Paula Kehoe is the Director of Water Resources with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC). She spearheaded the landmark legislation allowing for the collection, treatment, and use of alternate water sources for non-potable end uses in buildings and districts within San Francisco, and helped diversify San Francisco’s local water supply portfolio through the development and implementation of conservation, groundwater, and recycled water programs. She serves as the Chair of the National Blue Ribbon Commission for Onsite Non-potable Water Systems.

Gaston Kremer is the Field and Impact Manager of World-Transforming Technologies, a NGO promoting innovation for Social Impact. He is a member of Water+Access Alliance (Aliança Água Mais Acesso) and focal point for innovation in this collective impact initiative aiming to strengthening community water management in Brazil. Since 2017 more than a 100,000 people benefited from the work of 16 partners across 8 states and more than 300 communities in rural areas from the Amazon to the Brazilian semiarid. Gaston has experience with rural development, ethics and governance of technology, climate and sustainable energy finance, inclusive innovation and international cooperation. He is a 92YFord Fellow for “rising stars” in the Brazilian third sector, TEDx Speaker and IDIN Network Member.

Dr. Jamila Bargach is the co-founder of Dar Si Hmad, which operates the largest functioning fog harvesting project in the world. The system not only delivers potable water to households, but also fosters the independence of women in the community. An anthropologist by training, Jamila has taught at University Mohammed V in Rabat and worked at a number of NGOs in Morocco and overseas. She has also published several articles on adoption practices, unwed mothers, gender and development and the DSH fog-initiative.  As an activist and scholar, she has dedicated her life to serving under-resourced communities, creating sustainable initiatives through education and scientific innovation.

Prof. Korneel Rabaey is a professor at the Department of Biotechnology at Ghent University, as well as CTO of CAPTURE (www.capture-resources.be). He is also honorary professor at The University of Queensland. He is internationally recognized for his work in the field of resource recovery, particularly through bioelectrochemical processes, to form added value products from wastewater, decentralized treatments, industrial liquid sidestreams, etc. Over the years, he has applied his research understanding to drive technology development, integrating microbial and electrochemical concepts to environmental engineering, and have worked on water treatment and sanitation projects in various countries including Belgium, Australia, and India.

Dr. Patrick Moriarty is a strong champion and recognised global advocate for a systems approach to the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene [WASH] crisis. He is an authority on sustainability, local water governance and applying systems thinking to the wicked problems of providing safe water and safely managed sanitation to people. He is passionate about providing leadership to the global WASH community; ensuring that IRC contributes to igniting and supporting sector wide change that creates the strong national and local WASH systems that deliver improved services to all.  He builds teams and networks that challenge the status quo in WASH, inspiring people to work effectively to purpose: bringing water and sanitation services to everyone, everywhere that last forever. As a senior Leader, respected voice, writer and blogger with more than 25 years of global experience in water, sanitation and hygiene, Patrick inspires and empowers partnerships to effective collective action. He has a wide and deep knowledge of the use of research, learning and evidence to drive change in policy and practice. He provides high-level strategic advice and support to a broad range of governments, the private sector, organisations, and networks.  Currently, Patrick is the Chair of the steering committee of water and sanitation’s global partnership, Sanitation and Water for All.

Dr. Lantange is an Associate Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tufts University.  She is a public health engineer (MIT BS 1996, MIT M.Eng. 2001, PE 2003) who received her Ph.D in 2011 from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  She began working in water, sanitation, and hygiene to reduce the burden of infectious disease while earning her Master's degree, and continued working in this field teaching in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT until she joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2003. She completed her post-doctoral work at Harvard's Center for International Development from 2010-2012, and joined Tufts University as a Professor in 2012. Over the past twenty years, she provided technical assistance or conducted research in more than 50 countries in Africa, Asia, and Central/South America in both development and emergency contexts. She has published over 70 papers on water supply, water treatment, hygiene and sanitation in low-income and emergency contexts.  Her main research interest is how to reduce the burden of infectious diseases by investigating and evaluating the effectiveness of water and sanitation interventions. She runs an active group completing laboratory, field, and policy research and currently supervises three post-doctoral scholars, four PhD students, and undergraduate researchers with funding from agency, government, NGO, foundation, and private sources.

Dr. Caroline Delaire is the Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation at the Aquaya Institute, a non-profit research and consulting organization committed to increasing safe, equitable, and sustainable access to water and sanitation globally. Caroline’s work focuses on analyzing policies and approaches for water safety management and sanitation, with projects currently ongoing in Kenya, Ghana, and Uganda. Her work also includes applications of data science to water and sanitation as well as technology evaluations. Previously, her PhD research focused on developing low-cost technologies to remove contaminants from groundwater and a study of behavioral determinants of safe water consumption in arsenic-affected areas of West Bengal, India.

Daniel Oporto is an international development expert with over twenty years of experience designing, executing, monitoring, and evaluating projects related to reducing poverty and private sector development. Daniel’s experience at both consulting firms and NGOs/nonprofits has focused on market-based mechanisms in water and sanitation, sustainable and climate-smart agriculture, public-private partnerships (PPP), linking smallholders and farmers to markets, value chain and market systems development and BoP markets. Daniel has worked with multicultural project teams across the globe, with clients and employers from the private sector, multilateral and bilateral institutions, aid agencies, NGOs/nonprofits, microfinance institutions, social entrepreneurs, and business associations. Currently Daniel serves as the Regional Manager For Latin America at Water For People, covering Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru.

Hani Sewilam is a Professor of Hydrology and Water Resources Management at the RWTH Aachen University in Germany. He is currently the Managing Director of the UNESCO Chair in Hydrological Changes and Water Resources Management at the RWTH Aachen. He is also a professor at the American University in Cairo. Hydrology, water management, desalination and sustainable development are his main areas of specializations. In Germany, his research team focuses on flood risk management and the development of innovative capacity building programme for water professionals. Dealing with water scarcity through desalination, aquaponics, hydroponics, and effective water management is the focus of his other team in Egypt. Another focus of his research is implementing the concept of Water-Energy-Food nexus at local, national and regional levels. Over the last 5 years, Sewilam co-founded an MSc program in “Sustainable Management – Water and Energy” at the RWTH Aachen in Germany and founded another M.Sc. program in “Sustainable Development” at the American University in Cairo. He has contributed significantly to the establishment of the UNESCO Chair in Hydrological Changes and Water Resources Management at the RWTH Aachen. Sewilam is the founder of the first Center for Sustainable Development in Egypt. Sewilam has been raising funds and implementing research and development projects since 2002 with universities and institutions from at least 15 Euro-Mediterranean countries.

Amanda Brock is the President of Solaris Midstream Holdings and has spent her career focused on the global oil and gas, power, and water sectors. Prior to joining Solaris, Amanda was CEO of Water Standard, a water treatment company focused on desalination, produced water treatment and recycling for both the upstream and downstream energy sectors. Previously, Amanda was President of the Americas for Azurix, responsible for developing water infrastructure and related services and before that was President of Enron Joint Venture Management, managing Enron’s global power assets and partnerships. Amanda serves on the boards of Cabot Oil & Gas, Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation, and is the incoming Chair of the Texas Business Hall of Fame. She previously served on the Board of Trustees of LSU Law School, the Texas Water Commission and Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico. She was named one of the top 10 women in energy by the Houston Chronicle and in 2016 was both recognized as one of the top 25 leaders in water globally and as a Texas Honoree for Woman in Energy. She also facilitated a White House delegation to Abu Dhabi as part of the Obama Administration’s Moonshot for Water Initiative. In 2017, Amanda was inducted into the Houston Woman’s Business Hall of Fame and in 2020 was named one of the 25 most influential women in energy by Harte Oil and Gas investor Magazine.

Newsha K. Ajami, is the director of Urban Water Policy with Stanford University’s Water in the West program. A leading expert in sustainable water resource management, smart cities, and the water-energy-food nexus, she uses data science principles to study the human and policy dimensions of urban water and hydrologic systems. Her research throughout the years has been interdisciplinary and impact focused. Dr. Ajami is a two-term gubernatorial appointee to the Bay Area Regional Water Quality Control Board. She is a member of National Academies Board on Water Science and Technology. Dr. Ajami also serves on number of state-level and national advisory boards. Before joining Stanford, she worked as a senior research scholar at the Pacific Institute, and served as a Science and Technology fellow at the California State Senate’s Natural Resources and Water Committee where she worked on various water and energy related legislation. She has published many highly cited peer-reviewed articles, coauthored two books, and contributed opinion pieces to the New York Times, San Jose Mercury and the Sacramento Bee.

Diego Rodriguez is currently a Senior Economist at the Water Global Practice of The World Bank Group. He is the task team leader of the World Bank initiative on the quantification of the tradeoffs of the energy-water nexus (Thirsty Energy) and the Program Manager of the Water Partnership Program. He is currently also providing support to operational teams on the use of economic analysis in large water infrastructure investments under deep uncertainty. Prior to joining the World Bank he worked at the Danish Hydraulic Institute and the Inter-American Development Bank. He has more than 20 years of experience in sectoral, operational, policy and strategy development in water supply, sanitation, and water resources management. He holds a PhD in Economics (Water), an MA in Applied Economics and a BS in Economics.

The FAO estimates that the world needs to produce 60% more food by 2050. Although the organization states that there will most likely be sufficient water and land to do so, this is not without challenges like increasing water scarcity, over-exploitation of resources, urbanizing populations, and a lack of gender equity in agriculture. This panel will explore the important scales and transitions of water management and irrigation in pursuit of a food secure future that supports equality among growers.

Samir Ibrahim is the CEO and co-founder of SunCulture. SunCulture develops and commercializes life-changing technology that solves the biggest daily challenges for the world’s 570 million smallholder farming households. The company is recognized as a Bloomberg New Energy Pioneer and a Financial Times Transformational Business, and was named to the London Stock Exchange’s “Companies to Inspire Africa” index. SunCulture has been featured by TED, the Financial Times, the Economist, BBC, and more. Prior to SunCulture, Samir studied finance and international business at NYU’s Undergraduate Stern School of Business and joined PwC's Financial Services, Structured Products, and Real Estate Group. Samir is recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30, Top Conscious Business Leader by Conscious Company Media, and a World Energy Council Future Energy Leader alumnus. Samir is also on the Organizing Committee of Shikilia, a coalition of public and private sector organizations providing emergency cash transfers to low-income Kenyan communities.

Dr. Nicole Lefore is the Director of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation at the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture. She previously worked as a senior project manager at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in South Africa, and has extensive experience in grant management, participatory planning and evaluation, and policy. Dr. Lefore has focused on land and natural resources, community engagement and extension approaches for natural resource management, capacity development for agricultural institutions, and water resources and gender in her 20+ years of international experience managing projects related to agricultural development, water and land resources, institutions, and capacity development. 

Melvyn Kay, a chartered civil engineer, water management consultant, and writer/editor, works to manage and communicate knowledge and ideas on water and natural resources development. With a career in consultancy and academia he has worked in over 20 countries across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and specializes in agricultural water management, irrigation engineering, and drought management.  He is currently the senior editor on UN FAO’s flagship publication on ‘The state of the world’s land and water resources for food and agriculture’ to be published in 2021.  In 2010, he won the International Commission for Irrigation and Drainage annual Watsave Technology Award for work on promoting reservoirs to increase water security for irrigated agriculture on UK farms.

Martín Pasman is an agricultural engineer with an in-depth understanding of the challenges and opportunities of turning waste and undeveloped land into prime irrigated agricultural land. He has 30 years of experience in the irrigation industry and has participated in several land transformation initiatives in the Southern Cone, one of the world's leading agricultural regions, which includes Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, and is a member of the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute International Advisory Panel and of the Global Farmer Network. Since becoming a founding partner and his President of IRRI Management Argentina in 1996, a Valmont Company since the year 2000 and now Valmont Industries de Argentina, Pasman led the company's efforts to install more than one million acres of Center Pivot irrigation. He managed more than 50.000 acres of family farmland in Argentina. In his beginning he has covered more than 170.000 acres as an agronomy consultant for third-party companies, and is a former director of Agrifirma, a company formed to operate and develop farmland in Brazil. Pasman's family has been involved in farming for more than five generations.

Donald Brooks is Chief Executive Officer of Initiative: Eau, an American NGO dedicated to strengthening WASH capacity in developing areas and crisis zones.  Initiative: Eau currently operated in Burkina Faso and Nigeria and is in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Concurrently, Donald is a strategy consultant specialized in public health and  conflict & security with Dalberg Advisors.  He is based in Dakar, Senegal.  Formerly, he was a Fulbright Fellow with U.S. Embassy Ouagadougou investigating urban water quality in small- and medium-sized cities to inform infrastructure investment to reduce water-borne disease.  Donald holds a degree in molecular biology and global health from Harvard University. Previously, he was a research fellow in immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard FAS Center for Systems Biology and a research associate with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.

Charlene Ren is the founder of MyH2O Water Information Network, a volunteer-based platform that connects clean water resources to rural communities. Water and sanitation data from over thousands of villages have been collected since 2015, and solutions have been delivered to over thousands of beneficiaries. She received her B.A. in Physics from Vassar College and dual M.S. in Environmental Engineering & Technology and Policy at MIT, with a thesis focused on the water and sanitation monitoring policy structure in rural India. She was selected as 1 of 4 Chinese representatives for Homeward Bound 2018 fellow, an initiative focused on raising profiles of women leaders in STEM, ending in a 3-week training expedition in Antarctica. She’s also a 2016 Echoing Green Fellow, BBC 100 Woman (2019) and Forbes “30 Under 30” (2019) in the Social Entrepreneur category. 

Gary Wong is the Principal, Global Water Industry at OSIsoft, a leader in real-time operational intelligence. He has over 20 years of extensive international experience providing sustainable, strategic and cost-effective business solutions in the water industry. Prior to joining OSIsoft, he has held positions with Metro Vancouver and as a consultant directing both public and private sectors on Operations, IT strategy, planning, sustainability, and engineering. Mr. Wong is also the Chairman of the Smart Water Networks Forum (SWAN) Americas Alliance. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering, is registered as a Professional Engineer in Computer Engineering, and holds an M.B.A. from the Queen’s School of Business and is also a Chartered Professional Accountant. 

Robert Bain is a Statistics Specialist at UNICEF and has been a member of the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene for the last 6 years. Prior to joining UNICEF he worked at the Universities of North Carolina and Bristol on research related to drinking water quality and water policy. He has a masters of Environmental Engineering from the University of Cambridge and was an exchange student at MIT.  

Mr. Montestruque is a passionate engineer with over 25 years of experience leading multidisciplinary teams in developing and commercializing intelligent water applications. He is currently leading Xylem's Digital Solutions Client Development team, with a goal to help water utilities do more with less through the use of Decision Intelligence which combines IoT sensing, Digital Twin modeling, and advanced optimization engines.

Anita van Breda is the Senior Director of Environment and Disaster Management at World Wildlife Fund (WWF) based in Washington, DC. She is an environmental advisor and trainer who works to integrate the environment into disaster management and climate change adaptation. In her role at WWF, she is leading a team that focuses on how to “rebuild safer and greener.” Anita has worked worldwide for the last  15 years applying WWF’s nature-based approaches to advance environmentally responsible disaster recovery, reconstruction, and risk reduction working with local and global humanitarian and environmental agencies,  the United Nations, the US government, academic partners,  the World Bank, The Sphere Project, Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement partners, and the private sector.

David Groves is a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, codirector of the RAND Climate Resilience Center, codirector of the RAND Center on Decision Making Under Uncertainty, and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He works on climate change adaptation, mitigation, and resilience, helping organizations and government agencies to understand future climate risks and develop strategies that will work despite the tremendous uncertainty about the future. He is a key developer of methods for decisionmaking under deep uncertainty. He has pioneered their use to support water resources planning and coastal management, including for Louisiana’s 50-year, $50 billion Coastal Master Plan and Puerto Rico’s $130 billion economic and disaster recovery plan. He is currently partnering with researchers and policy makers in Costa Rica and Chile to evaluate their national decarbonization plans under uncertainty.

Chris Funk is the Director of the Climate Hazards Center (CHC) at UC Santa Barbara. He works with an international team of Earth scientists to inform weather and famine-related disaster responses. Chris studies climate and climate change while also developing improved data sets and monitoring/prediction systems. In 2020 Chris and Shrad Shukla published a book on Drought Early Warning and Forecasting. In early 2021, Cambridge Press will publish Dr. Funk’s Drought, Flood, Fire: How Climate Change Contributes to Recent Catastrophes. While his research interests are quite diverse, a central theme uniting Chris’ work is developing both the technical/scientific resources and the conceptual frameworks that will help us cope with increasingly dangerous climate and weather extremes.

Pamela Cristina Silva Díaz was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and completed her bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012. She obtained her Master of Science in the same field at the University of Michigan in 2014. After working for over two years in the aerospace industry, she joined the Hurricane María humanitarian response team with Oxfam America in 2017, focusing on studying and addressing Water, Sanitation and Hygiene challenges in rural communities of Puerto Rico. With MIT D-Lab and other groups, she has led community-based projects focused on appropriate technology, climate change adaptation, community resilience and humanitarian innovation.