Kaylee Allen is the Senior Advisor for Resources in the Pacific Southwest Region of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. She has held that position since May 2023.  Previously she served as the Assistant Regional Director for the Fish and Aquatic Conservation Program and before that as Field Supervisor of the San Francisco Bay-Delta Fish and Wildlife Office in Sacramento, California.  She has worked for the Service since November, 2015.   From February 2000 to November, 2015, Kaylee worked for the Department of the Interior’s Regional Solicitor’s Office in Sacramento as an Assistant Regional Solicitor.  In that capacity she advised on legal issues primarily associated with water law, endangered species, administrative law, environmental issues and torts.  Kaylee holds a J.D. from UC Davis School of Law and did her undergraduate work at UC Davis.

Ara Azhderian is general manager of the Monterey County Water Resources Agency. He was previously general manager of Panoche Water District, which serves parts of Fresno and Merced counties. Before that, he served as the water policy administrator for San Luis & Delta Mendota Water Authority. He has a wealth of experience in managing water systems, public agency administration, finance, and water resource regulations as well as in the science, litigation, and legislative complexities of water management. His farming background gives him a deep understanding of California’s irrigated agriculture.

Dr. Tessa Beach is chief of planning and environmental services for the San Francisco District of the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Dr. Beach received the Commander’s Leadership Award from USACE in 2018 and was a Switzer Environmental Fellow in 2015. She holds a PhD in landscape architecture and environmental planning from the University of California, Berkeley; an MA in environmental science and management from the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management; and a BS in biology from University of California, San Diego.

Jane Dolan is the president of the Central Valley Flood Protection Board. She was appointed by Governor Brown in 2011 and reappointed in 2014; Governor Newsom appointed her board president in 2022. Ms. Dolan is also executive director of the Sacramento River Conservation Area Forum, an organization working to identify solutions to diverse issues along the upper Sacramento River corridor. A fourth-generation native of Butte County, Ms. Dolan served on the Butte County Board of Supervisors from January 1979 to January 2011, spending eight terms representing the 2nd Supervisorial District, which encompasses portions of the Chico urban area stretching to the Sacramento River. As county supervisor, Ms. Dolan has been involved with Sacramento River issues for decades and worked diligently on constituent needs, neighborhood planning, land use matters, numerous areas of public policy, and sound fiscal budgeting. She was instrumental in establishing protections for the prime agricultural lands of Butte County, known locally as the Greenline. Ms. Dolan and her husband, Bob Mulholland, live in Chico.

Lance Eckhart is general manager of the San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency. He was previously director of basin management and resource planning at the Mojave Water Agency. Before public service, Mr. Eckhart worked as a consultant for various environmental firms around Southern California. Areas of expertise include leading regional scientific studies, groundwater basin characterization and management, SGMA and groundwater adjudication implementation, resource policy, urban water management plans, salt and nutrient management, groundwater recharge/imports, water banking, Integrated Regional Water Management planning, disadvantaged community involvement, state and federal grant programs, groundwater legislation, and the State Water Contract. He is a licensed professional geologist and certified hydrogeologist in the state of California. He holds an MS in environmental science and a BS in geology from California State University, Fullerton.

Laurel Firestone was appointed to the State Water Resources Control Board in 2019 and reappointed by Governor Newsom in February 2023. Prior to joining the board, Laurel co-founded and co-directed the Community Water Center, a statewide nonprofit environmental justice organization based in California’s Central Valley and Central Coast. Her career has focused on ensuring all Californians have access to safe, clean, and affordable drinking water, and building increased diversity, equity, and inclusivity into water decision-making. Laurel has received a variety of awards and recognition for her work, including the James Irvine Foundation’s Leadership Award in 2018 and the Gary Bellow Public Service Award from the Harvard Law School in 2013. Laurel served on the Tulare County Water Commission from 2007–12, as well as a variety of state policy advisory committees. She has partnered with universities to develop research and clinical programs to further the human right to water, and written articles and publications related to drinking water and the environment. Laurel graduated with honors from Harvard Law School and holds a BA in environmental studies from Brown University.

Ali Forsythe is the environmental planning and permitting manager for the Sites Project Authority, a planned offstream, multi-purpose reservoir in the Sacramento Valley. Prior to joining Sites, Ali spent over 10 years with the Bureau of Reclamation, where she was deputy regional director, overseeing Reclamation’s operations in the Klamath and Lahontan Basin Area Offices and supervising technical offices and programs within the region. At Reclamation, Ali also led the San Joaquin River Restoration Program as program manager for seven years. In this role, Ali led the largest federally-led river restoration program in the nation, working to restore and maintain fish populations in the 153 miles of the San Joaquin River from Friant Dam to the Merced River confluence. Ali holds degrees in hydrologic sciences and environmental studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Letitia Grenier is director of the PPIC Water Policy Center, where she is also a senior fellow. She previously directed the Resilient Landscapes Program of the San Francisco Estuary Institute, where she served as a resource for local and national media; advised government and agency staff; and worked with partners to conserve California’s living resources by developing landscape-scale, collaborative, science-based visions and solutions. She was also the 2020 PPIC CalTrout Ecosystem Fellow and an adjunct fellow with the PPIC Water Policy Center. Throughout her career, she has worked as a proponent and leader of science-based management. In 2019 and 2015, she served as the science lead for the State of the Estuary Report, and she was also the science lead for the 2015 update to the Baylands Ecosystem Habitat Goals, heading a team of over 200 environmental scientists, managers, and regulators to develop recommendations for restoring and maintaining the health of the Bay’s tidal wetlands in the face of rising sea levels and other stressors. She completed her PhD at University of California, Berkeley, where her research concentrated on the ecology of the Bay-Delta estuary system.

Ellen Hanak is a senior fellow with the PPIC Water Policy Center, where she holds the Ellen Hanak Chair in Water Policy. She was the center’s first director, as well as a vice president and senior fellow with the Public Policy Institute of California. Previously, she served as the institute’s research director. Under her leadership, the center became a critical source of information and guidance for natural resource management in California. She has authored dozens of reports, articles, and books on water policy, including Managing California’s Water. Her research is frequently profiled in the national media, and she participates in briefings, conferences, and interviews throughout the nation and around the world. Her other areas of expertise include climate change and infrastructure finance. Before joining PPIC, she held positions with the French agricultural research system, the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, and the World Bank. She holds a PhD in economics from the University of Maryland.

Nahal Ipakchi is a senior director at Kearns & West with over 15 years of experience leading efforts focused on environmental justice, community resilience, tribal relations, equitable and inclusive outreach and engagement, collaborative solutions, and stakeholder facilitation. Nahal currently focuses on air quality, climate and shoreline adaptation, water resources, land use, equity and inclusion, and community and regional planning. Nahal is a trusted convener committed to making environmental justice and equity central to climate and environmental planning and policymaking. She designs and facilitates public engagement strategies focused on cultivating meaningful partnerships for innovative and equitable solutions that support thriving and healthy communities and ecosystems.

Jeffrey Mount is a senior fellow at the PPIC Water Policy Center. He is an emeritus professor of earth and planetary sciences and founding director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California, Davis. A geomorphologist who specializes in the study of rivers, streams, and wetlands, his research focuses on integrated water resource management, flood management, and improving aquatic ecosystem health. He has served on many state and federal boards and commissions that address water resource management issues in the West. He has published more than a hundred articles, books, and other publications, including the seminal book California Rivers and Streams (UC Press). He holds a PhD and MS in earth sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Daniel Mountjoy is the director of resource stewardship at Sustainable Conservation. He leads the organization’s water program to promote new approaches to conserve and replenish groundwater supplies for agriculture, communities, and the environment. He works to integrate technical knowledge, decision support tools, and policy in support of groundwater sustainability and habitat restoration through collaboration with farmers, the agricultural industry, researchers, agencies, and other non-governmental organizations. Prior to joining Sustainable Conservation, Daniel was assistant state conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), serving the California Central Coast and San Francisco Bay-Delta regions. Daniel has practical on-the-ground experience as a farm and land manager on rural properties in northern California and as a landscape contractor in Santa Cruz County. Daniel holds a PhD in human ecology from the University of California, Davis; an MA in Latin American studies from Stanford University; and a BA in agroecology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Caitlin Peterson is associate director and research fellow at the PPIC Water Policy Center. She is an agroecologist whose research spans climate-smart agriculture, soil health, diversified cropping systems, agroecosystem resilience, and multi-benefit agricultural landscapes. In her previous work, she explored irrigation and soil ecosystem functions in California almond and tomato systems, crop-livestock integration in Brazilian soybean-beef systems, and small farmer adaptation to climate change in Colombia, Tanzania, and Ghana. As a consulting agroecologist, she led programs linking farmers across the US to emerging soil carbon marketplaces. She holds a PhD in ecology and an MS in international agricultural development from the University of California, Davis.

Jennifer Pierre is the General Manager for the State Water Contractors (SWC) – a statewide, non-profit association of the public water agencies that contract with the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to receive water from the State Water Project (SWP), which provides water to 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland. A UC Davis alumna with a bachelor’s in environmental biology and conservation, Jennifer has 20 years of experience in Delta management and applies that experience to advance the SWC’s primary purpose to improve water supply and operations for two-thirds of the entire state that depend on this water. Jennifer is a champion of collaboration and science-based decision-making, working towards solutions that meet the SWC’s mission in an environmentally sustainable way.

Nancy Vogel joined the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) as director of the governor’s Water Portfolio Program in May 2019. She helped prepare and now coordinates implementation of the administration’s Water Resilience Portfolio and assists with other water policy priorities. Before her appointment, Nancy was director of communications at the Resources Legacy Fund. She was deputy secretary for communications at CNRA from 2015–17 and assistant director for communications at the California Department of Water Resources from 2012–15. Nancy was a principal consultant for the Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes from 2008–12. She was a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times from 2000–08 and for the Sacramento Bee from 1991–2000. Nancy served as a member of the Klamath River Renewal Corporation Board of Directors in 2018. She holds a BS in conservation and resource studies and an MA in journalism, both from the University of California, Berkeley.