Our Team
Jim Bond (Web Manager) has over thirteen years of professional watershed management experience. He has worked with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality as a Senior TMDL Planner, and as a Watershed Project Manager with the Iron County Conservation District in Crystal Falls, MI. Jim has built working relationships with and navigated the various interests of numerous stakeholders, including farmers, ranchers, timber companies, tribes, and municipalities to identify problems and develop solutions to a myriad of water related issues. At the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, Jim is building on his professional foundation with a focus on Water Resource Management, and incorporating studies in hydrology, economics, and water policy. Jim has a BA in Biology from Augustana College (Rock Island, IL).
[email protected] Lauren Steely (Data Manager) is a Bren School masters candidate specializing in Water Resources Management. Prior to coming to Bren, she worked as a field geochemist at Columbia Technologies, a small business that is pioneering the use of new technologies to map soil and groundwater pollution. Her work has taken her to some of the most polluted sites across 20 U.S. states, Australia, and Brazil. She's happiest working in the field, but in the office she enjoys figuring out novel ways to analyze data and visualize large environmental datasets. At Bren, Lauren is interested in the intersecting issues around fresh water supply in the Western U.S. and in Brazil. Her goal is to reconcile market-based tools with social justice concerns. Lauren holds a BS in Geology from the University of Maryland College Park.
[email protected] |
Mary-Sophia Motlow (Project Manager) graduated from UCSB with honors in 2012 with a degree in
Environmental Studies. While at UCSB,
Maso studied a broad range of environmental issues, but focused on water
management in the Western United States, writing her senior thesis on Methods
to Decrease Stress on the Potable Water Supply through Augmentation of Potable
and Non-potable Water Resources. As a Water Conservation Intern with the City
of Santa Barbara, she gained insight into how price structures, rebates that
incentivize water conservation, and user compliance can affect long term
viability of water supplies, conveyance systems, and watershed health. Looking
forward Maso intends to tackle water management challenges in the Western United States and internationally using the
physical and social sciences.
[email protected] Dean Wang (Financial Manager) comes to the Bren School with a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin, where he majored in management science and information systems. His interest in water stems from his first-hand experience living in water-scarce locations such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Austin, and Australia. He is currently researching the financial costs and benefits of urban water efficiency measures, especially turf removal. Dean has studied Californian water transactions and the water conveyance infrastructure as a graduate research assistant at UCSB. He is also familiar with the current trends in the Texas markets for groundwater and surface water rights from his time working as an analyst for WestWater Research.
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Our Advisors
Gary Libecap - PhD, BA, Economics, University of Pennsylvania; BA, Economics, University of Montana
Gary Libecap came to the Bren School in 2006 after more than twenty years at the University of Arizona, Tucson, where, in addition to teaching business, law, and economics, often in a natural resource context, he developed and directed the nation's top-ranked entrepreneurship program. Professor Libecap’s current research is focused on the legal, economic, and policy aspects of water allocation in the western United States. He has been president of the Economic History Association, the Western Economics Association International, and the International Society for the New Institutional Economics, and he holds high-level appointments at several top institutions around the country. [email protected] |
Robert Wilkinson - Bren School Adjunct Associate Professor, Water Policy
Robert Wilkinson’s research and teaching is focused on water and energy policy, climate change, and issues of environmental policy. He advises government agencies, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and foundations on water policy and environmental issues. He currently serves on the public advisory committee for California's State Water Plan, and he has represented the University of California on the Governor's Task Force on Desalination. He has advised the California Energy Commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on climate research, and has served as coordinator for the climate impacts assessment of the California Region for the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. [email protected] |