David Baker, Executive Director, Wimberley Valley Watershed AssociationDavid Baker has served as the Executive Director of Wimberley Valley Watershed Association since 1996. He is also a founding member of the Trinity Edwards Springs Protection Association and the Texas Hill Country Comservation Network and has served on many other boards and organizations. Wimberley Valley Watershed Association has been working since 1996 to keep Jacob’s Well, the headwaters of Cypress Creek, clean, clear, and flowing for generations to come. WVWA’s mission is to ensure that communities are aware of their connection and responsibilities to the watershed and are supported in implementing water policies and practices that will ensure ecological sustainability for generations to come.
|
Bill Barker, FAICP
Bill moved to San Antonio in 1997 to be the Planning Director for VIA Metropolitan Transit. He has also served as the Interim Planning Director at the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, the Vice President of Consulting for a national transit management firm, and a Vice President of an urban transportation engineering firm in Dallas.
His career in transportation started at the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center of the U.S. Department of Transportation. He then joined the North Central Texas Council of Governments (the Dallas–Fort Worth Metropolitan Planning Organization) and became the Director of Transportation and Energy there. As a consultant, Bill has helped public and private clients in seven states, Canada and Mexico as well as the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Agency for International Development. He has been engaged in “think tank” projects with the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Center for Urban Transportation Research. He has also served as the Executive Director of Solar San Antonio and a Project Manager in the City of San Antonio’s Office of Sustainability. For the Transportation Research Board (TRB) – a program unit of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine – he served as the Chairman of the Transportation Planning, Programming and System Evaluation Committee. As an adjunct associate professor, Bill taught transportation, urban planning and sustainability courses in the graduate urban and regional planning program at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Bill’s volunteer work includes having been President of the Board of Directors of the Bexar Land Trust, Board Member of the Hill Country Alliance, a member of the San Antonio Hemisfair Park Sustainability Committee. He has a B.S. in physics and a M.A. in urban affairs. |
Jay Banner, Ph.D., Director, UT Environmental Science Institute
Jay Banner’s research interests center on climate and hydrologic processes, how these processes are preserved in cave deposits, and how human activity affects the sustainability of water resources. At UT-Austin, he serves as the F. M. Bullard Professor in the Jackson School of Geosciences and directs the Environmental Science Institute. The institute’s STEM outreach programs include the Hot Science – Cool Talks Outreach Series and the Scientist in Residence program, which partners graduate student researchers with K-12 teachers. In his free time, Jay enjoys ultimate Frisbee.
|
Brent Bellinger, Ph.D., Aquatic Ecologist, Austin Watershed Protection DepartmentBrent Bellinger is an aquatic ecologist. He studies and monitors ecosystem conditions and linkages as influenced by anthropogenic activities. The goal of his research is to provide managers with enough understanding of what is driving conditions to make informed decisions that will enhance ecosystem services being provided by the aquatic environment.
|
Nathan Bendik, M.S., Austin Watershed Protection Department
Nathan Bendik works for the City of Austin, Texas on monitoring and conservation of the City’s three endemic Eurycea salamanders. Originally from Pennsylvania, he completed his B.S. in Biology at the Pennsylvania State University (2002) and then received an M.S. in Biology at the University of Texas at Arlington (2006). His primary research interests include ecology, natural history, and evolution of central Texas spring and cave salamanders
|
Bill Bunch, J.D., Executive Director, Save Our Springs Alliance
A native of San Antonio and Arlington, Bill left Texas to earn a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. Bill returned to Texas to practice environmental law in Austin and was part of the group that drafted and successfully petitioned for the Save Our Springs Ordinance in 1992. Bill has been executive director of SOS since 2000.
|
Memi Cárdenas , Public Information Specialist Senior, Austin Resource Recovery/City of Austin
Memi has been a Public Information Specialist- Senior for the City of Austin’s Resource Recovery Department since June of 2015 focusing on residential recycling and composting programs, and increasing the city’s diversion rate.
As a true civil servant, she has worked as the volunteer and community coordinator at the Humane Society of Williamson County before becoming a legislative aide in the Texas House of Representatives. Additionally she has worked at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in the pollution prevention and education section of the agency coordinating and implementing various conservation outreach programs. |
Scooter Cheatham, President and Founder, Useful Wild Plants, Inc.
Scooter Cheatham founded the Useful Wild Plants project in 1971. He is a professional photographer, writer, and architect. As lead author of the encyclopedia he has written and supervised the writing of the economic treatments of the plants, and has photographed 80% of the species to be illustrated. He has planned and supervised experimental full-scale reconstructions of Native American dwellings for several organizations, and has designed and supervised the installation of native landscape projects. An architect and graphic designer, he developed the page layout and design of the encyclopedia, and has scheduled the components of the project and staff activities using critical path and PERT techniques. He taught design, graphics, and watercolor in the Department of Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin until 1981, when he left to devote himself fully to the Useful Wild Plants Project through its completion.
|
John Clement, Ph.D., Environmental Program Coordinator, Austin Watershed Protection Department
John is an Environmental Program Coordinator in the City of Austin Watershed Protection Department. He manages creek-side restoration projects throughout the city and works extensively with volunteer organizations and other City departments on improving and protecting these areas. He has a Ph.D. in plant systematics from the University of Texas at Austin.
|
Justin Crow, Fish Biologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Region 2 San Marcos Aquatic Resource Center
Justin has experience in marine and freshwater biology and aquaculture systems. His work includes captive prorogation and husbandry of several federally listed amphibian and fish species. Justin’s research focuses on the environmental factors that affect aquatic animal physiology.
|
Ed Crowell, Author at Texas A&M University Press and freelancer for Texas Co-op Power magazine
Ed Crowell moved to Austin in 1977 and lived a short distance above Barton Springs where he frequently swam with his family. A lifelong journalist, he worked as an editor at the Austin American-Statesman on the city, state and features desks. Texas A&M University Press will publish his book “Barton Creek” in early 2019. He spent more than two years researching the creek’s natural and political history and interviewing scientists, property owners along the 50 miles of creek and conservation land protectors. The book discusses new developments upstream of Barton Springs that could endanger the health of the creek and its 109-square mile watershed.
|
Stephen Davis, Aquatic Biologist, Lower Colorado River Authority
Stephen Davis is an aquatic biologist for the Lower Colorado River Authority. He received a BS in Environmental Science from TCU in Fort Worth, TX, and a MS from Texas A&M University where he conducted research in the Wildlife and Fisheries Department. Since graduation, Stephen has worked for several natural resource management organizations including the City of Austin Watershed Protection Department, The Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and the LCRA. Stephen’s work has encompassed a range of projects involving water quality, riparian restoration, aquatic invasive species, and native species conservation. He currently leads the LCRA’s zebra mussel monitoring program. Whether it’s during the work day or on the weekend you can often find Stephen near the water. If not, he’s probably singing karaoke somewhere.
|
Tom Devitt, Ph.D., Austin Watershed Protection Department
Tom Devitt is a biologist in the Watershed Protection Department at the City of Austin, where he has worked for the last 4 years on the conservation of Barton Springs and Austin Blind salamanders. One of his current projects includes an investigation into the population genetics of Barton Springs salamanders, including newly-discovered populations in the Trinity Aquifer along Onion Creek west of Austin. Previously, he taught undergraduate biology courses and conducted research on Central Texas spring salamanders at the University of Texas. When he’s not working on salamanders, he likes to fly fish on Barton Creek and the Colorado River.
|
Barbara L. Dugelby, Ph.D, Director, St Edwards University’s Wild Basin Creative Research Center
Barbara Dugelby is a conservation and human ecologist. She has a BA the University of Texas at Austin and an MS and PhD from Duke University. She has more than twenty-five years of experience working in the US and internationally on multi-stakeholder, science-based conservation planning initiatives, with a special focus on collaborative planning and management involving local communities. Much of her work has focused on assisting indigenous and traditional communities to understand, assess, and protect biological diversity and wild, intact natural areas. She currently serves as the Director of Wild Basin Creative Research Center and has a Faculty Associate position at St. Edward’s University.
|
Marisa Flores Gonzales, Program Manager, Austin Water
Marisa Flores Gonzalez is a Program Manager with Austin Water’s Systems Planning Division. Ms. Flores Gonzalez’ experience working in local government and utilities over the past 8 years has spanned multiple areas in water supply, water distribution, wastewater collection, and stormwater management planning.
As Program Manager for Water Forward, Ms. Flores Gonzalez brings a holistic approach to water resources planning, with a belief in the value of stakeholder engagement and integrated and adaptive management. Ms. Flores Gonzalez holds a B.A. in Geography and the Environment from the University of Texas at Austin and is currently pursuing a Masters in Public Administration from Texas State University. |
Caitlin Gabor, Professor, Texas State University
Dr. Caitlin Gabor is a professor at Texas State University. She has a BA from University of California, Santa Barbara and a PhD from University of Louisiana, Lafayette. Her lab has been examining the consequences of anthropogenic stressors on fish and amphibian population declines from a behavioral and conservation physiology perspective. She recently was a Fulbright Scholar in Hungary.
|
Robin Gary, M.A., Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District
Robin is Senior Public Information and Education Coordinator at the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District. She received a Master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin Department of Geography and the Environment where her research focused on human-environment interaction in karst landscapes. Before joining the District, she worked as a geographer for the U.S. Geological Survey Texas Water Science Center doing data management, spatial analysis, and GIS. She is a SCUBA diver, an avid locavore, an enthusiastic caver, and a budding gardener.
|
Archis Grubh, Ph.D., Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
Archis Grubh is an aquatic biologist by profession and has been with the River Studies Program, TPWD for the past 11 years. He received a MS in Wildlife and Fisheries at Texas A&M, and a Ph.D. in Stream Ecology from Ohio State University. His research interests are in the ecology and conservation biology of macroinvertebrates. He is currently working on understanding the effects of natural and anthropogenic disturbances (flood, gravel removal, sewage discharge, etc) on macroinvertebrate communities and their recovery in numbers in rivers. Archis is also involved in projects related to determining the water requirements (quantity and quality) of the flow-dependent fish species in the Texas Rivers.
|
Nico Hauwert, Ph.D., P.G., Program Manager, Balcones Canyonland Preserve City of Austin, Austin Water
Nico serves as Senior Environmental Scientist for the City of Austin Watershed Protection Department and as Adjunct Professor in Geology at Concordia University. From 1993 to 2000 he conducted research on the Barton Springs Segment for the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District. Currently, he reviews proposed development projects and supervises a team of cave specialists to conduct scientific studies, restore impacted caves, and facilitate public access to wild caves.
|
Sara Heilman, M.S., Austin Watershed Protection Department
Sara Heilman is a conservation program coordinator for the City of Austin’s Watershed Protection Department and has been working in outdoor education for over 15 years. Sara coordinates Hydrofiles, a water quality education program for Austin area high schools with field investigations including caving into the Edwards Aquifer and monitoring local creeks. She holds a master’s degree in environmental science from Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi and enjoys trail running, gardening, and spending time with family.
|
Brian Hunt, P.G., Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District
Brian is a 5th generation Austinite and graduated from UT Austin with a B.S. (1996) and M.Sc. (2000) in geological sciences. Brian has worked for the past fifteen years with the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District and is currently a Senior Hydrogeologist and a Professional Geoscientist in the State of Texas. Brian loves the outdoors and geology, spending much of his free time in the Texas Hill Country and on semi-annual trips to Big Bend with his family. Brian enjoys working on his Hill Country cabin and playing soccer.
|
Liz Johnston, Environmental Program Coordinator, Watershed Protection Department
Liz Johnston is an Environmental Program Coordinator with the City of Austin, Watershed Protection Department. She has a Masters of Landscape Architecture from Texas A&M University and over fifteen years experience working on issues related to environmental policy and urban ecology. Along with her duties coordinating environmental issues related to Austin’s lakes, she is currently managing a research project that examines the status and distribution of native freshwater mussels in Austin’s eastern creeks.
|
Mark Kirkpatrick, Ph.D., Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas
Mark Kirkpatrick is the T.S. Painter Centennial Professor in Genetics at the University of Texas’ Department of Integrative Biology. Dr. Kirkpatrick co-authored the petition to list the Barton Springs salamander as an endangered species, and was the lead plaintiff in two lawsuits that ultimately secured Endangered Species Act protection for the species. Dr. Kirkpatrick also served as the Science Officer for the Save Our Springs Alliance’s Board of Directors for 12 years.
|
Karen Kocher, M.F.A.
Karen Kocher is an Austin-based media producer who works in film and video and multimedia and serves as a senior lecturer in the College of Communication at UT Austin. Currently, Ms. Kocher is developing Living Springs, a media-rich website about the culture, history, and science of Barton Springs pool. Ms. Kocher’s other work includes Austin Past and Present, a multimedia documentary about the history of Austin, Texas.
|
Bobby Levinski, Save Our Springs Alliance
Bobby Levinski is Staff Attorney at Save Our Springs Alliance. He works on matters related to natural resource conservation and mitigating the impacts of development on the environment. Bobby has also been extensively involved in municipal policy since 2005, having served as a policy advisor for three Austin City Council Members. He earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.) from The University of Texas School of Law, and has a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Urban Studies from UT as well. Bobby is also a board member of 350 Austin, focusing on addressing climate change at the local level, and Empower U Austin, working to amplify the voices of Austin’s community-based leaders.
|
Lee Mackenzie, Co-Founder Austin Bat Refuge
As a carpenter, then a nationally-acclaimed design build remodeler, Lee has been humanely dealing with a variety of small mammals in structures his whole career. A wildlife worker for over 20 years, now co-founder of Austin Bat Refuge, he creatively combines rehabilitation and permaculture, providing the highest possible quality of life in their “bat gardens”, an Austin Bat Refuge original concept and the first of its kind.
|
Kim McKnight, M.S., Austin Parks Department
Kim McKnight is a Project Coordinator and Cultural Resource Specialist at the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department. She is currently the project leader for the Historic Austin Cemeteries Master Plan and recently worked on the Pease Park Master Plan. Additionally, she tracks the inventory of historic resources in the park system, works with community groups on park improvements, and advises on issues related historic properties and cultural landscapes.
|
Dianne Odegard, Co-Founder, Austin Bat Refuge
After 12 1/2 years as Education and Public Outreach Manager at Bat Conservation Onternational by day, and bat rehabilitator by night, Dianne has now gone full-time as co-founder of Austin Bat Refuge. Dianne has been a wildlife rehabilitator since 1990, working with animals that live in close proximity to urban areas and human structures and educating people about ways to live harmoniously with wildlife. She considers bat care to be service work benefiting both bats and humans.
|
Mary K. PriddyMarisa Perales is an attorney at the firm of Frederick, Perales, Allmon & Rockwell. Ms. Perales previously worked for the Third Court of Appeals in Austin from 2000 through 2004 and in the Environmental Law Division at the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (now TCEQ) from 1998 through 2000. Marisa Perales has degrees in English and law from the University of Texas at Austin and Texas Tech School of Law. She is a member of the City of Austin Environmental Board.
|
Donelle Robinson, PhD, Watershed Protection Department, City of Austin
Donelle is a salamander biologist with the City of Austin. She was the project sponsor for the recently completed Eliza Spring Daylighting Project that restored salamander stream habitat at Eliza Spring. Her love of salamanders comes from working with the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory in the Smoky Mountains after college, which has the highest salamander diversity in the world. She has a M.S. from Texas State University (2006) and a Ph.D. from Ohio University (2011) focusing on animal behavior, and is a Certified Ecologist with the Ecological Society of America. Before working at the City, she taught biology courses at St. Edward’s University and volunteered at the Balcones Canyonland Preserve.
|
Lauren Ross, Ph.D., P.E., Glenrose Engineering
Dr. Lauren Ross has 3 degrees in civil engineering and is owner of Glenrose Engineering in Austin, Texas. During 4 decades of environmental work and political activism, Dr. Ross helped to pass the Save Our Springs citizen’s referendum, close a hazardous waste facility in an East Texas African-American community, limit pumping in the San Antonio Edwards to protect spring flows, and bioremediate soils in Post-Katrina New Orleans. She is currently active in a project to challenge racism in Austin.
|
Robin Schneider, Executive Director of Texas Campaign for the Environment
Since 2000, Robin Schneider has been at the helm of Texas Campaign for Environment and TCE Fund and advocates for Zero Waste strategies in Texas. She helped convince Dell and other companies to support producer takeback recycling for electronics and the helped pass state electronics takeback laws in 2007 and 2011.
Under Robin’s direction, TCE took a leading role in the campaign to close the Grandfather Loophole in the Texas Clean Air Act, for which she was dubbed the “Best Advocate for Breathers” by The Austin Chronicle. She started out as a canvasser for the Equal Right Amendment in 1978, and is proud to have helped TCE expand its canvass operations in Dallas, Austin, and Houston. |
Mateo Scoggins
Mateo Scoggins has been working on water quality in Austin’s creeks and reservoirs for the City of Austin for 25 years. He has a Masters of Aquatic Biology from TX State and is a certified ecologist with the Ecological Society of America. His group at the Watershed Protection Department is working on optimizing solutions to our water resource problems.
|
Brigid Shea, Travis County Commissioner, Precinct 2
Brigid came to Austin in 1988 to start the Texas chapter of Clean Water Action. She served on the Austin city council 1993-1996 and championed consumer, electoral and environmental reforms. Shea is the co-founder of SOS, Austin’s historic law to save Barton Springs, has been an advisor to LCRA, Seton, the City of Austin, etc. and her work with a client recently won the TCEQ Environmental Excellence award. She was elected Travis County Commissioner for Precinct 2 in 2014.
|
Raymond Slade
Raymond Slade, Jr. served as a Hydrologist for 33 years with the U.S. Geological Survey in Texas before retiring 17 years ago. Since his retirement he has been an Adjunct Professor and a self-employed Consulting Hydrologist. He has authored more than 130 reports concerning Texas water resources, with topics including the Edwards aquifer, floods, droughts, rural and urban hydrology, and water quality of surface and ground water.
Raymond is Certified and Registered as a Professional Hydrologist with the American Institute of Hydrology, is a member of eight water-resource professional organizations, and has served on about 20 committees involved in water-resource planning or management. |
Lindsey Sydow, P.G. City of Austin Watershed Protection Department
Lindsey is a hydrogeologist with the City’s Watershed Protection Department. She grew up spending almost every summer day in the San Marcos River, and then followed her love of all things water and nature to earn her B.S. in Environmental Geoscience from Texas A&M and her M. Sci. in Geological Sciences from UT Austin. In her free time, Lindsey enjoys backpacking, kayaking, and, of course, hanging out at Barton Springs.
|
Miranda Wait, Deputy Director of Spring Lake Operations at the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment
Miranda has worked for the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment for 13 years working with the Spring Lake Educational Programs. Her educational background is in biology with an emphasis in wildlife ecology and informal science experiences. Miranda has a passion for getting kids and adults outdoors and excited about nature. Currently, she is working on bringing a research component to the Meadows Center’s educational programming as well as increasing community involvement. She recently co-authored a field guide published through the Meadows Center on the flora and fauna of Spring Lake.
|
Jennifer Walker, Senior Program Manager of Water Programs, National Wildlife Federation
Jennifer has 15 year’s experience focusing on water policy issues in Texas with an emphasis on water planning, water conservation and bay and estuary protection. She has considerable experience working on water policy and water resources issues and strives to work collaboratively and approach resource management challenges with a solution oriented perspective. Jennifer is Mayor Pro-tem Kathie Tovo’s appointee to the Water Forward Task Force. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Water Efficiency and the Colorado River Alliance and has a BS in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology from the University of Texas at Austin.
|
Dianne Wassenich, Program Director, San Marcos River Foundation
Dianne Wassenich worked for SMRF 17 years as clerical staff, before being hired as its first staff member in 2002. Her duties include managing the many projects SMRF works on, grant writing and organizing events. She grew up on the Gulf Coast, and attended Rice University and University of Houston. In her years of working for SMRF, Dianne has served on many regional, statewide, and local stakeholder groups. Currently she represents the public in a seat on Region L Water Planning Group, is Vice-chair of the Bay Basin Stakeholder for the Guadalupe basin, and is also on the Steering Committees of the Edwards Aquifer Habitat Conservation Plan, Upper San Marcos Watershed Initiative, and Plum Creek Watershed Program.
|
Previous Speakers