Speakers' Biography
Speakers' Biography
Pete
McBride
Pete McBride, a Native Coloradan, has spent almost two decades studying the world with his camera. A self-taught, award-winning photographer, he has traveled on assignment to over 60 countries for the publications of the National Geographic Society, Smithsonian, Outside, Men's Journal, Esquire, and many others. After a decade working abroad, Pete decided to focus his cameras closer to home on a subject closer to his heart. Combining his passion for aviation and his belief in conservation, he partnered with Jon Waterman and spent over two years documenting his local river - the Colorado. This journey culminated in a coffee table book: "The Colorado River: Flowing Through Conflict", an award-winning short film, "Chasing Water" and a traveling museum exhibit/lecture currently on display at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
When not lost on assignment, you can find Pete in Basalt, Colorado where he serves as a local council member, or on his family's cattle ranch nearby working in the fields where he grew up,cutting hay or "chasing water" (irrigating). You can see samples of Pete's work at: petemcbride.com
Jonathan
Waterman
Jonathan Waterman is the author of The Colorado River: Flowing through Conflict (coauthored with Peter McBride), Running Dry: A Journey from Source to Sea Down the Colorado River and nine other popular books. Three-time winner of the Banff Best Adventure Travel Book award and a NEA Literary Fellowship, he works as an immersion journalist, making arduous passages through remote landscapes to develop an intimate sense of place. Supported by the National Geographic Society during many of these journeys, he is now researching and photographing 16 drying rivers in the southwest, in hopes of affecting public policy before these waterways are lost. For more information see: jonathanwaterman.com
Justice
Greg
Hobbs
Justice
Greg
Hobbs
has
served
on
the
Colorado
Supreme
Court
since
May
1,
1996.
He
earned
his
J.D.
from
Boalt
Hall,
University
of
California
at
Berkeley,
1971,
and
has
a
B.A.
in
History
from
the
University
of
Notre
Dame,
1966.
He
practiced
environmental,
water,
transportation,
and
land
use
law
for
23
years
before
becoming
a
member
of
the
Colorado
Supreme
Court.
During
his
legal
career,
he
worked
as
a
law
clerk
at
the
United
States
Court
of
Appeals
for
the
Tenth
Circuit,
an
enforcement
attorney
for
the
Environmental
Protection
Agency,
a
Colorado
First
Assistant
Attorney
General
for
Natural
Resources,
and
a
partner
with
the
law
firms
of
Davis,
Graham
&
Stubbs
and
Hobbs,
Trout
&
Raley.
He
is
Vice-President
of
the
Colorado
Foundation
for
Water
Education
and
a
co-convener
of
the
Western
Water
Judges
educational
program,
Dividing
the
Waters.
Justice
Hobbs
is
also
the
author
of
a
number
of
books
including:
In
Praise
of
Fair
Colorado,
The
Practice
of
Poetry,
History
and
Judging
(Bradford
Publishing
Co.
2004),
Colorado
Mother
of
Rivers,
Water
Poems
(Colorado
Foundation
for
Water
Education
2005),
The
Public's
Water
Resource,
Articles
on
Water
Law,
History,
and
Culture
(Continuing
Legal
Education
in
Colorado,
Inc.
2007),
and
Living
the
Four
Corners,
Colorado
Centennial
State
at
the
Headwaters
(Continuing
Legal
Education
in
Colorado,
Inc.
2010).
Learn
more
about
Justice
Hobbs
by
clicking
here.
Lawrence
MacDonnell
Lawrence
MacDonnell
is
a
Professor
of
Law
at
the
University
of
Wyoming
College
Of
Law
teaching
courses
on
Water
Rights,
Public
Lands,
and
Natural
Resources.
He
is
also
the
faculty
advisor
for
the
Wyoming
Law
Review.
MacDonnell
has
previously
served
as
the
original
director
of
the
Natural
Resources
Law
Center
at
the
University
of
Colorado
School
of
Law
and
as
an
Assistant
Professor
in
Mineral
Economics
at
the
Colorado
School
of
Mines.
He
has
worked
in
private
law
practice,
as
a
consultant,
and
for
nonprofit
organizations.
Professor
MacDonnell's
research,
writing,
and
speaking
focus
on
water,
natural
resources
and
the
environment.
He
is
especially
interested
in
ways
to
make
development
and
use
of
natural
resources
more
environmentally
sustainable.
He
has
also
been
instrumental
in
the
organization
and
establishment
of
community-based
watershed
protection
and
restoration
groups
including
the
Colorado
Watershed
Assembly
and
the
Colorado
Water
Trust.
Learn
more
about
Professor
MacDonnell
by
clicking
here.
Bart
Miller
Bart
Miller
is
Water
Program
Director
at
Western
Resource
Advocates
(WRA),
a
non-profit
law
and
policy
organization
dedicated
to
protecting
the
West's
land,
air,
and
water.
At
WRA
he
directs
projects
throughout
the
region
to
improve
urban
water
use
efficiency,
minimize
the
water-related
impacts
of
energy
development,
and
protect
and
restore
river
flows
and
other
habitat
in
many
river
basins.
He
represents
other
conservation
organizations
in
civil
litigation,
lobbies
for
legislation,
and
promotes
forward-looking
environmental
policy.
Prior
to
joining
WRA
in
2000,
he
spent
4
½
years
as
an
attorney-advisor
in
the
Solicitors
Office
in
Washington,
DC,
on
the
legal
staff
that
advises
the
many
agencies
within
the
United
States
Department
of
the
Interior.
Mr.
Miller
graduated
cum
laude
from
Dartmouth
College
in
1988
and
received
his
J.D.
from
University
of
Colorado's
School
of
Law
in
1995.
He
is
admitted
to
the
bar
in
Colorado.
Click
here
to
learn
more
about
Western
Resource
Advocate's
Water
Program.
Jennifer
Pitt
Jennifer
Pitt
manages
the
Environmental
Defense
Fund's
efforts
on
the
Colorado
River,
to
protect
and
restore
the
delta
and
reform
water
policy.
She
works
with
water
users
throughout
the
Colorado
basin
to
develop
practical
programs
to
restore
river
habitats,
and
critically,
to
dedicate
water
to
environmental
resources.
Her
expertise
includes
the
US-Mexico
border
environmental
issues,
the
legal
and
policy
framework
for
Colorado
River
management,
the
economics
of
water
use
and
water
transfers,
and
the
science
of
river
restoration.
Prior
to
joining
EDF
in
1999,
Jennifer
worked
on
river
restoration
for
the
National
Park
Service,
and
as
a
legislative
aide
to
Congressman
Mike
Kopetski
(OR-5).
She
has
also
worked
as
a
ranger
at
Mesa
Verde
and
Sequoia
National
Parks.
Jennifer
has
an
AB
from
Harvard
College
and
an
MES
from
the
Yale
School
of
Forestry
and
Environmental
Studies.
Click
here
to
learn
more
about
Jennifer
and
her
work
at
EDF.
Tom
Chart
Tom
Chart
is
an
East
Coast
native
that
fled
for
the
West
immediately
following
high
school.
He
received
undergraduate
and
M.Sc.
degrees
in
Fishery
Biology
from
Colorado
State
University
in
the
1980's.
His
graduate
studies
got
him
hooked
on
the
native
fishes
of
the
Colorado
River
system
when
he
studied
the
initial
effects
of
mainstem
impoundment
on
the
fish
community
of
Colorado's
White
River.
He
has
worked
for
a
variety
of
State
and
Federal
agencies
throughout
his
career,
most
recently
accepting
the
position
of
Director
of
the
Upper
Colorado
River
Endangered
Fish
Recovery
Program
in
2009.
Tom
met
his
wife
Leslie
at
CSU;
their
sons
Seth
and
Nate
are
currently
attending
college
in
the
Pacific
Northwest.
Learn
more
about
the
Upper
Colorado
River
Endangered
Fish
Recovery
Program.
Beth
Conover
Beth Conover has worked for twenty-five years at the intersection of environmental protection and economic development. As policy advisor to Denver mayor John Hickenlooper, she was the architect of Greenprint Denver, one of the nation's earliest and largest urban sustainability programs, and helped lay the groundwork for the greening of the Democratic National Convention in 2008. She is a graduate of Brown University and holds a joint MBA/masters of environmental studies from Yale University. Conover is a founding partner in the consulting firm Econover, LLC, which does strategic planning, program development and policy consulting on resource sustainability and climate change issues in the public, private and non-profit sectors. She is a native of Denver, Colorado, where she lives with her husband, Ken Snyder, and their two sons. Learn more about Beth Conover by clicking here.
Stephen
Saunders
Stephen Saunders is the founder and president of the Denver-based Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, which works to protect the West and its climate by bringing about action to reduce heat-trapping pollution and to prepare for the impacts of a disrupted climate. Stephen oversaw RMCO's Colorado Climate Project, in which 117 leading Coloradans developed a statewide agenda of actions to reduce Colorado's contribution and vulnerability to climate disruption, including the first outline of statewide actions in the interior West to meet future water needs in the face of climate change. Stephen is the lead author of several reports on climate-change impacts, including Less Snow, Less Water: Climate Disruption in the West and Hotter and Drier: The West's Changed Climate. He formerly served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior over the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as the national policy director in a presidential campaign, and as staff director and senior staff member in a congressional policy organization, two congressional committees, and in the offices of Colorado's Representative Tim Wirth, Senator Gary Hart, and Representative David Skaggs. Stephen has a law degree from the University of Denver. Learn more about Stephen and his work here.
Jeff
Lukas
Jeff Lukas is an Associate Scientist for the Western Water Assessment, a joint effort of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science at CU- Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Jeff's research focuses are climate variability and climate change in the interior West and their impacts on human activities and ecosystems, extraction of multi-century climate records from long-lived conifers, and the application of tree-ring data to water resource management. Jeff has worked on numerous publications regarding climate and water management, as well as having presented to groups such as Denver Water Planning Forum and the Upper Colorado River Basin Commission. Learn more about the Western Water Assessment by clicking here.
Bidtah
Becker
Bidtah Becker, a member of the Navajo Nation, is currently employed with the Navajo Nation Department of Justice where she focuses on pursuing and protecting the Nation's water rights. She is a graduate of the University of New Mexico School of Law and the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. While in law school, Ms. Becker was a founding member of the on-line Tribal Law Journal, http://tlj.unm.edu/. She is married to Paul Spruhan and they have two beautiful children, Bahe and Tazbah. Click here to learn more about the Navajo Nation's water rights and the Colorado River Basin.
Osvel
Hinojosa-Huerta
Osvel
Hinojosa-Huerta
is
the
Director
of
the
Water
and
Wetlands
Program
and
the
Associated
Director
of
the
Birds
Program
of
Pronatura
Noroeste,
based
in
San
Luis
Río
Colorado,
Sonora.
He
obtained
his
PhD,
specializing
in
Wildlife
Ecology
at
the
University
of
Arizona.
Osvel
has
worked
in
research
and
conservation
projects
in
Northwestern
Mexico
since
1997,
especially
in
riparian
and
wetland
areas
in
the
Desert
of
Sonora.
In
recent
years,
he
has
designed
and
directed
the
efforts
to
restore
the
Colorado
River
delta,
including
the
implementation
of
strategies
to
reestablish
the
water
flows
in
the
river
and
the
implementation
of
reforestation
activities
and
wetland
restoration.
Nationally
and
internationally,
he
has
participated
in
the
design
of
strategies
for
the
conservation
of
rivers
and
wetlands,
the
conservation
of
key
areas
for
birds,
and
in
the
design
of
monitoring
protocols
for
protected
species.
Learn
more
about
Osvel
and
his
work
with
ProNatura,
Mexico's
oldest
environmental
group.
Harris
Sherman
Harris Sherman is the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment at the United States Department of Agriculture. As Under Secretary, he oversees the United States Forest Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Before joining USDA, Sherman served from 2007 until 2009, as the Executive Director of Colorado's Department of Natural Resources, under Governor Bill Ritter where he oversaw Colorado's water, energy, wildlife, parks, forestry, and state lands programs. Previously, from 1975 to 1987, he was Colorado's DNR Director under Governor Richard Lamm. Sherman has also served as Chairman of the Colorado Oil & Gas Commission, Commissioner of Mines, Chair of the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission, and Chair of the Denver Regional Air Quality Council. Between his two stints as Department of Natural Resources Director, Sherman was the Managing Partner of the Denver Office of Arnold & Porter, an international law firm, where he specialized in natural resources, water, energy, public lands, and American Indian law. He has served on a wide variety of public and non-profit boards including the Denver Water Board, the National Advisory Board for Trust for Public Land, the Nature Conservancy, and Colorado College. Throughout his career, Sherman has dedicated himself to conserving and improving our Nation's natural resources. He received a B.A. degree from Colorado College in 1964 and has a law degree from Columbia University Law School.