Science Policy

The science of hydrology is poised to become increasingly relevant to legal decisions. The questions of how to manage too little water, too much water, or water that is too highly contaminated for human use are integral to U.S. environmental law and policy. My work with the Federal Judicial Center highlights these relationships in a series of multi-media resource webpages for federal judges. 

We use energy in the collection, transport, and treatment of water and wastewater. At the same time, many of our energy generation systems use water: to cool our thermal generation stations, to make steam to heat our homes, and to grow the crops for biofuels. My work at DOE studies these connections between water and energy to identify approaches to decarbonize the water sector.

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Check out the excellent work being done by our desalination hub, the National Alliance for Water Innovation, as well as my office's latest funding opportunity to decarbonize wastewater infrastructure. 

Wildfires. Hurricanes. Droughts. Cyber attacks. Our infrastructure is under pressure from many different forces, both manmade and natural. 

We need infrastructure that is not just built to last - but that is designed to be "safe-to-fail",. However, in order to tackle this challenge, we need a working definition of what resilience is, and how to measure it. You can read more about the importance of the Climate Smart Infrastructure Interagency Working Group here. 

As the Executive Producer for the Sci on the Fly podcast, I share stories of how science shapes policy... and the everyday lives of the scientists who make the magic happen. Interested in how science impacts environmental justice? What science says about the best ways to build relationships? Check out some of my recent interviews here! 

I'm a strong advocate for leveraging the Arts to engage marginalized communities in the narrative and process of Science. I've partnered with the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, the Anacostia Youth Environmental Summit, Phoenix Fan Fusion, and AwesomeCon to bring science to the masses. 

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I aim to incorporate DEIA and environmental justice principles into all aspects of my work - both within science policy and in my extracurricular life.

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You can see some of the awesome work my colleagues and I have participated in here.