As with all of Carpe Diem West's work, the strategic direction for the Academy is provided by our Network leadership including the Advisors (listed below). Their efforts, along with the generous support of the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation and other Carpe Diem West supporters, have made the Academy a reality.

Team

Dr. Holly Hartmann 
Director, Carpe Diem West Academy
Director, Arid Lands Information Center, University of Arizona/CLIMAS
 
Dr. Holly Hartmann is Director of the Arid Lands Information Center at the University of Arizona (UA). She is a co-investigator within the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) and leads the scenario development team within the UA Science and Technology Center for the Sustainability of Semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA). Holly is a national leader in research related to the development of decision support tools for climate, water, and other resource management applications, especially linking research with the needs of decision makers and moving research into agency operations. Current research projects include quantitative verification of climate and hydrologic forecasts; improving communication of probabilistic forecasts and uncertainty; incorporating complex integrated models and climate change within a scenario planning framework; and decision support tool development. Holly has been a Carpe Diem West team member since 2008.
 

Kiyomi Morino, Ph.D
University of Arizona

Kiyomi Morino obtained her PhD degree from the University of Arizona, Department of Geography and Regional Development in 2008. Since graduating, she has primarily focused on research related to integrating science and policy, particularly with respect to western water issues. In one project, she is working with colleagues to develop novel ways of exploring future climate change impacts on the Colorado River using tree-ring based reconstructions of streamflow. Her areas of expertise include dendrochronology, ecophysiology, and Colorado River water policy.
 

Kimery Wiltshire
CEO & Director, Carpe Diem West

Kimery Wiltshire is CEO & Director of Carpe Diem West. For over twenty years, Kimery’s work has focused on building strategic, solution-oriented partnerships to meet environmental challenges.

She is the former Director of the Kenney Foundation, where she worked on initiatives to protect and restore river systems in the western United States. Kimery has led the development of a number of successful projects, including the Diversity Network Project, supporting social justice and housing in the context of urban environmental health; Resources for Community Collaboration, which provided funding and training for western rural communities to more effectively engage in resource decision making; the Sustainable Business Ratings System, an innovative means of assessing companies’ environmental, economic and social performance; and Girl Scouts Save the Bay, which grew to involve the 100,000-strong Northern California Girl Scout community. A bred, born and raised daughter of the American West, Kimery has to be reminded that occasionally important things do happen east of the 100th meridian. 

Advisors

Laura Briefer
Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities

Laura McIndoe Briefer is the Special Projects Manager for Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities (SLCDPU), a municipal entity responsible for the provision of culinary water to more than 500,000 people in the Salt Lake Valley, and wastewater and stormwater services in Salt Lake City. She is responsible for a wide range of watershed, environmental, sustainability, and emergency management projects, integrating policy, planning, public outreach, and technical issues into each. SLCDPU has one of the nation’s more complex water systems due to the location, timing, and nature of its water resources, and the high number of pressure zones in its distribution system. SLCDPU is particularly interested and concerned with mapping its own energy-water nexus, and planning for resiliency in a changing climate.

Laura has been working for SLCDPU for almost two years. Prior to that, she worked for six years as the Assistant Administrator for a small city in Utah, and for eight years as an environmental consultant based in the San Francisco Bay Area conducting environmental investigations for contaminated sites and environmental compliance work throughout the country. She has a degree in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Barbara.   
 

Lillian Kawasaki
Water Replenishment District, Los Angeles Basin

Prior to her election as Director of the Water Replenishment District (Los Angeles Basin), Lillian Kawasaki served as Assistant General Manager for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, where she oversaw department-wide environmental issues including the Department's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan.

In 2006, Ms. Kawasaki was elected to the Water Replenishment District which manages the groundwater for nearly 4 million people in 43 cities in Southern California. Prior to her tenure at LADWP, Ms. Kawasaki served as General Manager of the Community Development Department for the City of Los Angeles and, previous to that, was General Manager of the Environmental Affairs Department of the City of Los Angeles for ten years. Ms. Kawasaki is a member of the California Bay-Delta Public Advisory Committee, is co-chair of the Friends of Manzanar, and serves on the Women's Foundation Donor Circle and the Enterprise Foundation. Lillian holds a B.S. in Zoology and an M.S. in Biology from the California State University, Los Angeles. Ms. Kawasaki has been a Carpe Diem West team member since 2007 and joined the Board of Directors in 2009.
 

John Shurts 
Northwest Power & Conservation Council

John Shurts is the General Counsel for the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. The Council is an interstate compact agency based in Portland, Oregon, authorized by the Northwest Power Act of 1980 and consisting of eight members appointed by the governors of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. The Council develops and oversees a regional power plan for the Pacific Northwest and a fish and wildlife protection and mitigation program for the Columbia River Basin. Shurts also has a Ph.D. degree in American History from the University of Oregon, with an emphasis on environmental and legal history, and is the author of a book on the origin and development of Indian reserved water rights: The Winters Doctrine in its Social and Legal Context, 1880s- 1930s. He is an adjunct professor at Portland State University and the University of Portland (and has been at the law school at Lewis and Clark), teaching courses in environmental, water, energy, and natural resources law and policy. In 2008, Shurts also served as a member of the Anadromous Fish Independent Review Panel empanelled by the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a comprehensive review of the Central Valley Project’s Anadromous Fish Restoration Program. John is a member of Carpe Diem West’s Water, Energy & Climate Change team.
 

Cynthia Truelove
California Public Utilities Commission

Dr. Truelove is the Senior Water Policy Analyst in the Division of Policy and Planning of the California Public Utilities Commission. She is actively engaged in building the CPUC’s Water Policy Program across the arenas of water conservation and water use efficiency; the water-energy nexus; and water and climate change. Her work extends across the CPUC’s water and energy industry divisions, both public and investor-owned water utility sectors, as well as across the State’s water resource management and regulatory agencies. She also serves on the State’s Climate Action Team, among other initiatives addressing water use efficiency, the economic analysis of water recycling, and regional water resource planning.

Rory Bakke
President, Sustainable Concepts Studio
Director of Sustainability, GreenBiz Group

Rory brings more than 20 years of experience as an environmental strategist, planner, and Program Director for California cities, regional agencies and research institutes. Rory is currently the Director of Sustainability for the GreenBiz Group, where she is leading the development of new sustainability standards for companies, in partnership with UL Environment. She has served as a strategic advisor on several public bodies including the Mayor of Oakland’s Green Economic Development Task Force, and has also been a Senior Program Manager at StopWaste.Org, and a Senior Analyst for the County of Santa Clara’s Silicon Valley Toxics Reduction Program. She has created award-winning plans, programs and public policies that promote environmental stewardship. In addition to her degrees in environmental policy and sustainable business management from the University of California, Claremont Graduate University and the Presidio School of Management, Rory is a trained jazz singer. 

With additional thanks to the following people:

Dr. Gregg Garfin, Director of Science Translation and Outreach, Institute of the Environment, University of Arizona
Megan Galwith, Scientific Officer, UK Climate Impacts Program
Lezlie Moriniere, PhD., University of Arizona
Chris West, Director, UK Climate Impacts Program