GWA’s 2020 Conference on Water & Peace 

Clive Lipchin currently serves as director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies’ Center for Transboundary Water Management where he oversees research and development projects, workshops and conferences that focus on transboundary water and environmental problems facing Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. His specialty is in water resources management and policy. Clive has conducted research for a number of international water agencies such as the World Bank, EU, UNDP and USAID and has been involved most recently with the European Union’s Water Initiative project for the Mediterranean region and the USAID Conflict Management and Mitigation (CMM) program and the Middle East Regional Cooperation (MERC) program. Clive, a native from South Africa has been living in Israel for over twenty years.

Carol Collier serves as senior advisor and government liaison at the Academy of Natural Sciences. One of her main projects is the Delaware River Watershed Initiative (DRWI), a cross cutting collaboration working to conserve and restore the waters that supply drinking water to 15 million people in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The DRWI, working with over 60 organizations, is scaling up impact and accelerating the protection of important landscapes, restoration of degraded areas, and adoption of green infrastructure and best farming practices through on-the-ground action, policy change and outreach/education. She advises on watershed management and development of more resilient systems for an uncertain future throughout the nation and the world. Ms. Collier served over 15 years as Executive Director of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC). Before joining DRBC, Ms. Collier was Executive Director of Pennsylvania’s 21st Century Environment Commission. Governor Tom Ridge formed the Environment Commission in 1997 to establish the Commonwealth’s environmental priorities and to recommend a course of action for the next century.Ms. Collier has a B.A. in Biology from Smith College and a Masters in Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. She was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners (FAICP) and is a Certified Senior Ecologist.

Dr. Shanna N. McClain is the NASA Earth Science Divisions Global Partnerships Manager and the Applied Sciences Advisor on Risk Reduction and Resilience. Shanna drives innovation and science with partners including Mercy Corps, Conservation International, Google, and Microsoft. She also works to define NASA’s role in resilience through the development of applications-based programming that identifies opportunities to integrate Earth observation data into humanitarian action, and bolster science-informed decision making. She previously worked for the Joint UN Environment/UN OCHA Environment Unit,focused on the integration of environmental considerations in sudden-onset and protracted humanitarian crises. And sits as a Visiting Scientist with the Environmental Law Institute working on issues related to environmental migration and displacement and environmental conflict and peacebuilding.

Dr. Jerad Bales is Executive Director of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI). CUAHSI is a non-profit research organization representing more than130 U.S. universities and international water science-related organizations. CUAHSI develops and operates infrastructure and services to broaden the water science community and increase multi-disciplinary collaboration for the advancement of water science. Prior to his position with CUAHSI, Dr. Bales was the U.S. Geological Survey’s Chief Scientist for Water. In this position, he was the Senior Executive responsible for $100M of activities related to the planning and development of national hydrologic research and technology transfer.

Robert J. Muscat is a development economist with extensive overseas experience. He has served with USAID, the World Bank and UN agencies, and as a resident economic adviser to the governments of Thailand and Malaysia, He has published on many subjects, including problems of conflict in developing countries. Muscat is a board member of the NGO Global Peace Services, devoted to nonviolent conflict resolution. He is now an independent researcher, living in Sarasota, Florida.

Charles Iceland is Director of Global and National Water Initiatives with WRI’s Food, Forests, Water, and the Ocean Program. He also teaches a graduate course on The Future of Water at the University of Pennsylvania. Charles is implementing the Water, Peace, and Security Partnership with several European and American partner organizations. This project has developed a machine learning-based, near-real-time global early warning system for water and conflict hotspots and helps developing countries better address these issues. The Water, Peace, and Security Partnership was awarded the 2020 Luxembourg Peace Prize for Outstanding Environmental Peace. Charles previously directed the Aqueduct global water risk project at WRI. In addition to overseeing Aqueduct’s strategy development and management, he developed new modules for Aqueduct, including Aqueduct Floods and Aqueduct Food. Charles is also overseeing WRI’s work with national governments on water resources management. This work has so far included work with the Chinese and Ethiopian governments.

Korin Tangtrakul is the Sustainability Manager for the Sustainable Water Resource Engineering (SWRE) Lab under Dr. Franco Montalto of Drexel University. With experience in geography, urban planning, green infrastructure, community engagement and environmental activism, Korin’s current role includes understanding how the SWRE Lab can play an active role in incorporating anti-racism and environmental justice into the lab’s research approach. She received a BA in Environmental Studies and Geography & Urban Studies from Temple University and an MS in Urban Environmental Systems Management from Pratt Institute. She lived in Thailand for two years under the Fulbright Program during a time of major flooding, furthering her passion for climate change action and watershed management.

Dr. Franco Montalto is a civil engineer interested in the development of ecologically, economically, and socially sensible solutions to urban environmental problems, with a focus on sustainable water resources engineering and climate change. His ~20 years of experience have included research and design of a variety of nature-based solutions involving ecological restoration of degraded landscapes, the use of constructed wetlands for wastewater and stormwater treatment, as well as work with “green infrastructure” and “low impact development” technologies as a means of managing urban runoff, while promoting urban sustainability and resilience. He is currently a Professor at Drexel University, where he directs the Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Lab. He is also the Founder and President of eDesign Dynamics LLC, an environmental consulting firm based in New York City, with an international portfolio of projects.  He serves as the Director of the North American Hub of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN), and was recently appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio as a Member of the New York City Panel on Climate Change. 

Dr. Marisa O. Ensor is a gender and youth specialist with a background in the human dimensions of Disasters, Environmental Change, Conflict, Displacement & Security. Trained in political ecology (environmental anthropology) and human rights law, Dr. Ensor has 15+ years of scholarship and practice in conflict-affected, and environmentally-fragile countries, primarily in Sub Saharan Africa and Latin America. Much of her work examines women’s and girls’ positive roles in conflict prevention, peacebuilding, human mobility, disaster risk management, and environmental governance, including climate action, focusing on the identification of context-specific solutions. Currently based at Georgetown University’s Justice & Peace Studies Program, Dr. Ensor has published 5 books and over 40 journal articles and book chapters. 

Scott Moore is a political scientist whose work focuses on water politics and policy, especially in China and South Asia. Scott is currently a Senior Fellow at the Penn Water Center as well as Director of China Programs in the Office of the Provost at the University of Pennsylvania. Until 2018, Scott was a Young Professional and Water Resources Management Specialist with the World Bank Water Global Practice, where he co-led a study of China’s water sector with the Development Research Center of the State Council and was a co-author of two flagship reports, High and Dry: Climate Change, Water, and the Economy, and Uncharted Waters: the New Economics of Water Scarcity and Variability. Previously, Scott served as Environment, Science, Technology, and Health Officer for China at the U.S. Department of State, where he worked extensively on the Paris Agreement on climate change, and prior to that was Giorgio Ruffolo Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University. He has published widely on the full range of global water issues in leading publications including Nature, Foreign Affairs, and The New York Times. He is also the author of Subnational Hydropolitics: Conflict, Cooperation, and Institution-Building in Shared River Basins, published in 2018 by Oxford University Press. Scott holds a doctorate in Politics and a master’s degree in Environmental Change and Management from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and a bachelor’s degree from Princeton.

Dr. Allison Lassiter examines opportunities to use landscape infrastructure and emerging technologies to build resilience and increase adaptive capacity in cities. Her research focuses on urban water management. She is currently working on evidence-based green infrastructure policy; adapting municipal water to rising seas; and smart water. She teaches courses on sustainable cities, smart cities, and water policy. She received a BS in Computational Biology from Cornell, Masters in City Planning from MIT, and PhD in Environmental Planning from UC Berkeley. Prior to joining the faculty at Penn, she was a research fellow in Economics at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, working with the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities.

M. Abdoulaye SENE is the Co-President of the organizing committee and Executive Secretary of the 9th World Water Forum “Dakar 2021”. He is the founding President of the International think tank ‘Global Local Forum’, former President of the Regional Council of the Fatick Region (Senegal) from 2002 to 2009, a former Member of the Parliament of Senegal and lead the Commission on Development and Spatial Planning of the National Assembly of Senegal (2007-2012). M. SENE, was from 2013 to 2017, Chairman of the Board of Directors of SOGEM/OMVS (in charge of the management of hydroelectric dams of the OMVS. He was Senior Technical Advisor to the Minister of Mines, Energy and Hydraulics of Senegal (2001-2002), Head of the Mission for the Study and Development of Fossil Valleys (1994-2000), Director of Rural Engineering and Hydraulics of Senegal (1990-1994), Director of the Maintenance and Care of Hydraulic Works (1984-1990). He was a member of various Boards of Directors of national, sub-regional and international institutions working in the water, rural development, environment and decentralization sectors. Abdoulaye SENE, is a Civil Engineering Engineer (École Polytechnique Thiès, 1978), specialized in Water Science from École Polytechnique de Montréal, 1981. He has provided various national and international courses, conferences, consultations and expertise in the fields of water, rural development, decentralization, climate change and governance.

Kelly Bridges is a Senior Associate at Global Water 2020, a DC-based advocacy and facilitation initiative working to solve critical challenges in the global water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector. Kelly works across the organization’s portfolio, leading efforts to integrate WASH and neglected tropical disease investments, policies and programs, as well as advocate for water security for conflict prevention. Kelly graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Science, Technology and Society, concentrating in Energy, Environment and Technology; after which, she pursued her MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management at the University of Oxford. She has worked in various capacities with the Environmental Law Institute, Catholic Relief Services, Global Water Alliance, World Wildlife Fund, Samaj Pragati Sahayog, and Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment. Kelly recently began a 3-year tenure as the Young Professional Representative Director on the Board of Directors of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association.