Science Advisory Board

Jill Baron
Ecosystem Ecologist
Powell Center Director
U.S. Geological Survey

Dr. Baron is an ecosystem ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, and a Senior Research Ecologist with the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University. Her interests include applying ecosystem concepts to management of human-dominated regions, and understanding the biogeochemical and ecological effects of climate change and atmospheric nitrogen deposition to mountain ecosystems. She is director of the John Wesley Powell Center for Earth System Science Analysis and Synthesis.

Marty Goldhaber
Senior Scientist Emeritus
Powell Center Science Advisor
U.S. Geological Survey

Dr. Goldhaber is geochemist and an Emeritus Senior Scientist at the USGS where he received the Department of the Interior Meritorious Service and Presidential Rank Awards. He has served a rotation as the Chief Scientist for Geology and has also served as co-chair of the USGS Science Strategy Team which was charged with defining key strategic directions for the USGS. His current research is on the evolution of the broad ‘geochemical landscapes’ resulting from the interplay of geologic, geomorphologic, hydrologic, and biologic processes. Geochemical landscape studies are underway in the Sacramento Valley of California, and the Prairie Pothole region of the north central U.S. and southern Canada. 

Ken Bagstad
Research Economist
Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center
U.S. Geological Survey

Dr. Bagstad is a Research Economist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver, Colorado. His primary interests are in ecosystem service modeling, natural capital accounting, and artificial intelligence-based approaches for data and model integration. Ken is a long-term collaborator with the Artificial Intelligence for Environment & Sustainability (ARIES) platform and has led ecosystem services and natural capital accounting work in the United States and globally. 

Charles Yackulic
U.S. Geological Survey

Dr. Yackulic is a research statistician with the US Geological Survey’s Southwest Biological Science and Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Centers in Flagstaff, AZ. His research primarily focuses on developing and fitting statistical models that integrate multiple data sources, link environmental drivers and management actions to population and ecosystem processes, and can be used to make near and long term forecasting of system dynamics under different management alternatives. Areas of particular interest include species distribution dynamics, population dynamics, interspecific interactions, animal movement, food web dynamics and river metabolism.

Laura Lautz
U.S. National Science Foundation

Dr. Lautz is a Program Director in the Hydrologic Sciences Program in the Directorate of Geosciences’ Earth Science Division at the National Science Foundation. Prior to her arrival at NSF, she was the Jessie Page Heroy Professor and Department Chair of Earth Sciences at Syracuse University. Her research addresses how hydrologic processes influence water quality and movement through watersheds, with particular emphasis on how water and solutes move through paired surface and groundwater systems, heat tracing, and the nexus of water and energy systems.

Toni Lyn Morelli
Research Ecologist
U.S. Geological Survey 

Toni Lyn Morelli is a Research Ecologist with the US Geological Survey, based at the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center. She earned her B.S. in Zoology at Michigan State University and her Ph.D. in Ecology & Evolution at Stony Brook University. She has been studying the impacts of global change in the U.S. and Africa for over 20 years. She is the co-founder and lead of the Refugia Research Coalition (climaterefugia.org) and the international Regional Invasive Species and Climate Change (RISCC) Management Network (risccnetwork.org), and is a pioneer in the field of Translational Ecology, which was developed to improve the impact of scientific research in addressing environmental problems. She spends any spare time taking care of a relentless 10-year-old and helping lead 7 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility committees.

Hedeff Essaid
Research Ecologist
U.S. Geological Survey

Hedeff Essaid is a Research Hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey at Moffett Field, California. She is currently facilitating two research projects that involve teams of researchers focused on advancing integrated modeling strategies and regional water availability assessment methodologies. The modeling and assessment approaches integrate human and natural systems to examine water quantity and quality with their impacts on human and aquatic ecosystems needs. The approaches also facilitate exploration of how future water availability may evolve with changing climate, water demand, land use and land cover, water management, socioeconomics, and sea level rise. Methods are being prototyped and tested in the Delaware River Basin, and will subsequently be applied in the Upper Colorado, Illinois, Willamette, and Trinity-San Jacinto River Basins.

Kusum Naithani
Program Director, National Science Foundation
Home Institution: University of Arkansas

Dr. Naithani is currently serving as a Program Director in the Ecosystem Science Cluster of the Division of Environmental Biology within the Directorate for Biological Sciences at NSF. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Arkansas. Her research focuses on understanding the impacts of climate change and human resource use on ecosystem structure, functions, and services with the goal of informing community-based solutions for natural resource management. Previously, her work explored how drought and land management practices impact terrestrial ecosystems including semi-arid shrublands, temperate and tropical forests, wetlands, and croplands.

Kate Campbell
Research Chemist
U.S. Geological Survey

Dr. Campbell is a research chemist at the USGS in the Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center in Denver, CO. She received her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering with a focus in biogeochemistry from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.  Her research focuses on the geochemistry, mineralogy, and microbiology of metals during mineral resource activities, including (bio)remediation and novel methods for metal recovery from mine waste.  She also builds geochemical reactive transport models that incorporate microbial processes relevant to active and legacy mine sites.

Jud Harvey
Hydrologist
U.S. Geological Survey

Dr. Harvey leads research investigating river corridor dynamics and influences on water availability for society and ecosystems. The research team measures and models integrated hydro-, bio-, and geomorphic processes and outcomes for aquatic system functions and ecological health. Examples of recent work include testing hydraulic, sedimentary, and ecological outcomes of restored high flows in the Everglades and modeling hydrologic transport interactions affecting growth and persistence of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the Illinois River. Relevant service includes appointment to the Scientific Advisory Board of the Environmental Protection Agency and leader of a Powell Center synthesis group on river corridor functions. Jud is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the Geological Society of America