UPWARD Advisory Group Members
Adel Abdallah is the Program Manager of the Water Data Exchange (WaDE) Program and the WaDE 2.0 Data System's lead architect, including the Western States Water Data Access and Analysis Tool (WestDAAT). Adel oversees WaDE's development, proposal writing, grant reporting, outreach, and coordination with the Western States Water Council member states and Western States Federal Agency Support Team (WestFAST) agencies, universities, contractors, and collaborators, especially at the Internet of Water Coalition. Adel is a Certified Public Manager and ScrumMaster for agile software development. Adel has a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering with an emphasis on Hydroinformatics from Utah State University. His expertise is in designing data models for water management data to reconcile semantic and syntactic differences and streamline their access and analysis.
Appointed: 2023
Term Expires: 2025
Brett Baker is the sixth generation of his family to live and grow on Sutter Island (in the California Delta). He was raised there, on his family's pear orchard and spent much of his young life working in production agriculture.
He received his undergraduate degree of B.S. in Wildlife, Fish & Conservation Biology from UC Davis where he worked at the John Muir Institute of the Environment under his professor Dr. Peter Moyle doing field biology on mountain meadow systems throughout the Northern Sierras. From there, he moved onto the Heritage and Wild Trout program with the then California Department of Fish and Game and continued sampling systems throughout the Sierras and balance of the State.
Brett was introduced to legislative policy making while working as an Agricultural and Water Policy analyst for then Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi. Following passage of the Delta Reform Act of 2009, he started Baker Advocacy & Consulting, Inc. and began assisting family, friends, and neighbors in complying with the newly mandated measuring, monitoring, and reporting regulations for diverters in the legal Delta. In 2019, Brett became a licensed member of the California State Bar, and currently practices at Nomellini, Grilli & McDaniel Law Office in Stockton representing the Central Delta Water Agency and various other clients. He currently lives in Lodi, CA with his wife, three children, two horses, ten chickens and a Chihuahua named Billy.
Appointed: 2023
Term Expires: 2025
Elizabeth Salomone serves as the General Manager of the Mendocino County Russian River Flood Control & Water Conservation Improvement District and on the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) Region 1 Board. Elizabeth is recognized as an open-minded, collaborative water leader in Mendocino County and the Russian River watershed, to help creatively unravel some of the most pressing water issues facing this predominately rural and disadvantaged area. From innovative project solutions to thoughtful relationship building, Elizabeth provides a unique new face in California's water industry. She elevates building relationships and coalitions of support to improve resiliency and adaptive responses to environmental and social evolution.
Appointed: 2023
Term Expires: 2025
Ivy is currently the Legislative Affairs Director for the Northern California Water Association. Previously, she was a Senior Regulatory Advocate for the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) working on agricultural and drinking water issues and she represented the San Diego County Water Authority for six years in the State Capitol. She was previously a district field representative in the California Assembly. Ivy has a B.A. in Political Science and Government from the University of California, Irvine and she is a graduate of the Water Education Foundation Water Leaders Program.
Appointed: 2023
Term Expires: 2025
Kristen McKillop has worked for local governmental agencies doing resource management in varying capacities over the past twenty-six years. Currently serving as the Regulatory Compliance Manager for South Feather Water & Power Agency, she prepares and submits the annual Water Use Reports, any required Curtailment and Diversion reports, the Urban Water Management Plan and associated annual reporting, along with managing the Agency's Dam Safety Program.
Appointed: 2023
Term Expires: 2025
I am a Water Rights Engineer in the Water Management Group of PG&E's Power Generation Division. I'm a licensed Professional Engineer in California and Oregon and am registered as a Certified Water Right Examiner in the State of Oregon. For the last 5 years, I have practiced exclusively in the field of water rights, prior to joining PG&E I worked for a water rights consulting firm where I assisted agricultural and municipal water users with annual reporting, water transfers, and drought management programs. At PG&E I am responsible for data collection/storage, water right accounting and reporting, and preparing and submitting any petitions, transfers, or other filings related to water rights.
Appointed: 2023
Term Expires: 2025
Sonya Milonova is a Senior Program Manager at the California Water Data Consortium, where she leads the Telemetered Water Monitoring Project. Prior to joining the Consortium, Sonya worked with international NGOs as a project manager and technical advisor to deliver water, sanitation, and hygiene services in protracted emergencies. Sonya holds an M.S. in environmental engineering, with an emphasis on engineering for developing communities, from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Brad Arnold, PE, BC.WRE, is a water resources consultant with EKI Environment & Water, Inc. (EKI), specializing in California water supply planning, policy navigation, and water rights issues. With over a decade of experience, he assists clients with complex water rights and supply matters, including data collection improvements, fulfilling reporting requirements, and drought preparedness planning. Previously, he was Water Resources Program Manager for Calaveras County Water District responsible for administration of their complex consumptive and non-consumptive water rights portfolio and water supply assets, including navigating recent curtailment orders and enhanced reporting needs. He also formerly worked with Santa Clara Valley Water District on imported water issue related to State Water Project (SWP) and Central Valley Project (CVP) contract supplies and groundwater banking project management. Mr. Arnold holds two master's degrees in Agricultural Engineering and Water Resources Engineering both from the University of California, Davis, is a Board-Certified Water Resources Engineer (BC.WRE), and is a graduate of the Water Education Foundation Water Leaders Program.
Chelsea Haines joined the Association of California Agencies (ACWA) in 2017 and currently serves as the Regulatory Relations Manager, where she engages on the State's development and implementation of water policies on behalf of ACWA's 470 public water agency members. Prior to ACWA, Chelsea served as a legislative analyst from 2012 - 2017 at the State Water Resources Control Board. Chelsea holds a Master of Arts in International Environmental Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, which was accompanied by an internship with the United Nations in Switzerland working on the deployment of information and communication technologies for climate change mitigation and adaptation. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Sonoma State University in Environmental Planning and Studies.
Appointed: 2023
Term Expires: 2025
With over 25 years of experience as an environmental scientist, The Freshwater Trust's Regional Vice President - California, Erik leads the organization's business and program development efforts in the Golden State. He works extensively in the application of analytics to water rights use and availability and led the first Alternative Compliance Plan/Measurement Method for the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta in 2017. Prior to joining TFT, he worked for several engineering companies, including BSK Associates and Wallace-Kuhl Associates, as well as the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe.
Appointed: 2023
Expires: 2025
Jack Rice owns a consulting business focused on assisting farmers and ranchers with natural resource issues, including working with the California Cattlemen's Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to strengthen the future of California's beef industry through investment in advocacy, education, and research programs designed to support sustainable cattle production. Previously, Jack worked for over a decade on water and environmental matters as an attorney for the California Farm Bureau Federation, where he gained experience in the scope and diversity of California agriculture. Jack also manages a small hay and cattle operation in Humboldt County which helps him maintain his connection to the land, and his sanity.
Appointed: 2023
Term Expires: 2025
Juliet Christian-Smith is the Western States Regional Director at the Union of Concerned Scientists. She leads the program's efforts to create effective policies addressing climate change in California and the Western United States.
Appointed: 2023
Term Expires: 2025
Laura Ramos is a water professional with over 20 years of experience in delivering water resource management solutions through education, collaboration, and research. She particularly enjoys providing current research knowledge to water managers, creating a nexus between academia and practical research applications in the field. As a result, she has been able to form teams of experts to address water resource management issues by connecting Fresno State researchers to the community. She is always looking for water management issues with a need for solutions that Fresno State can help address.
Prior to joining the Consortium, Tara led the Sustainable Groundwater Program with Water in the West at Stanford University. Her research focuses on the technical requirements of sustainable water management, including data collection, sharing, and integration. Tara is particularly interested in understanding the role of data and information in water management decisions and the governance structures to support them. She was a founding partner for the Groundwater Exchange, where she remains a Board Member. Tara holds a first-class honors B.Sc. in Environmental Science and a Ph.D. in Geography with a specialization in paleoclimatic reconstructions from the University of Calgary, Canada.
Patty is the Executive Director of the Kern Groundwater Authority. She is also on the advisory committee of the California Water Data Consortium and the San Joaquin Valley Water Collaborative Action Program (CAP). Patty was appointed by Governor Brown to the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley in 2017 where she is a director. Patty is just ending her term as President for the Kern County Farm Bureau in October. Born and raised in Bakersfield, California.
Appointed: 2023
Term Expires: 2025
Dr. Bram Sercu is Senior Hydrologist at United Water Conservation District, where he leads the District's surface water hydrology monitoring program and performs modeling, data analyses and reporting to assist with water resources acquisition, planning, and regulatory compliance. Dr. Sercu also oversees aspects of diversion operations related to maximizing beneficial use of water and complying with regulatory requirements, including water rights reporting. Dr. Sercu has a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences and a M.S. in Bio-engineering, Environmental Technology.
Appointed: 2023
Term Expires: Dec. 31, 2023
Domestic well owner, Riverdale
Christopher Tull is a public technologist, nonprofit leader, and data scientist serving as chief data officer for the California Data Collaborative, a nonprofit coalition of water supply agencies building community and technology to enable data-informed decision making for a sustainable water future. His award-winning work has been recognized by Bloomberg and the State of California and has been published in peer-reviewed journals as well as top industry conferences. He has an M.S. in Urban Informatics from New York University and a B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics from CSU Channel Islands.
Appointed: 2023
Term Expires: 2025
Gregory Williams, Deputy Operations Officer for Valley Water (Santa Clara Valley Water District). I've worked in water operations and maintenance for 20 years. In my current to role as the Deputy for Valley Water's Raw Water Division, one of the Division's primary functions is the management of all the local water rights for the District including annual compliance reporting on water rights and Lake or Streambed Alteration Agreements.
Appointed: 2023
Term Expires: 2025
Jessica Diaz is a shareholder with the law firm of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP in the firm's Santa Barbara office. Her practice focuses on California water resources, and she works with both public water suppliers and private water users on ligation, regulatory, administrative, and corporate/real estate matters.
Appointed: 2023
Term Expires: 2025
Kirk Klausmeyer is the Director of Data Science for The Nature Conservancy's California Program. In his 18 years at the Conservancy, Kirk has made significant contributions to California's environmental conservation efforts. He has built a machine learning data pipeline to predict natural flows in all the rivers in the state, mapped groundwater dependent ecosystems to inform groundwater management, and analyzed satellite and drone data to track habitat for migratory birds. Kirk has authored/co-authored 17 publications in peer-reviewed journals while working at the Conservancy.
Appointed: 2023
Term Expires: 2025
While attending CSU Sacramento, Marc Van Camp worked for the US Geological Survey as an engineering technician, where he conducted flow measurements, surveying, and performed hydrologic data collection (including WQ samples from the hot spring at the top of Mount Shasta) and analysis. Upon graduation in 1984, Marc was hired by MBK Engineers and continued using his USGS experience to assist clients with their needs relative to water supply, operations, and water rights. Over the last 39 years, Marc has continued to provide services to the Sacramento River Settlement Contractors, the Klamath Water Users Association, and many others, including being appointed as the Upper Putah Creek Watermaster in 1996. Most recently, the services Marc provides has involved ensuring compliance with SB-88, water use/right and management reporting, and monitoring the SWRCB efforts relative to the Water Unavailability Methodology and tool used for water right curtailments.
Appointed: 2023
Term Expires: 2025
Mr. Hamai is the Vice President of Water Resources at Natural Resources Consulting Engineers, based out of Oakland, CA. He has over 30 years of experience in civil engineering and hydrology, specializing in water resources and water rights studies for Native American tribes. He has consulted on water issues for numerous tribes throughout the western United States as well as the federal government and authored expert witness reports and provided testimony in water rights litigation.
Appointed: 2023
Term Expires: 2024
Steve Haugen has spent the past 35 years of his professional career in the Fresno area of California's San Joaquin Valley. Steve is a graduate of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with a degree in Agricultural Engineering, and is a California licensed Civil Engineer. His career has spanned many assignments in the private and public sectors from on-farm water management and scheduling to regional ground water and surface water management.
As Watermaster of the Kings River Water Association for the last 22 years, Steve is responsible for managing and allocating the water rights for the Kings River to the 28 public and private water rights holders on the river. On average, this entails the allocation of 0.4 to 4.4 million acre-feet of local Sierra runoff in dry and wet years respectively to approximately one million acres of agriculture dominated service area on the San Joaquin Valley floor.
Appointed: December 2023
Term Expires: 2025
