Keynote Speakers
Sara Winnike McMillan, PhD
Department of Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University
Dr. Sara Winnike McMillan is an ecological engineer and biogeochemist in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University. She is also a Professional Engineer with expertise in restoration, natural infrastructure, and agricultural conservation. Sara’s research focuses on how humans impact water quality in rivers, lakes, and wetlands and how climate change will affect access to clean water, sustainable food production, and healthy ecosystems. Her research focuses on applying these principles along the rural-urban continuum and partners with local stakeholders and decision makers to implement solutions that benefit humans and the environment. She uses lab and field-based techniques along with modeling tools to develop solutions to environmental problems. Her current research focuses on restoring ecosystems to improve water quality including projects on regenerative agriculture, watershed management, and and river restoration.
Amy Rosemond, PhD
University of Georgia Foundation Professor in Ecology
Amy studies the connections between freshwater resources, how they are being modified by humans, and the people who depend on them. She actively researching are a) the effects of elevated temperature and nutrient pollution on freshwater organisms and ecosystem functions and b) how natural infrastructure can be used to improve water quality.
Ellen Wohl, PhD
Professor of Fluvial Geomorphologist, Colorado State University
Ellen Wohl is a renowned fluvial geomorphologist and University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University, focusing on mountain rivers and their impact on ecosystems, with a particular interest in the role of logjams and beaver dams. Her work has expanded our understanding of fundamental fluvial and watershed processes in diverse environments ranging from the Arctic to the tropics.
Wohl’s research on rivers, particularly those river channels with resistant boundaries of bedrock and large sediment clasts, ranges from examining hydraulics and sediment transport to studying biological-physical interactions and human impacts. Her work – on flow resistance, step-pool and other mountain channels, wood in river channels, and ecological aspects of stream corridors – is founded in field measurements. Her work has dramatically influenced and guided river management and restoration worldwide. Wohl is the author of an extensive number of publications and books, introducing broad audiences to river science, and is an extraordinary mentor and role model for women in science.