professor emeritus of civil and construction engineering at Oregon State University. His research interests are principally in the areas of urban hydrology and stormwater management, nonpoint source pollution, and transport processes related to water quality. He is one of the original authors of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) and more recently contributed to EPA’s development of version 5 of that model. Dr. Huber is a former member of the Committee on Restoration of the Greater Everglades Ecosystem and served as chair of the first Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress. He received his B.S. degree in engineering from the California Institute of Technology. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Fernando R. Miralles-Wilhelm is the executive director of the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, a cooperative institute between the University of Maryland and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and a professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at the University of Maryland. Dr. Miralles-Wilhelm specializes in hydrology and water resources engineering, with a particular focus on hydrology and climate interactions in the Everglades’ vegetative ecosystems, which he has been studying for the past decade. Previously, he served on the faculty of Florida International University and the University of Miami. He received a mechanical engineering diploma from Universidad Simón Bolívar in Venezuela, an M.S. degree in engineering from the University of California-Irvine, and a Ph.D. degree in civil and environmental engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

David H. Moreau is a research professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He recently completed a term as chair of the Curriculum for the Environment and Ecology. His research interests include analysis, planning, financing, and evaluation of water resource,

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23672.
×

water quality, and related environmental programs. Dr. Moreau is engaged in water resources planning at the local, state, and national levels. He has served on several National Research Council committees, including the Committee on New Orleans Regional Hurricane Protection Projects Review, the Committee on the Mississippi River and Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico, and the Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress (since 2006). Dr. Moreau recently completed 19 years as a member and 16 years as chairman of the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission, the state’s regulatory commission for water quality, air quality, and water allocation. For his service to North Carolina he was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest civilian award offered by the state. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Mississippi State University and North Carolina State University, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree from Harvard University.

Gordon H. Orians (NAS) is a professor emeritus of biology at the University of Washington. Most of Dr. Orians’s research has focused on behavioral ecology of birds and has dealt primarily with problems of habitat selection, mate selection and mating systems, selection of prey and foraging patches, and the relationship between ecology and social organization. Recently, his research has focused on environmental aesthetics and the evolutionary roots of strong emotional responses to components of the environment, such as landscapes, flowers, sunsets, and sounds. Dr. Orians has served on the Science Advisory Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and on boards of such environmental organizations as the World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy. He has also served on many National Academies committees, including the first Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress, the Committee on Cumulative Environmental Effects of Alaskan North Slope Oil and Gas Activities, and the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Orians earned his B.S. degree in zoology from the University of Wisconsin and his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Denise J. Reed is the chief scientist at the Water Institute of the Gulf. She is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in coastal marsh sustainability and the role of human activities in modifying coastal systems with over 30 years of experience studying coastal issues in the United States and abroad. Prior to joining the Water Institute, Dr. Reed served as Interim Director of the Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences and as a professor in the University of New Orleans’ Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. She has served on numerous boards and panels addressing the effects of human alterations on coastal environments and the role of science in guiding restora-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23672.
×

tion, including the NRC Committee on Sustainable Water and Environmental Management in the California Bay-Delta, and has been a member of the USACE Environmental Advisory Board and the Ecosystems Sciences and Management Working Group of the NOAA Science Advisory Board. Dr. Reed received her B.S. degree in Geography from Sidney Sussex College, and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from University of Cambridge.

James E. Saiers is a professor of hydrology, the associate dean of Academic Affairs, and professor of chemical engineering at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Dr. Saiers studies the circulation of water and the movement of waterborne chemicals in surface and subsurface environments. One element of his research centers on quantifying the effects that interactions between hydrologic and geochemical processes have on the migration of contaminants in groundwater. Another focus is on the dynamics of surface water and groundwater flow in wetlands and the response of fluid flow characteristics to changes in climate and water management practices. His work couples field observations and laboratory-scale experimentation with mathematical modeling. Dr. Saiers was a member of the NRC’s Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress and chaired the Committee to Review the Florida Aquifer Storage and Recovery Regional Study Technical Data Report. Additionally, he served as a member of the Hydraulic Fracturing Research Advisory Panel of the EPA Science Advisory Board. He earned his B.S. in geology from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and his M.S. and Ph.D. in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia.

Jeffrey R. Walters is the Harold Bailey Professor of Biology at Virginia Tech, a position he has held since 1994. His professional experience includes assistant, associate, and full professorships at North Carolina State University from 1980 until 1994. His research interests are in the behavioral ecology, population biology, and conservation of birds, and his recent work has focused on cooperative breeding, dispersal behavior, and endangered species issues. Dr. Walters is best known for his long-term studies of the cooperatively breeding red-cockaded woodpecker, an endangered species endemic to the southeastern United States. He has extensive experience with issues related to the restoration of the Everglades, having chaired an American Ornithologists’ Union Conservation Committee Review that looked at the biology, status, and management of the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, a bird endemic to the Everglades, served in two panels of the Sustainable Ecosystems Institute that addressed issues with endangered birds in the Everglades restoration, served as a member of the NRC’s Committee on Restoration of the Greater Everglades Ecosystem, and served as a member of the first and fourth, and chair of the fifth, Committees on Indepen-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23672.
×

dent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress. Dr. Walters devotes considerable time to providing such reviews and syntheses of science relevant to conservation issues, for example chairing a recent panel that reviewed the conservation of the endangered California Condor and heading an initiative for the ornithological societies to establish a process for conducting such reviews in the area of avian conservation. He holds a B.A. from West Virginia University and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

STAFF

Stephanie E. Johnson, study director, is a senior program officer with the Water Science and Technology Board. Since joining the National Research Council in 2002, she has worked on a wide range of water-related studies, on topics such as desalination, wastewater reuse, contaminant source remediation, coal and uranium mining, coastal risk reduction, and ecosystem restoration. She has served as study director for fifteen committees, including the Panel to Review the Critical Ecosystem Studies Initiative and all six Committees on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress. Dr. Johnson received her B.A. from Vanderbilt University in chemistry and geology, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia.

David J. Policansky is a scholar and director of the Program in Applied Ecology and Natural Resources of the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. He earned a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Oregon. Dr. Policansky has directed approximately 35 National Research Council studies, and his areas of expertise include genetics; evolution; ecology, including fishery biology; natural resource management; and the use of science in policy making.

Ed Dunne is a program officer with the Water Science and Technology Board. Since joining WSTB in 2014, he has worked on topics covering flood insurance, watershed management, remote sensing of water resources, and reuse of water from the oil and gas industry. Prior to joining the Academies, Dr. Dunne was an environmental scientist with the Saint Johns River Water Management District in Florida. He managed large-scale constructed wetlands and contributed to projects that included aspects of ecological engineering, restoration ecology, limnology, and watershed management. Prior to that, he was an assistant research scientist and postdoctoral research associate in the Soil and Water Science Department at the University of Florida, where he undertook research and managed projects on wetland restoration and biogeochemistry. Dr. Dunne received a B.S. in biology from Bangor University, Wales. He also received his M.S. and Ph.D. in environmental resource management from University College Dublin, Ireland.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23672.
×

Brendan R. McGovern is a senior program assistant with the Water Science and Technology Board. Mr. McGovern has contributed to a number of studies and projects on municipal water, aquifer storage and recovery, community-based flood insurance, and coastal risk reduction. He previously worked with the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Stimson Center on international water security issues. He earned his B.A.s from the University of California, Davis in political science and history.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23672.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23672.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23672.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23672.
×
Page 242
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23672.
×
Page 243
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23672.
×
Page 244
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23672.
×
Page 245
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23672.
×
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The Everglades ecosystem is vast, stretching more than 200 miles from Orlando to Florida Bay, and Everglades National Park is but a part located at the southern end. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the historical Everglades has been reduced to half of its original size, and what remains is not the pristine ecosystem many image it to be, but one that has been highly engineered and otherwise heavily influenced, and is intensely managed by humans. Rather than slowly flowing southward in a broad river of grass, water moves through a maze of canals, levees, pump stations, and hydraulic control structures, and a substantial fraction is diverted from the natural system to meet water supply and flood control needs. The water that remains is polluted by phosphorus and other contaminants originating from agriculture and other human activities. Many components of the natural system are highly degraded and continue to degrade.

Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades is the sixth biennial review of progress made in meeting the goals of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). This complex, multibillion-dollar project to protect and restore the remaining Everglades has a 30-40 year timeline. This report assesses progress made in the various separate project components and discusses specific scientific and engineering issues that may impact further progress. According to Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades, a dedicated source of funding could provide ongoing long-term system-wide monitoring and assessment that is critical to meeting restoration objectives. This report examines the implications of knowledge gained and changes in widely accepted scientific understanding regarding pre-drainage hydrology, climate change, and the feasibility of water storage since the CERP was developed.

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