SHORT BIOS OF PRESENTERS
FOR THE 31ST COLORADO WATER WORKSHOP
ALAN BERRYMAN has been the Head of Engineering Services for Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District since 1995. He has participated in the negotiations surrounding the Platte River Cooperative Agreement since 1994 and is currently the water user representative for Colorado on the Governance Committee. Prior to coming to the District, Mr. Berryman worked for the Colorado Division of Water Resources as the Division Engineer for the South Platte basin for 10 years. Mr. Berryman has a B.S. in Civil Engineering and a M.S. in water resources from Colorado State University.
PETER BINNEY is the Director of Utilities for the City of Aurora, Colorado—a community of more than 300,000 that will grow to more than 500,000 people by 2035. Since joining the City in 2002, he has implemented a major water conservation program that is saving more than 35 percent of previous annual water demand, and is completing an Integrated Resource Plan of alternative water sources to meet the City's future needs. He holds postgraduate degrees in engineering from the University of Canterbury and University of Colorado , is a registered professional engineer and belongs to the American Water Works Association, the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Society of American Military Engineers.
KAY BROTHERS serves as deputy general manager of engineering and operations for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which is responsible for acquiring, treating and delivering water to local agencies that collectively serve 1.8 million residents and nearly 40 million annual visitors. She oversees the Authority's Engineering and Resources departments, as well as the Southern Nevada Water System, the community's primary drinking-water treatment and transmission network. Brothers helped develop the country's largest injection-based groundwater recharge program. Through this innovative program, the Authority has created water reserves totaling approximately 100 billion gallons beneath the Las Vegas Valley . She has been with the organization since 1986, beginning her tenure as a hydrologist. Previously, she worked in the petroleum and mining industries overseeing environmental compliance programs and designing wastewater treatment and groundwater mitigation facilities. Brothers earned a degree in environmental engineering from the New Mexico Institute of Technology. When not attending to the needs of her four bassett hounds, she enjoys golf, hiking and reading.
RICK CABLES became Regional Forester of the Rocky Mountain Region in January 2001, taking responsibility for the administration of more than 22 millions acres in 17 National Forests and 7 National Grasslands, and cooperative efforts with state and private landowners in Colorado , Kansas , Nebraska , South Dakota and eastern Wyoming . Born in Pueblo , Colorado , Cables graduated from Northern Arizona University Forestry School in 1976, and served in several National Forests in New Mexico and Arizona , then served two years in the Washington Office before being selected to attend the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle , Pennsylvania in 1989-1990. In 1990 he became Forest Supervisor of the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire and Maine, then in 1995 got to come back home as Supervisor of the Pike and San Isabel National Forests and Comanche and Cimarron National Grasslands in Colorado and Kansas. He was Regional Forester of the Alaska Region before coming back to the Rocky Mountain Region. Rick and wife Cindy have three children, Stewart, Wesley and Natalie.
AARON CLAY was raised in Hotchkiss, Colo, and returned to Gunnison valley after graduating from the University of Colorado as a Boettcher Scholar in 1975 and the University of Colorado School of Law in 1979 (Order of the Coif). He has created a general practice in Delta since 1980, with emphasis on real estate, business planning, estate planning, and water. He has been the Water Referee for Division 4 since 1982, and represents Tri-County Water Conservancy District, Grand Mesa Water Users Association, and numerous ditch companies and water users. He has taught numerous courses in water law, for realtors, closers, attorneys, and others; this is his second “ Colorado Water Law in a Nutshell” course in conjunction with the Water Workshop.
DAN CRABTREE is a Colorado Native who grew up in Western Colorado . He attended Colorado State University and graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering 1978. Dan worked for the Soil Conservation Service on the east and west slopes of Colorado for 12 years, planning, designing, and installing irrigation improvements. He has worked for Reclamation for 16 years in the Grand Junction Office, designing irrigation delivery systems, water management planning and operations. Dan is currently the Water Management Group Chief, responsible for operation of project facilities, water service contracts, and water management and conservation; and … in reference to his Water Workshop talk ... has been a Homeowners Association President for what seems like forever.
JEFF CRANE is the Executive Director of the Colorado Watershed Assembly, a statewide non-profit membership organization supporting local citizen groups dedicated to the conservation or enhancement of natural resources within their watersheds. Prior to this, Jeff was a founding member and first Executive Director of the North Fork River Improvement Association in Hotchkiss, established in 1996 as a volunteer coalition to restore the ecological health of the North Fork of the Gunnison River for the benefit of all water interests within the community. For his work on the North Fork he received the University of Colorado Wirth Chair award for Environmental and Community Development Policy in 2000 and a 2002 Environmental Achievement Award from the EPA. Jeff is a consulting hydrologist with a civil engineering degree from the University of Colorado specializing in stream restoration, irrigation diversion and habitat enhancement projects with a major emphasis in water resource engineering and hydrology.
RITA CRUMPTON has been in the utility business nearly her entire working career, beginning with an electric & gas utility in Iowa . After moving back home to Colorado , she went to work for the Ute Water Conservancy District as their Public Information Officer where she spent 18 years. For the past three years, she has been the manager of the Orchard Mesa Irrigation District, serving irrigation water to 9,400 acres of land in the Grand Valley . Rita was the original organizer of the annual 2-day Children's Water Festival in Mesa County , now in its 15 th year, with nearly 2,000 5 th graders attending a full day of water education at Mesa State College. She is a founding board member of the Colorado Foundation for Water Education, a member of the Public Information Committee of the Rocky Mountain Section of the American Water Works Association, Vice President of Western Colorado Waters, Inc., and a founding member of the Wise Water Use Council, recently formed in the Grand Valley.
LURLINE UNDERBRINK CURRAN is the County Manager of Grand County . She has been with Grand County since 1982, beginning in the Planning Department and moving to the Manager position in 1999. Ms. Curran has been Grand County 's lead person on water-related matters for most of that time, and is a member of the Colorado River 1177 Roundtable. She has also been active in organizations addressing growth, development, education and other local and regional issues. She has a B.A. in religious studies from Regis University , with minors in art history and business administration, and a M.A. in psychology with emphasis on mythology, also from Regis. A longtime resident of Grand County, she is an avid outdoors person who enjoys whitewater rafting, camping, hiking, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, bicycling (Ride the Rockies five times), softball and broomball.
RIO DE LA VISTA is Coordinator for the San Luis Valley Wetland Focus Area Committee, a community-based effort for private land conservation and wetland protection and restoration on public and private lands. Her work necessarily involves learning and sharing information about water – from the legal aspects to the role of land management in sustaining healthy landscapes. A writer on the environment and sustainability, Rio is co-author, with South African Dick Richardson, of the “eco-novel” for young readers, The Oglin, A Hero's Journey Across Africa …Towards the Tomorrows . International travel has encouraged and inspired her work to care for Colorado 's precious resources even more.
JACK FLOBECK is Chairman of Aqua Prima Center, a non-profit “think tank” for water research and conservation. He has spent most of his adult life in Colorado , and has been thinking and researching technology and water the whole time. He graduated from Yale in engineering, and joined the du Pont Company in Organic and Petroleum Chemicals. He worked at Coors Ceramics as new products development manager, and saw the beginning of many water related products. He has been V.P. of new product development for Information Handling Services, as well as the CEO of a pioneering Denver computer company.
RUSSELL GEORGE is the Executive Director for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources (DNR), charged with protecting and enhancing Colorado 's natural resources. As Director, Russ oversees the operations of the DNR's nine agencies: the Division of Wildlife; the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission; State Parks; the Colorado Water Conservation Board; the Division of Water Resources; the Division of Minerals and Geology; the State Land Board; Colorado State Forest Service; and the Colorado Geological Survey. He is also now the Director of Interbasin Compacts under the “Colorado Water for the Future Act.” Prior to his current position, Russ served as Director of the Colorado Division of Wildlife (2000-2004). From 1992-1999, Russ served in the State House of Representatives, where he was Legislator of the Year in 1994 and 1996, and rose to Speaker in 1999. A West Slope native who grew up on a ranch near Rifle, he attended Colorado State University , then received a law degree from Harvard University Law School . He served as a VISTA volunteer after graduation, then was a founding partner in a Rifle law firm, municipal judge, and either a director or general counsel for several West Slope Conservancy Districts. Russ is married to Neal Ellen George, who continues to teach in their hometown of Rifle. They have four sons – Russell, Charles, Thomas and Andrew.
DON GLASER is the executive director of the Colorado Foundation for Water Education, recently succeeding founding director Karla Brown. He has more than 25 years of background in western water and resource issues, including 20 years with the Bureau of Reclamation where he rose to the position of Depute Director for Water and Science. He followed that with a year as Colorado 's Director for the Bureau of Land Management; then became the executive director of the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission, and then served as senior manager for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation during which he negotiated the Foundation's first CALFED contract with the California Resources Agency. Just prior to the CFWE, he was the executive director for the Douglas Land Conservancy in Colorado . He is a graduate of Eastern Montana College (now Montana State University-Billings) with a bachelor of science degree in business administration and economics.
ERIC HECOX is the manager of the office of Interbasin Compact Negotiations in the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, as established by the “Colorado Water for the21st Century Act.” Prior to this assignment, he served as a Natural Resource Specialist to the Bureau of Land Management's National Science and Technology Center under a Presidential Management Fellowship, under which he provided expertise to federal, state, and field offices on water rights, water quality, water management, and water policy. In this capacity he also taught water rights courses in Montana and New Mexico , compiled state water quality law summaries, and developed an on-line Introduction to Water Law course. Eric received his B.A. in biology from Lawrence University and prior to graduate school was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Zimbabwe where he studied community-based natural resource management. He earned a Masters of Science in Environmental Science and a Masters of Public Affairs from Indiana University . As a graduate student, Eric completed a thesis entitled “Collaborative Water Resource Management: Stakeholder Participation in the Colorado River Basin .”
GREG HOBBS is a Justice on the Colorado Supreme Court, vice president of the Colorado Foundation for Water Education, a co-convener of the western water judges' educational project Dividing the Waters, and a published poet and essayist. Before he became a judge in 1996, Hobbs practiced law for 25 years, first with the Environmental Protection Agency, then with the Colorado Attorney General where he helped form the natural resources section, then in private practice with Davis, Graham & Stubbs until creating Hobbs , Trout & Raley as a senior partner specializing in water, environment, land use, and transportation. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1966, majoring in history, and from the law school of the University of California at Berkeley , Boalt Hall 1971. Always interested in education, Justice Hobbs taught school in New York City and served in the Peace Corps as an educator before law school, and he has more recently taught environmental law at the University of Denver . His hobbies are poetry and southwestern United States history; he is the author of In Praise of Fair Colorado , The Practice of Poetry, History, and Judging (Bradford Publishing Co. 2004) and Colorado Mother of Rivers, Water Poems (Colorado Foundation for Water Education 2005). His wife, Bobbie, is the director and board president of Children's Garden Montessori School in Denver . Their daughter, Emily, is an employment lawyer with Davis, Graham & Stubbs. Their son, Daniel, is an organic vegetable grower in southern Colorado . They have four grand children: Joni, Kyle, Shannon, and Ella. The Justice enjoys the wide variety of matters that come before the Colorado Supreme Court: “Every case is a window on Colorado .” He views water law as “a continuous flow from Territorial days into the future.”
CHUCK HOWE is Professor Emeritus of Economics and a member of the Environment and Society Research Program, University of Colorado-Boulder. He was Director of the Water Resources Program at Resources for the Future, Washington, D.C. and on the field staff of the Rockefeller Foundation in Kenya and Indonesia . He has served as consultant on interstate river conflicts for New Mexico ( El Paso vs. NM) and Texas ( TX vs. NM, Pecos River ) and on water planning in several countries. His publications include Benefit-Cost Analysis for Water System Planning (AGU,1971), "Water Transfers & their Impacts..." (with Chris Goemans, JAWRA , 2003), “Protecting Public Values in a Water Market Setting…” ( U. Denver Water Law Review, 2000) and "The Return to the River Basin..." ( J Contemp. Water Research & Educ,2000).
MELINDA KASSEN manages Trout Unlimited's Western Water Project, which uses each of its five states unique water allocation system to protect and restore healthy stream flows for cold water fisheries. An Ohio native and graduate of Dartmouth College , magna cum laude , and Stanford Law School , she previously represented Colorado water and water quality agencies while with the Attorney General's Office, and worked at the Environmental Defense Fund on water and toxics issues. Her non-water related experience includes stints with the Los Angeles City Attorney, the House Armed Services Committee, Kaiser Hill LLC and the University of Denver , College of Law .
CHRIS LANDRY is the Executive Director of the Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies (CSAS) based in Silverton, Colorado. After seven seasons of providing avalanche forecasting services to a quarry near Marble, Colorado, Landry earned his M.S. from the Department of Earth Sciences at Montana State University in Bozeman, where he researched the spatial variability of snow stability on uniform slopes. His professional experience and recent research have lead towards the investigation of the ‘snow system' and avalanche formation processes as ‘non-linear, dynamical systems' exhibiting scale invariance and other ‘self-organizing' properties. Landry is currently a co-investigator on NSF collaborative research grant, and is also facilitating several other graduate, undergraduate, and post-doctoral 'snow system science' research projects being conducted at CSAS sites. The mission of the CSAS is to “ … enhance the interdisciplinary investigation of the alpine snow system's behavior and role in human/environment relationships by offering resources – people, information, and facilities – for field-based research and education.”
PATRICIA LIMERICK is Faculty Director and Professor of History at the Center of the American West, University of Colorado in Boulder. She has published a wide variety of books, articles, and reviews. Her best known work, The Legacy of Conquest , has had a major impact on the field of Western American History and gained her a reputation as a leader among the “New Western Historians.” In addition to numerous scholarly articles and book reviews, she writes frequent columns and op-ed pieces for The New York Times , USA Today , The Denver Post , and The Rocky Mountain News . Her recent books include Something in the Soil (a collection of essays) and The Atomic West , (in progress). A native Californian, she received her B.A. in American Studies from the University of California , Santa Cruz , and her Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale in 1980. She came to the University of Colorado after teaching four years at Harvard. Dr. Limerick is a recipient of numerous awards and honorary appointment: State Humanist of the Year, 1992, from the Colorado Endowment for the Humanities; a recipient of the University of California , Santa Cruz 1990 Alumni Achievement Award; and Official Fool of the University of Colorado from 1987 to 2008. In 1995, she was named a MacArthur fellow.
SUE LOWELL is the Director of Sustainability and Integration for Suncor Energy Inc., where she has worked for 27 years in various capacities. Her current focus is the implementation and integration of Sustainability and Environmental Excellence throughout Suncor's operations. Prior to taking on this new role Sue was based in Fort McMurray, at SunCor's oil sands development, as the Director of Project Approvals and accountable for obtaining all regulatory approvals and managing stakeholder consultation associated with Suncor's growth projects. Sue was part of the team that successfully developed the regulatory and stakeholder approach to obtain approvals for the growth of Suncor's Oil Sands Business. In addition to her work for Suncor, Sue is also the President of the Cumulative Environment Management Association, a multi-stakeholder group addressing cumulative effects in Canada 's Wood Buffalo region. Sue holds a Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Mining from McGill University. Sue and her family reside in Calgary , Alberta.
JAMES L. NEWBERRY is serving his third term on the Board of Commissioners for Grand County , Colorado . Prior to his election in 1996, he worked for the Winter Park Recreation Association for 15 years, and has been very active in the political life of the Upper Colorado River basin, having served at one time or another as Chairman for the Northwest Council of Governments, Director of the Colorado River WCD, chair of water- and public lands-related committees for Colorado Counties, Inc.; he is also a coach for local baseball and basketball teams as well as a volunteer for other youth activities. He is a graduate of Huntington College in Alabama , with a B.A. in Physical Education and Recreation.
BILL ORENDORFF works as a power requirement planner for Tri-State Generation and Transmission, which serves rural electric associations in Nebraska , Wyoming , Colorado and New Mexico ; his specialty for Tri-State is irrigation energy usage. He graduated from CSU in 1977 with a B.S. in Agricultural Industries Management, and has spent his career in ag-related fields, including 12 years in farm management for row crop, livestock and irrigated vegetable operations throughout the Midwest . Bill participates in a number of agricultural and irrigation associations; he is a member of the planning committee for the Ogallala Aquifer Symposium and a Trustee of the Colorado Agricultural Outlook Forum.
DON OSTLER is the Executive Director and Secretary for the Upper Colorado River Commission, which was created by Federal Compact to represent the states of Colorado , New Mexico , Utah and Wyoming in Colorado River concerns. The Commission is responsible to administer appropriate Federal laws respecting the uses and deliveries of the water of the Upper Basin of the Colorado River . Prior to that, he served the state of Utah as Director for the Division of Water Quality, with responsibility for protecting the quality of all surface and ground water in the state. Under his leadership the first programs to protect ground water quality in Utah were developed. Before his 18 years in that position, Don worked as an engineer for the Division of Water Quality, for the Bureau of Reclamation, and for the Forest Service in several Rocky Mountain states.
ED QUILLEN is a regular op-ed columnist for the Denver Post and, together with his wife Martha, publishes Colorado Central , a monthly regional magazine. He was born in Greeley , Colorado , and has lived in Colorado all his life, except for seven weeks in 1972 when he resided at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri , as an involuntary federal employee. He graduated from Greeley West High School in 1968, and attended the University of Northern Colorado off and on until 1974, when he moved to Kremmling to run the weekly Middle ParkTimes , then to the Summit County Journal in Breckenridge where he “discovered I didn't like resort towns and they didn't like me.” A job opened in Salida as managing editor of the Mountain Mail , so the Quillens moved there in 1978, and have been there ever since. In 1983, after failing to find a job anywhere else, Ed said, “It dawned on me that it was my fate to be poor and live in the middle of nowhere, and I could do that without the bother of putting up with an employer. So I quit to free-lance full-time.” He and Martha have two daughters, Columbine (an old Indian word that means "My parents were hippies in the mountains"), born in 1975, and Abby, born in 1997. Both, unlike their father, graduated from college with honors.
CAT SHRIER is a Water Resources Planner with Golder Associates Ltd. in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where she supports sustainable development of natural resources, water resources planning and management, and environmental impact assessments for hydrology and groundwater. She transferred to Calgary from Golder's office in Lakewood, Colorado. Cat served as a Legislative Aide to Colorado Representative Bob McCluskey during the 2003 legislative session, working primarily on legislation related to natural resources. She was previously an independent consultant supporting water planning and management efforts by the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the American Water Works Association; a hydrogeologist with the North Carolina Division of Water Resources; worked for environmental consulting firms in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Richmond, Virginia; and started her career as a legislative aide on Capitol Hill and with Virginia and New Jersey state legislators. Cat recently completed the Bighorn Center 's 2005 Leadership Development Program on Sustainable Development. She has completed a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering/Water Resources Planning and Management (Colorado State University), and holds a master's degree in Environmental Sciences and Engineering/Environmental Management and Policy (UNC-Chapel Hill) and bachelor's degrees in Government ( Dartmouth ) and Geology (North Carolina State University).
MARYLOU SMITH heads up the water conflict facilitation and mediation services offered by Aqua Engineering of Fort Collins, Colorado, where she has managed people and profits as a partner for the past 25 years. She is a fourth generation New Mexican who grew up on an irrigated cotton and alfalfa farm east of Roswell; she attended college in New Mexico, earning a master's degree in educational psychology from New Mexico State University. After moving to Colorado 35 years ago, she served as Assistant Director of Housing at Colorado State University . A member of Colorado Water Congress and the Colorado Foundation for Water Education, she recently presented papers on the subject of collaboration in Colorado water issues for the Irrigation Association and the U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage. She says her interest in facilitating consensus related to water issues stems from her “belief that the human race is capable of solving its conflicts, including water conflicts, if we are truly willing to share resources in a creative way which benefits all, including the fowl and the fishes.”
TERESA STEELY was born and raised in Colorado . She received BS in Environmental Science with a minor in Biology from Western Washington University in Bellingham , Washington , and promptly moved across the country to Florida to find sunshine and (study red tides). After three years of sweating it out, she moved to Western Colorado . She has worked for the North Fork River Improvement Association for five years, and as a result, has come to appreciate fresh water and its scarcity in the arid West. Teresa enjoys whitewater kayaking, the camaraderie of the watershed movement, and gardening (using a drip system, of course).
BRAD UDALL is the Director of the Western Water Assessment at the University of Colorado . He has an engineering degree from Stanford and an MBA from Colorado State University . He was formerly a consulting engineer and the managing partner at Hydrosphere Resource Consultants, where he worked on interstate litigation on the North Platte River, endangered species on the Columbia River, future Front Range supplies, and shortage issues on the Colorado River . The Western Water Assessment is a NOAA-funded project designed to assist water managers and other users of climate data and information. By using NOAA and CU scientists, the Assessment creates 400-year long streamflow reconstructions based on tree-rings, issues seasonal El Nino-based forecasts and recent climate summaries, and provides information about the likely impacts of climate change on water supplies.
RANDY UDALL has, since 1994, directed the Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE) based in the Roaring Fork Valley of Western Colorado, promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency in partnership with Holy Cross Energy (formerly Holy Cross Electric Association), a rural electric utility with 50,000 customers. He lectures widely on energy issues, including keynote presentations to the American Solar Energy Society and American Wind Energy Association. In 1998 CORE launched the first “solar production incentive” program in the United States, paying customers who install PV systems 25 cents per kilowatt-hour for their energy; and in 2000 the organization started the world's first Renewable Energy Mitigation Fund, collecting $3,000,000 in building permit fees to install renewable energy systems.
PAUL VONGUERARD (pronounced “von gara”) is Chief of the USGS Colorado Water Science Center in Grand Junction , but he began his career with the USGS in Western Colorado as a hydrologic technician in the Piceance Basin during the most recent oil shale boom. After “Black Sunday, he relocated to Pueblo for 11 years as a hydrologist, then spent three seasons investigating streamflow in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. In Grand Junction since 1994, his work involves him with various watershed groups and integrated science projects in western Colorado . When not driving to and attending meetings, managing his email, or talking on the phone, Paul is busily attempting to oversee his remaining teenager as well as skiing, hiking, running, biking, traveling, and taking in garage sales with his wife Tina. In September their daughter Joy will make him a grandfather for the first time.
ROBERT WARD recently retired from Colorado State University (CSU) after a 35-year career on the CSU Engineering faculty, and 14 years as Director of the Colorado Water Resources Research Institute (CWRRI) on the CSU campus. In the research administration role, he served terms as President of the National Institutes for Water Resources and the Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR). He received the Warren Hall Medal at the 2006 annual UCOWR meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico, recognizing his work in research administration, both in Colorado and nationally. His research focus was on improving the design of water quality monitoring systems so that they produced consistent and comparable data and information in support of water quality management decision making. He has authored two books on water quality monitoring design and, in 2005, completed an eight year term on the National Water Quality Monitoring Council. Besides consulting and professional society activities, retirement for Robert includes hiking, biking, reading, gardening, raising funds for the CSU Water Archives, and serving as a Commissioner for the Poudre Heritage Alliance, a group that seeks to inform the general public about the development of western water law and technology, using the Poudre River as a classic example.