Appendix C

Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff

Committee Members

Paul K. Barten, Chair, is a professor in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research centers on the links between land use, streamflow and water quality. The primary motivation for this work is the protection of drinking water supplies and aquatic ecosystems in collaboration with local communities, water utilities, nongovernmental organizations and state and federal agencies. Geographic information systems (GIS) and environmental monitoring data are frequently used to identify critical areas for conservation, restoration, and stormwater management. Other studies and long-term service projects focus on continuous improvement of forest conservation and watershed management programs in the northern United States and Canada. He is co-author, with Dr. Avril de la Crétaz, of Land Use Effects on Streamflow and Water Quality in the Northeastern United States. Dr. Barten has served on three National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committees, including one as chair. He was a member of the original Academies’ review of the New York City watershed management strategy. He received an A.A.S. in forestry and land surveying from the New York State Ranger School, a B.S. in forest resources management from the State University of New York at Syracuse, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in forest hydrology and watershed management from the University of Minnesota, St. Paul.

Dorothy J. Merritts, Vice-Chair, is the Harry W. and Mary B. Huffnagle Professor of Geoscience in the Department of Earth and Environment at Franklin and Marshall College. She is president-elect of the American Geophysical Union Earth and Planetary Surface Processes Focus Group. Dr. Merritts’s research interests include the impact of geologic processes, climate change, and human activities on the form and history of Earth’s surface, with particular focus on use of high-resolution topographic data, radiocarbon dating of sedimentary deposits, and identification of macrofossils in soils and sediments. Her research experience is on erosion, deposition, and river terrace formation in response to changes in land use, climate, and base-level associated with dams and dam removal; on changes in channel geometry, pattern, or gradient in response to dam breaching, uplift, deforestation, and other forcing factors; and on methods and monitoring of wetland and stream restoration. She has served on or chaired five other committees of the National Academies. Dr. Merritts received a B.S. in geology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, an M.S. in engineering geology from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Arizona.

Michael A. Anderson is a professor of applied limnology and environmental chemistry at the University of California Riverside (UCR), where he has taught since 1990. His research focuses on the limnology and management of lakes and reservoirs; surface water quality and modeling; fate of contaminants in waters, soils,

and sediment; and environmental chemistry. He has been engaged in studies assessing surface water quality, development of management strategies, and assisting in the development of total maximum daily loads for Lake Elsinore, Canyon Lake, Big Bear Lake, the Salton Sea, and other lakes in California. He has also worked closely with the Metropolitan Water District and other water districts on water quality, including nutrients and pathogens, and implications for treatment and public health. Dr. Anderson recently served as Divisional Dean for Agriculture and Natural Resources at UCR, and previously served as chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences. He also recently served as a member of the National Water Research Institute Expert Panel on Surface Water Augmentation and Potable Reuse, Independent Advisory Committees for indirect potable reuse projects for the City of San Diego, Padre Dam Municipal Water District and Las Virgenes Water District, the Salton Sea Science Advisory Committee, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Harmful Algal Blooms Grant Panel. He also served as associate editor for Lake and Reservoir Management from 2004 to 2017. Dr. Anderson received his B.S. in biology from Illinois Benedictine College, his M.S. in environmental studies from Bemidji State University, and his Ph.D. in environmental chemistry from Virginia Polytechnic and State University.

Elizabeth W. Boyer is an associate professor of water resources in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at the Pennsylvania State University. She serves as director of the Pennsylvania Water Resources Research Center, and as assistant director of Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment. Prior to her current position, Boyer served on the faculty at the State University of New York at Syracuse and at the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Boyer’s research explores the status and trends of water quality of streams, rivers, and estuaries in response to factors such as atmospheric deposition, climatic variability, land use, and watershed management. Her watershed-scale work focuses on coupled hydrological, biological, and geological processes that affect forests and their associated water resources. Dr. Boyer serves on the Board of Directors of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrological Sciences, Inc., and the Universities Council on Water Resources; serves on several Environmental Protection Agency advisory panels; and serves as an editor of the international journal Hydrological Processes. She has chaired the American Geophysical Union’s technical committee on Water Quality and has chaired the international Gordon Research Conference on Catchment Science. She holds a B.S. in geography from the Pennsylvania State University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia.

Zachary M. Easton is an associate professor in biological systems engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The primary focus of Dr. Easton’s work is to improve understanding of hydrologic and terrestrial processes that control biogeochemical cycles and fluxes with the ultimate goal of developing policies and management practices that protect water, soil, and other natural resources. His research addresses both native and managed systems, considers processes at plot to large river basin scales, and is relatively evenly divided among field study/monitoring, modeling, and application of results to real-world problems. His ongoing projects focus primarily on the Chesapeake Bay watershed, specifically determining relationships among biogeochemical hotspots, landscape hydrology, the impact that climate change and variability have on these processes, how climate change impacts the phenology of agricultural management and the ensuing effect on water quality. Dr. Easton serves on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Chesapeake Bay Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee. He is also an advisor to the Natural Resources Conservation Service on revisions to the 590 Nutrient Management Standard Phosphorus-Index. He holds a B.S. from the University of Massachusetts and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Cornell University.

Stephen A. Estes-Smargiassi is director of planning and sustainability at the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA). Throughout his career, he has focused on gathering and managing multidisciplinary teams to manage, design, and communicate complex environmental projects to the public. He coordinated protection planning studies for the 400-square-mile Quabbin, Ware River, and Wachusett reservoir watersheds, as well as about 40 other smaller supply systems in the Boston metropolitan area. He was the technical lead in developing the materials to supporting MWRA’s decision to remain an unfiltered system as well as successfully defending

that decision in Federal court. Protection plans for local sources (of partially supplied customer communities and adjacent non-customers) resulted in no additional local supplies being lost to contamination, a key part of MWRA’s long term demand management planning. Mr. Estes-Smargiassi is responsible for producing and distributing MWRA’s annual water quality report to over 800,000 households, as well as monthly public reports, and using those opportunities to reinforce the bridges built over the past decade to the public health community. He coordinated drinking water quality and health outcome research to understand and evaluate MWRA’s completed switch to ozone disinfection, and continues to evaluate key public health, water quality and treatment research. More recently, he has overseen efforts to understand the impacts of climate change on the watershed and reservoir system. Mr. Estes-Smargiassi received his B.S. in civil engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in city and regional planning from Harvard University.

Robert M. Hirsch is a research hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). As a research hydrologist, the focus of his research is on the description and understanding of long-term variability and change in surface-water quality and streamflow. From 1994 through May 2008, he served as the chief hydrologist of the USGS. In this capacity, Dr. Hirsch was responsible for all USGS water science programs, which encompass research and monitoring of the nation’s groundwater and surface water resources including issues of water quantity as well as quality. Dr. Hirsch has received numerous honors from the federal government and from nongovernmental organizations, including the 2006 American Water Resources Association’s William C. Ackermann Medal for Excellence in Water Management, selection to be the Walter Langbein Lecturer of the American Geophysical Union in 2017, and has twice been conferred the rank of Meritorious Senior Executive by the U.S. President. He is coauthor of the textbook Statistical Methods in Water Resources. Dr. Hirsch has served on two National Academies committees, including the Committee to Review the NYC DEP Operations Support Tool. Dr. Hirsch received a B.A. in geology from Earlham College, an M.S. in geology from University of Washington, and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the Johns Hopkins University.

Desmond F. Lawler is the Nasser I. Al-Rashid Chair in Civil Engineering and a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin. He has been on the faculty at UT since 1980, teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses in environmental engineering, particularly on water and wastewater treatment. His research focuses on physical and chemical treatment processes for water and wastewater. Throughout his career, he has studied particle removal processes and more recently has been studying desalination, stormwater treatment, processes for the removal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products, and the removal of inorganic contaminants from both drinking water and wastewater. His contributions to research and education have been recognized with major awards by the American Water Works Association (A. P. Black Award, 1999), Water Environment Federation (Gordon Fair Distinguished Engineering Educator Award, 2009), American Membrane Technology Association (Water Quality Person of the Year, 2010), and the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (“Distinguished Lecturer” for 2012-13; Charles R. O’Melia Distinguished Educator Award, 2012, and Outstanding Contribution to Environmental Engineering Education, 2015. Dr. Lawler coauthored Water Quality Engineering: Physical-Chemical Treatment Processes. He received his B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Notre Dame and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Menu B. Leddy is a principal scientist who has designed, managed, and directed the molecular biology laboratory at the Research and Development Department of the Orange County Water District. Ms. Leddy has over 20 years of experience in developing and implementing rapid methods for the detection and identification of microorganisms, including pathogens, in microbial communities associated with drinking water, surface water, groundwater, wastewater and treatment wetlands. Her professional expertise is in microbial water quality, fate and transport of pathogens, and treatment technologies for compliance and mitigation of contaminants in surface and drinking water, wastewater, and for water reuse. She is involved with the California State Water Board regarding water regulations and water quality policies. Ms. Leddy is also the lead scientist on several multidisciplinary-funded research projects, including one profiling microbial communities of unit processes

for advanced treated wastewater by Next Generation Sequencing, another on the association of pathogens and indicator organisms in urban runoff, and a third on monitoring of viruses in wastewater treatment plants. She has authored and co-authored research papers in areas that include bioremediation, bacterial regrowth, bacterial nutrients and measurement, advanced techniques and biological treatment, microbial recovery and identification, constructed wetlands, community analysis and high-throughput sequencing. She has a B.S. in biology from Stony Brook University, New York, and an M.Sc. in microbiology/molecular biology from California State University, Long Beach.

Jay R. Lund (NAE) is the director of the Center for Watershed Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Davis. His research and teaching focus on applications of systems analysis, economic, and management methods to infrastructure and public works problems. His recent work is primarily on water and environmental problems, but he has done substantial work in solid and hazardous waste management; dredging and coastal zone management; and urban, regional, and transportation planning. While most of this work involves the application of economics, optimization, and simulation modeling, his interests also include more qualitative policy, planning, and management studies. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for analysis of water and environmental policy issues leading to integrated water resources planning and management. He served on the Committee on Further Studies of Endangered and Threatened Fishes in the Klamath River. Dr. Lund has a B.A. in regional planning and international relations from the University of Delaware. He also has a B.S. in civil engineering, an M.A. in geography, and a Ph.D. in civil engineering, all from the University of Washington.

Anita Milman is an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Conservation in the School of Earth and Sustainability at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dr. Milman’s research examines the multilevel governance of water resources, with a focus on human responses to hydroclimatic and other sources of environmental change. Her current projects include examination of the interactions between science and policy in transboundary river basins; policy development for sustainable groundwater planning and management; regulatory and nonregulatory design for the implementation of structural and nonstructural approaches to flood and fluvial erosion hazard mitigation; and the influence of regulation on innovation in the wastewater sector. Her research integrates across multiple disciplines, drawing on her training in hydrology, political science, and geography. Prior to joining UMass, Milman was a senior research associate with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom. Dr. Milman is a deputy associate editor for the journal Climatic Change and a research fellow with the Earth Systems Governance Project. She also served on the editorial board of the journal Environmental Research Letters from 2016 to 2018. Dr. Milman received her B.S. and M.Eng in civil and environmental engineering at Cornell University and a Ph.D. from the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley.

Catherine A. O’Connor is the director of engineering for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (District). In this role, she contributes to the Engineering Department’s responsibility for planning, design and construction of projects prioritized in the Capital Improvement Program and projects in the Stormwater Management Program (together these programs are $800 million). The department also administers the countywide Watershed Management Ordinance and regulates the construction and maintenance of local sewers which are tributary to the District’s intercepting sewers. Dr. O’Connor is actively involved in the efforts to manage stormwater in a manner that provides multiple benefits to local communities and in efforts to transform District operations from waste treatment to resource recovery operations, particularly with water reuse, phosphorus recovery, and methane utilization projects. She is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Illinois. Dr. O’Connor received her B.S. in industrial engineering from the State University of New York Buffalo and M.S. and Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Soni M. Pradhanang is an assistant professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Rhode Island. She conducts research on the development of decision support systems for management of water resources from the field to the watershed and regional scale. The generation, transformation, and transport of sediments and nutrients within watersheds in the context of land use and climate change are the major foci of her current research. This combines monitoring and modeling to understand water and nutrients movement in complex terrain, soils, with different land use, and with various watershed protection practices. Dr. Pradhanang’s work also evaluates the reliability, predictability, and vulnerabilities of the water infrastructure such as reservoirs, dams, and spillways in maintaining safe drinking water. Her Ph.D. and postdoctoral research focused on developing watershed models to assess effectiveness of agricultural and forestry best management practices in Syracuse, New York, and studies of the impacts of climate change on the New York City watershed region. In addition to research in New York and Rhode Island, she conducts international research on climate change vulnerability assessment for water resources in South Asia. She received her B.Sc. in biology and chemistry from Tribhuvan University, Nepal, her M.Sc. in environmental science from Bangalore University, India, her M.ESc. in environmental science from Yale University, and her Ph.D. in ecosystem science and application from the State University of New York at Syracuse.

Kenneth H. Reckhow is Professor Emeritus of Water Resources in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. Dr. Reckhow’s research interests concern the development, application, and evaluation of surface water quality models for prediction to inform decision making under uncertainty. His recent work has addressed such diverse problems as estuarine eutrophication modeling, development of decision analytic strategies for nutrient criteria, modeling the impact of bacterial contamination of shellfish beds, combining remotely-sensed data to improve eutrophication model forecasts, assessing the impact of urbanization on stream ecosystems, and modeling transport and fate of estrogens from combined animal feedlot operations. Much of his work makes use of Bayesian statistical analysis to combine information from disparate sources. His recent modeling projects involve Bayesian networks to capture complex linkages among variables and to express uncertainties in probabilistic terms. He has been a member or chair of four past National Academies’ committees. Dr. Reckhow received his B.S. in engineering physics from Cornell University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in environmental science and engineering from Harvard University.

John S. Schwartz is the associate department head of undergraduate studies and professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Dr. Schwartz has over 30 years of experience in academics and professional engineering practice. His research interests include watershed hydrology and sediment modeling, river mechanics, ecological engineering, ecohydraulics, stream restoration, and water quality. Prior to joining the University of Tennessee in August 2003, he was a private consultant in the State of Oregon as a licensed engineer—primarily engaged with municipal planning and design of water, wastewater, and stormwater systems—and he worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (on permit compliance) and the U.S. Peace Corps (Kenya Ministry of Water Development). Dr. Schwartz is an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Environmental and Water Resources Institute serving on the Urban Water Resources Research Council and River Restoration and Sedimentation committees. Dr. Schwartz has a B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Missouri at Columbia, an M.S. in fisheries science (water resources) from Oregon State University, and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Christine E. Stauber is an associate professor in the Division of Environmental Health in the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. Dr. Stauber’s work aims to use epidemiology and environmental health to understand the relationship between drinking water quality and health. She has more than 15 years of experience in environmental health sciences, focusing on the pivotal role of exposure to microbiologically contaminated drinking water and the associated health impact on children. More recently, she has engaged in research on urban health with an emphasis on understanding distinct environmental exposures in cities. In collaboration with various colleagues and stakeholders, she has examined the role of various environmental stressors

in the Proctor Creek Watershed in the city of Atlanta. Dr. Stauber teaches graduate- and undergraduate-level courses including courses on the role of the environment in public health and global and local water issues. Her research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the World Health Organization. Dr. Stauber received her B.S. and M.S. in soil, water, and environmental sciences from the University of Arizona, and her Ph.D. in environmental sciences from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Richard C. Stedman is a professor in the Department of Natural Resources at Cornell University and serves as the director of the Department’s Human Dimensions Research Unit. His research focuses on the interaction between social and ecological systems. He uses the theories and methodologies of sociology as a lens for examining a broad array of human/environment conflicts with particular interest in the challenges that rapid social and ecological changes pose for the sustainability of forested ecosystems, watersheds, and human communities. Dr. Stedman has published more than 100 articles in sociology across a diverse range of topics, including management of invasive aquatic pests and wildlife and fisheries management. His current research activity examines the sustainability of resource-dependent communities as they transition to natural resource-based tourism development, the causes and consequences of land-use change along a gradient from very rural to very urban systems, and natural resource-based decision making among private (agricultural and forest) landowners. His research has focused on issues affecting New York State communities, including those grappling with the potential social, environmental, and economic impacts of natural gas development. He was a member of the Cornell Cooperative Extension Marcellus Shale Team that earned the 2011 Cornell University David J. Allee and Paul R. Eberts Community and Economic Vitality Award. Dr. Stedman received his B.A. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, his M.S. in natural resources from Cornell University, and his Ph.D. in sociology and rural sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING, AND MEDICINE STAFF

Laura J. Ehlers is a senior staff officer for the Water Science and Technology Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Since joining the National Academies in 1997, she has served as the study director for more than 25 committees, including the Committee on Bioavailability of Contaminants in Soils and Sediment, the Committee on Assessment of Water Resources Research, the Committee on Reducing Stormwater Discharge Contributions to Water Pollution, the Committee to Review EPA’s Economic Analysis of Final Water Quality Standards for Nutrients for Lakes and Flowing Waters in Florida, the Committee to Review the Edwards Aquifer Habitat Conservation Program, and the Committee on Management of Legionella in Water Systems. Dr. Ehlers has periodically consulted for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research Development regarding its water quality research programs. She received her B.S. from the California Institute of Technology, majoring in biology and engineering and applied science. She earned both an M.S.E. and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering at the Johns Hopkins University.