As with all of Carpe Diem West's work, the strategic direction for the Academy is provided by our Network leadership including the Advisors (listed below). Their efforts, along with the generous support of the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation and other Carpe Diem West supporters, have made the Academy a reality.

Team

Dr. Holly Hartmann 
Director, Carpe Diem West Academy
Director, Arid Lands Information Center, University of Arizona/CLIMAS

Dr. Holly Hartmann is Director of the Arid Lands Information Center at the University of Arizona (UA). She is a co-investigator within the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) and leads the scenario development team within the UA Science and Technology Center for the Sustainability of Semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA). Holly is a national leader in research related to the development of decision support tools for climate, water, and other resource management applications, especially linking research with the needs of decision makers and moving research into agency operations. Current research projects include quantitative verification of climate and hydrologic forecasts; improving communication of probabilistic forecasts and uncertainty; incorporating complex integrated models and climate change within a scenario planning framework; and decision support tool development. Holly has been a Carpe Diem West team member since 2008.
 

Kiyomi Morino, Ph.D
University of Arizona

Kiyomi Morino obtained her PhD degree from the University of Arizona, Department of Geography and Regional Development in 2008. Since graduating, she has primarily focused on research related to integrating science and policy, particularly with respect to western water issues. In one project, she is working with colleagues to develop novel ways of exploring future climate change impacts on the Colorado River using tree-ring based reconstructions of streamflow. Her areas of expertise include dendrochronology, ecophysiology, and Colorado River water policy.
 

Kristiana Teige
Program Manager

Kristiana Teige manages the Carpe Diem West Academy and provides communications and logistical support to the Executive Director and the Director of Programs. In addition to her program work, Kristiana is the organization's Grants Manager. Prior to Carpe Diem West, Kristiana was the District Clerk for the Montara Water and Sanitary District in Northern California. She holds a Master of Environmental Science and Management from the Bren School at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College. At the Bren School, Kristiana specialized in Water Resources Management, and completed a group thesis project exploring watershed management strategies for the US BLM to reduce mercury pollution in a tributary of the Sacramento River.

Chantel Walker
Strategic Planning Consultant

Chantel Walker is the lead consultant on the Carpe Diem West Academy for evaluation and program development. Chantel’s work focuses on strategic planning, executive coaching, program development and policy analysis for nonprofit organizations, foundations and government clients. She has twenty years of experience directing programs for both non-profit organizations and foundations focused primarily on community development to benefit low-income populations and under-served youth, most recently as the Director of Programs and Evaluation for the Marguerite E. Casey Foundation. Chantel has sat on the Board of Directors for numerous organizations including The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, The State Bar of California, and The Association of Black Foundation Executives; she is currently a member of the Board of Directors for the Pacific Primary School and Chair of the Board for Zeum, San Francisco Bay Area’s arts and technology museum for children.
 

Kimery Wiltshire
CEO & Director, Carpe Diem West

Kimery Wiltshire is CEO & Director of Carpe Diem West. For over twenty years, Kimery’s work has focused on building strategic, solution-oriented partnerships to meet environmental challenges.

She is the former Director of the Kenney Foundation, where she worked on initiatives to protect and restore river systems in the western United States. Kimery has led the development of a number of successful projects, including the Diversity Network Project, supporting social justice and housing in the context of urban environmental health; Resources for Community Collaboration, which provided funding and training for western rural communities to more effectively engage in resource decision making; the Sustainable Business Ratings System, an innovative means of assessing companies’ environmental, economic and social performance; and Girl Scouts Save the Bay, which grew to involve the 100,000-strong Northern California Girl Scout community. A bred, born and raised daughter of the American West, Kimery has to be reminded that occasionally important things do happen east of the 100th meridian. 

Advisors

Rory Bakke
President, Sustainable Concepts
Director of Sustainability, GreenBiz Group

Rory brings more than 20 years of experience as an environmental strategist, planner, and Program Director for California cities, regional agencies and research institutes. Rory is currently the Director of Sustainability for the GreenBiz Group, where she is leading the development of new sustainability standards for companies, in partnership with UL Environment. She has served as a strategic advisor on several public bodies including the Mayor of Oakland’s Green Economic Development Task Force, and has also been a Senior Program Manager at StopWaste.Org, and a Senior Analyst for the County of Santa Clara’s Silicon Valley Toxics Reduction Program. She has created award-winning plans, programs and public policies that promote environmental stewardship. In addition to her degrees in environmental policy and sustainable business management from the University of California, Claremont Graduate University and the Presidio School of Management.
 

Dr. Rosalind Bark
Resource Ecological Specialist

Dr. Rosalind Bark is a Resource Economist conducting inter-disciplinary research at the Ecosciences Precinct of CSIRO, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia's national science agency. Rosalind was the lead author and managed a team of scientists for the economics chapter in a large multi-million dollar project for the Australian Government that calculated the multiple ecological, ecosystem service and economic benefits resulting from returning water to the environment in the Murray Darling Basin.

Prior to CSIRO, Rosalind was a post-doctoral research scientist employed at the University of Arizona, where she investigated water transfers for urban water supply reliability and environmental recovery, system management reforms in the Colorado River Basin, and climate change adaptation for local governments and urban water utilities. From 2002 to 2006 she was a research assistant in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources at the University of Arizona. Prior to her academic career Rosalind worked as a consultant in Oxford, England and at the OECD, Paris.
 

Laura Briefer
Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities

Laura McIndoe Briefer is the Water Resources Manager for Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities (SLCDPU), a municipal entity responsible for the provision of culinary water to more than 500,000 people in the Salt Lake Valley, and wastewater and stormwater services in Salt Lake City. As Water Resources Manager, Laura's responsibilities include managing various programs and projects related to watershed and source water protection, water conservation, water rights, and climate change issues. SLCDPU has one of the nation’s more complex water systems due to the location, timing, and nature of its water resources, and the high number of pressure zones in its distribution system. SLCDPU is particularly interested and concerned with mapping its own energy-water nexus, and planning for resiliency in a changing climate.

Prior to SLCDPU, Laura worked for six years as the Assistant Administrator for a small city in Utah, and for eight years as an environmental consultant based in the San Francisco Bay Area conducting environmental investigations for contaminated sites and environmental compliance work throughout the country. She has a degree in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Barbara.
 

Charlie Ester
Manager of Water Resources Operations, Salt River Project

Charlie, a 29-year veteran of SRP, is currently manager of Water Resource Operations. This group is responsible for watershed monitoring, runoff forecasting, reservoir operations planning, emergency reservoir operations, and drought preparedness. He has been in this position for 15 years. Previously, he was a hydrologist in the same division. Charlie is a 1983 Hydrology graduate of the University of Arizona. 

Lillian Kawasaki
Water Replenishment District, Los Angeles Basin

Prior to her election as Director of the Water Replenishment District (Los Angeles Basin), Lillian Kawasaki served as Assistant General Manager for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, where she oversaw department-wide environmental issues including the Department's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan.

In 2006, Ms. Kawasaki was elected to the Water Replenishment District which manages the groundwater for nearly 4 million people in 43 cities in Southern California. Prior to her tenure at LADWP, Ms. Kawasaki served as General Manager of the Community Development Department for the City of Los Angeles and, previous to that, was General Manager of the Environmental Affairs Department of the City of Los Angeles for ten years. Ms. Kawasaki is a member of the California Bay-Delta Public Advisory Committee, is co-chair of the Friends of Manzanar, and serves on the Women's Foundation Donor Circle and the Enterprise Foundation. Lillian holds a B.S. in Zoology and an M.S. in Biology from the California State University, Los Angeles. Ms. Kawasaki has been a Carpe Diem West team member since 2007 and joined the Board of Directors in 2009.
 

John Shurts 
Northwest Power & Conservation Council

John Shurts is the General Counsel for the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. The Council is an interstate compact agency based in Portland, Oregon, authorized by the Northwest Power Act of 1980 and consisting of eight members appointed by the governors of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. The Council develops and oversees a regional power plan for the Pacific Northwest and a fish and wildlife protection and mitigation program for the Columbia River Basin. Shurts also has a Ph.D. degree in American History from the University of Oregon, with an emphasis on environmental and legal history, and is the author of a book on the origin and development of Indian reserved water rights: The Winters Doctrine in its Social and Legal Context, 1880s- 1930s. He is an adjunct professor at Portland State University and the University of Portland (and has been at the law school at Lewis and Clark), teaching courses in environmental, water, energy, and natural resources law and policy. In 2008, Shurts also served as a member of the Anadromous Fish Independent Review Panel empanelled by the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a comprehensive review of the Central Valley Project’s Anadromous Fish Restoration Program. John is a member of Carpe Diem West’s Water, Energy & Climate Change team.


Amy Snover 
Co-Director, Climate Impacts Group 

 Dr. Amy Snover is Co-Director of the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington, an interdisciplinary research and outreach team dedicated to developing and delivering climate impacts science in the public interest. She has over fifteen years of experience bridging the gap between science and decision making, focusing on improving society’s resilience to natural and human-caused fluctuations in climate. Dr. Snover was the lead author on the popular climate change-planning guidebook, Preparing for Climate Change: A Guidebook for Local, Regional, and State Governments. She is currently working with NOAA to evaluate the implications of climate change projections for Endangered Species Act processes and with the U.S. Forest Service to write a climate change adaptation guidebook for aquatic habitat managers. Dr. Snover received a PhD in Analytical/Environmental Chemistry from the University of Washington with dissertation research on the stable isotope biogeochemistry of atmospheric methane where she was a Department of Energy Global Change Fellow. 
 

Fran Spivy-Weber 
Vice-Chair, CA State Water Resources Control Board

 Frances Spivy-Weber was elected Vice-Chair of the State Water Resources Control Board in February of 2009. Before being appointed to the Board, she served as the executive director of the Mono Lake Committee starting in 1997.

From 1983 to 1992, Ms. Weber served as the director of international programs for the National Audubon Society. She previously was a legislative assistant for the Animal Welfare Institute from 1978 to 1982.

Ms. Weber was a member of the Bay-Delta Public Advisory Committee and co-chair of its Water Use Efficiency Committee. She also served as co-chair of the Southern California Water Dialogue and convener of the California Urban Water Conservation Council. She has served on many boards, including the Water Education Foundation, California Council of Land Trusts, and Clean Water Action/Clean Water Fund.
 

Cynthia Truelove
Director, Water-Energy Research Initiative, Water in the West, Stanford University

Dr. Truelove leads the Water-Energy Research Initiative at Stanford University's Water in the West, a joint program of the Woods Institute for the Environment and the Bill Lane Center for the American West.  Prior to joining Stanford University, she most recently served as Senior Water Policy Analyst in the Division of Policy and Planning of the California Public Utilities Commission. She was responsible for developing the CPUC’s Water Policy Program across the arenas of water conservation and water use efficiency; the water-energy nexus; and water and climate change. Over the past twenty-five years, she has worked across North and South America in environmental and water and natural resource planning, as well as in the research interface between social, ecological, and global economic restructuring. Dr. Truelove has held a wide range of positions from her tenure as Plan Administrator of the nation's largest public sector multiple species habitat conservation plan to Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology, Latin American Studies and Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She holds a Ph.D. in the Sociology of Comparative and International Development from The Johns Hopkins University as well as a Masters in International Studies and Economics from The Johns Hopkins University Nitze School for Advanced International Studies.

With additional thanks to the following people:

Dr. Gregg Garfin, Director of Science Translation and Outreach, Institute of the Environment, University of Arizona
Megan Galwith, Scientific Officer, UK Climate Impacts Program
Lezlie Moriniere, PhD., University of Arizona
Chris West, Director, UK Climate Impacts Program