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Board of Directors

Overview January 17, 2014

Board of Directors

The Water Education Foundation is governed by a volunteer board of 33 members representing a broad cross-section of water, education, business, environmental and public interest communities. 

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Board Member January 9, 2017

Mike Chrisman – President
Chrisman Ranches

Mike Chrisman, a fourth-generation Californian, is owner/partner of Chrisman Ranches, a family ranching and farming business in Tulare County.

Chrisman served as California Secretary of Natural Resources from 2003 until 2010. As a member of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cabinet, he served as the governor’s chief adviser on issues related to the state’s natural, historic and cultural resources. Chrisman also chaired the California Ocean Protection Council and Sierra Nevada Conservancy.  

Mike Chrisman passed away Oct. 11, 2022. You can read a memoriam here.

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Board Member January 17, 2014

Celeste Cantú – Vice President
Water Solutions Network

Celeste Cantú is a design team member for the Water Solutions Network.

Ms. Cantú previously served as general manager of the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority (SAWPA). While there, she led the development of the Crest to Coast, Corner to Corner Integrated Regional Watershed Management Plan called One Water, One Watershed (OWOW). The plan addressed all water-related issues and joined all entities and hundreds of stakeholders seeking to create a new vision of sustainability for the Santa Ana River Watershed.

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Board Member January 9, 2018

Yung-Hsin Sun – Secretary
Sunzi Consulting LLC

Yung-Hsin Sun is a water resources engineer and president of Sunzi Consulting LLC, the engineering firm he founded.

Previously he was chief water resources engineer with Stantec, where he had worked since 2001. Dr. Sun is a principal engineer with more than 29 years of experience leading, managing and planning large-scale water resource projects for flood management, water supply and ecosystem restoration.

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Board Member January 17, 2014

JaNell Cook — Treasurer
HDR, Inc

JaNell Cook is the Regional West Director for HDR, overseeing engineering projects in the American West, Hawaii and Guam.

Previously, she was Director of US Business Development & Strategy for MWH Americas, Inc. In California, the company specializes in hydropower, soil and groundwater remediation. During her tenure at MWH, Cook oversaw several projects, including the Central Valley Flood Management Program and the San Joaquin River Restoration project.

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Board Member January 17, 2014

Robert W. Johnson – Past President
Water Strategies LLC

Bob Johnson is a senior adviser for Water Strategies LLC, a Washington D.C.-based firm that represents water clients throughout the Western United States. Johnson is also a senior consultant with HDR Engineering.

Johnson previously served as commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, where he oversaw the water and power programs of the nation’s largest water wholesaler and second-largest producer of hydropower.

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Board Member December 29, 2022

Andrea Abergel
California Municipal Utilities Association

Andrea Abergel is manager of water policy for the California Municipal Utilities Association. She represents CMUA’s water member agencies on issues before various California agencies including the State Water Resources Control Board and Regional Water Quality Control Boards, Department of Water Resources and California Water Commission. Andrea is a practicing attorney licensed in California and is an alum of the Water Education Foundation’s 2022 Water Leaders class.

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Board Member January 17, 2014

Jennifer P. Allen
Contra Costa Water District

Jennifer Allen is an alumnus of the Water Education Foundation’s 2011 Water Leaders Program. As the Director of Public Affairs at Contra Costa Water District (CCWD), she oversees the outreach and education programs offered to customers, students, and employees, and facilitates media relations.

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Board Member January 5, 2018

Richard Aragon
Coachella Valley Water District

Richard Aragon is director of finance for the Coachella Valley Water District, where he oversees the agency’s accounting, finance and purchasing/contracting departments.

He previously served as senior adviser to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, assistant general manager-chief financial officer for Rancho California Water District in Temecula, and as interim general manager and director of finance for the Central Basin Municipal Water District, a member agency of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

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Board Member January 17, 2014

Thomas M. Berliner
Duane Morris LLP

Thomas M. Berliner is a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris LLP. He focuses his practice on water, energy, environmental and governmental/municipal law and is chair of the Duane Morris Water Resources and Renewable Energy and Sustainability practice groups.

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Board Member January 14, 2020

John Bezdek
Water and Power Law Group PC

John Bezdek is a shareholder with the Water and Power Law Group PC in Washington, DC. He is an expert in Western water resources, especially Indian water rights, listed species protection, habitat restoration, development and implementation of water resources projects, and Reclamation law.

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Board Member January 17, 2014

Ane D. Deister
Urban Water Institute

Ane D. Deister is executive director of the Urban Water Institute and a consultant for HDR Engineering. She has more than 30 years of experience in the water resources and environmental management business, with more than 25 years in executive leadership appointments.

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Board Member January 9, 2015

Kim Delfino
Earth Advocacy

Kim Delfino is the founder and president of Earth Advocacy, a consulting company that provides policy and advocacy guidance to nonprofits and foundations with the goal of protecting and restoring our lands, water and wildlife for future generations.

Previously, she served as the longtime California director of Defenders of Wildlife. She developed and directed the organization’s work across the state, including determining policy and program work in wildlife, land use, water and energy issues.

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Board Member January 14, 2020

Dave Eggerton
Association of California Water Agencies

Dave Eggerton is executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), a statewide association whose more than 450 local public water agency members are responsible for about 90% of the water delivered in California.

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Board Member January 11, 2021

Carl B. Evers III
AgIS Capital

Carl Evers III is director of sustainability for AgIS Capital, where he is responsible for the company’s sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts. 

Previously, Evers was vice president of water resources for Hancock Natural Resource Group, where he was responsible for the management of water policy at the state and national level for the company’s agricultural investments in the western United States. Earlier, he led farming operations for the company’s 38,000 acres in California and oversaw farm developments in Australia.

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Board Member January 8, 2018

Dana “Bart” Fisher Jr.
Palo Verde Irrigation District

Bart Fisher, a third-generation farmer from Blythe, is a member of the Palo Verde Irrigation District board of trustees, where he has served twice as board chairman.

Fisher also was the longtime chairman of the Colorado River Board of California, where he represented California’s rights in the Colorado River to the other six states with entitlements to the river, and also to the federal government and to the government of Mexico.

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Board Member January 6, 2022

Brian Golding Sr.
Quechan Indian Tribe of the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation

Brian Golding Sr. is the economic development director for the Quechan Indian Tribe of the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation along the Colorado River in Arizona and California. Since 2004, he has been responsible for managing community development projects, leasing, grants and contracts and acting as liaison on economic development initiatives with local, state and federal agencies, and private development entities.

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Board Member January 17, 2014

David J. Guy
Northern California Water Association

David J. Guy is the President of the Northern California Water Association (NCWA). For the past several decades he has worked in various capacities to advance economic interests that promote the conservation of California’s special places and their precious water and land resources.

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Board Member December 29, 2022

Cheyanne Harris
Brown and Caldwell

Cheyanne Harris is a civil engineer with Brown and Caldwell supporting program management, conveyance and pump station projects. She is based in her hometown of Sacramento.

She received a bachelor’s degree from University of the Pacific in 2017 and a master’s degree from University of California, Davis in 2021. She is a licensed professional civil engineer in California and is an alum of the Foundation’s 2019 Water Leaders class.

She joined the Water Education Foundation’s Board of Directors in 2023.

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Board Member June 26, 2014

Thomas Harter
University of California

Thomas Harter joined the faculty at the Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources at University of California, Davis in 1995. His research focuses on nonpoint-source pollution of groundwater, groundwater resources evaluation under uncertainty, groundwater modeling and contaminant transport.

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Board Member December 29, 2022

Ann Hayden
Environmental Defense Fund

Ann Hayden is associate vice president of Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Resilient Water Systems Program and oversees strategy development and implementation of sustainable water management approaches across the arid U.S, including California and the Colorado River Basin. 

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Board Member January 4, 2022

Lily Lopez
Walnut Valley Water District

Lily Lopez is director of external affairs at Walnut Valley Water District, where she has overseen strategic communications and public education efforts since 2019. Previously, she worked for two communications consultants handling a variety of assignments. In 2014-2015 she was a member of the Jesse M. Unruh Assembly Fellowship Program.   

She graduated in 2014 from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a degree in political science. 

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Board Member January 4, 2022

Sandi Matsumoto
The Nature Conservancy

Sandi Matsumoto is director of The Nature Conservancy’s California Water Program. She leads a multi-disciplinary team focused on securing a sustainable and resilient water future for California. The Water Program is working to secure the wintering grounds of the Pacific Flyway, revive healthy rivers to sustain salmon, and advance sustainable groundwater management that ensures drinking water for people and supports nature.

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Board Member January 9, 2015

Cannon Michael
Bowles Farming Company

A sixth-generation farmer, Cannon Michael is president of Bowles Farming Company headquartered in Los Banos, Calif. There, he oversees an 11,000-acre farm where the company grows cotton, fresh market and processing tomatoes, field crops, and other commodities. 

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Board Member January 15, 2020

Leslie Moulton-Post
Environmental Science Associates

Leslie Moulton-Post is president and chief executive officer of Environmental Science Associates (ESA). She has more than 35 years of experience in environmental consulting focused on water management projects and programs.

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Board Member January 12, 2015

Christopher Park
CDM Smith

Christopher Park is a water resource planner with CDM Smith in Sacramento.

He has nine years of experience focusing on environmental impact assessment and permitting for both local and statewide water planning projects for clients that include the Bureau of Reclamation, Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the Cambria Community Services District.

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Board Member January 9, 2015

Jennifer Persike
Jennifer Persike & Company

Jennifer is the president and founder of Jennifer Persike & Company, a consulting firm focused on innovative management and strategic communications.

Previously, she served as the executive director of Leadership California, a network of more than 1,600 accomplished women, dedicated to advancing the leadership role of women in business, communities and public policy.

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Board Member January 17, 2014

Thomas S. Philp
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

Thomas S. Philp is the executive strategist for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). He works out of MWD’s Capitol office in Sacramento, where he helps with public affairs, local and state outreach as well as drafting key communications for the district.

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Board Member January 26, 2016

Sara Reid
CoBank

Sara Reid is Vice President and Credit Manager for CoBank, ACB (part of the Farm Credit System) and an alumnus of the Water Education Foundation’s 2015 Water Leaders Program. Sara oversees the credit review and loan decision-making process for CoBank’s 400-plus borrowers in the Western region.

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Board Member January 17, 2014

Ronald B. Robie
Court of Appeal, 3rd Appellate District

Ronald B. Robie has served as an Associate Justice on the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, since 2002. Previously he served as a judge of both the Sacramento Superior and Municipal Courts. He was presiding judge from 1994 to 1995. He was named “Judge of the Year” by the Sacramento County Bar Association in 2002.

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Board Member January 16, 2020

Eric Robinson
Kronick Moskovitz Tiedemann & Girard

Eric Robinson is a shareholder and manager of the natural resources practice group at Kronick Moskovitz Tiedemann & Girard.

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Board Member January 10, 2022

Alfred E. Smith II
Nossaman LLP

Attorney Alfred Smith, chair of Nossaman’s Water Group, has extensive experience in water, environmental, transportation and public agency law. He has successfully litigated multiple water right adjudications.

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Board Member January 10, 2019

Rebecca Smith
Downey Brand LLP

Rebecca Smith is a partner at Downey Brand specializing in water law, a practice that includes work on groundwater management and the state’s 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, as well as the firm’s Food and Ag practice. 

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Board Member January 8, 2019

Teri Smyly
Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

Teri Smyly is manager of water management at Pacific Gas & Electric Co., where she leads a team specializing in hydrological modeling and water planning guidance. Previously she was a senior energy analyst and a senior hydro scheduling consultant with PG&E. 

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