Invited Speakers

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

DAN RAYFIELD

April 14th, 2:30 – 3:30

Dan is the Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives. He was elected to that position in February 2022 during his fourth term as state representative for House District 16, which makes up Corvallis and Philomath. During Rayfield’s more than three years as one of the Legislature’s lead budget writers, he helped develop and pass a historic water and sewer investment package worth more than $530 million to improve access to clean water in cities and counties across Oregon. He lives in Corvallis with his wife, Amanda, and their 10-year-old son, Adam.

WORKSHOPS

WATER NEGOTIATION SKILL BUILDING

April 13th, 4:10 – 6:00

Led by Aaron Wolf, a professor of geography at Oregon State University.

Participants will build skills to facilitate successful communication around water cooperation and diplomacy.

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Aaron T. Wolf, PhD is a professor of geography at Oregon State University, USA, with an appointment as professor of water diplomacy at IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands.  He has acted as consultant to the US Government, the World Bank, and several international governments and development partners on various aspects of water resources and conflict management. A trained mediator/ facilitator, he directs the Program in Water Conflict Management and Transformation, through which he has offered workshops, facilitations, and mediation in basins throughout the world.

THE POWER BEYOND THE BULLET POINT

April 14th, 3:40 – 5:20

Led by Francisco Guerra, a Courtesy Faculty Member at the College of Forestry at Oregon State University (OSU).

Participants will learn how to enhance their science stories by creating effective visuals using PowerPoint. Participants will need laptops, pen and paper, and a 250-word abstract about a scientific topic of interest (hopefully their own research).

Francisco (he/him) is a Courtesy Faculty Member at the College of Forestry at Oregon State Francisco (he/him) is a Courtesy Faculty Member at the College of Forestry at Oregon State University (OSU). Trained as an aquatic biologist studying litter decomposition in the tropical Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta (the tallest coastal mountain in the world) and after obtaining a master’s degree in Hydrosystems (Bogota, Colombia), he moved to Oregon to understand the effects of forest cover changes on the amount of terrestrial carbon exported to lakes and oceans. While working on his dual Ph.D. degree in Sustainable Forest Management and Water Resources Science from OSU, Francisco discovered his strong interest in science communication. This passion led Francisco to amazing opportunities, including being a Mass Media Fellow at CNN Español for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Water Science-Policy Fellow at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Most recently he worked as the Science Communication Liaison for COMPASS and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS).

INTERNATIONAL WATER RESEARCH PANEL: April 13th, 3:10 – 4:00

Chaired by Nuha Alagaidi, a second year graduate student in the Water Resources Engineering program and chair of OSU Water Resources Program Equity and Inclusion Team.

This panel highlights the international research conducted by OSU students and faculty and creates space to raise awareness of the potential to enhance the international dimensions of our research. Hear from faculty and graduate students of OSU about their international research!

CAREER PANEL: April 14th, 11:00 – 12:00

JOLYNE LEA, P.H: AIH AND NRCS

Jolyne is a certified hydrologist with the American Institute of Hydrology (AIH) and is the current secretary-member liaison.  She is also the AIH Oregon state chapter President. Jolyne is a Hydrologist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) at the National Water and Climate Center in Portland Oregon. In her current position, she is a forecast hydrologist producing seasonal water supply forecast models based on the western US mountain snowpack.  In addition, she oversees climate data and products for the NRCS to support conservation activities of the agency.  She received her M.S. in Watershed Management-Hydrology from the University of Nevada Reno, and her B.S. from the University of Connecticut in Natural Resources Management.

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JAMES WHITE: USGS

James is a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey Oregon Water Science Center. Much of his work is in the Willamette basin and typically revolves around the intersection of channel hydraulics, aquatic ecology, and water management. James joined the USGS in 2015, after earning a master’s degree in Watershed Hydrology from Utah State University.

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KEITH MILLS: OWRD

Keith is a state engineer for Oregon Water Resources Department. Much of his work is at the interface between engineering and natural resources. He has worked on evaluation of dams and other river engineering practices on water quality and environmental habitat, environmental engineering risk policy, and impacts of environmental habitat on water and road infrastructure. Keith completed both his BS and MS at Oregon State in Forest Engineering and Civil Engineering, respectively.

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CATHY POWER: NV5

Cathy lives in Corvallis OR and serves as a Technical Domain Expert for NV5 Geospatial. Cathy has been working with lidar and topobathymetric lidar datasets and analytics for over a decade.  Her principle focus in recent years has been the derivation of high-resolution hydrologic networks from elevation data in support of national and local hydrology programs.

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RENEE BROOKS: EPA

Renee is a ecohydrologist at the Environmental Protection Agency and a Courtesy Faculty member in the OSU College of Forestry. Her work focuses on the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, plant genetics and physiology, and forest, wildlife and landscape ecology and specifically using stable isotopes to answer these questions. She joined the EPA after completing her PhD at University of Washington.