Keynote Speakers
Tim Dekker, Ph.D., P.E.
President & CEO, LimnoTech
Tim Dekker, Ph.D., P.E., is the President and CEO of LimnoTech, a water science and environmental engineering firm headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Tim is an environmental and water resources engineer with expertise in the management, design, and caretaking of natural and urban water systems. For over 30 years, Tim has worked with clients around the world on projects that promote clean, sustainable water as an essential element of thriving ecosystems and healthy communities.
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Tim has led scientific studies, technical projects, and design efforts throughout North America. His technical focus is on the dynamics of surface water, sediments, and groundwater systems; the effects of human activity on water supply and quality; and the implementation of nature-based approaches for urban water management, making cities more functional, livable, and safe. Tim’s work blends science and engineering with highly collaborative, multidisciplinary design and planning. To date, he has completed hundreds of successful projects and contributed to several winning national design competitions on urban revitalization. Tim seeks to advance the science and practice of urban water around the world by reconnecting communities with their local waterways, improving water quality, and creating economic, environmental, and social benefits through collaborative efforts and partnerships across sectors.
Tim received his Doctorate in Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1996 and has served as a lecturer and adjunct professor of environmental engineering. Tim is a lecturer and studio critic at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
Stephanie Hurley, D.Des.
Professor, University of Vermont
Stephanie Hurley is a Professor of Ecological Landscape Design in the Department of Agriculture, Landscape, and Environment at the University of Vermont (UVM). Her research on green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) emphasizes water quality and hydrologic performance of stormwater bioretention systems, including design for soil media mixes that reduce phosphorus pollution.
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She has also studied barriers to GSI implementation, GSI aesthetics and maintenance, low-salt deicing methods for winter road maintenance, the use of photo-visualizations for supporting climate adaptation strategies on farms, mapping the equitable (and inequitable) distribution of GSI in cities, pollinator habitat enhancement, and agroecological design for urban and peri-urban farms.
Dr. Hurley earned a Doctorate in Design (DDes) at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, a Master’s of Landscape Architecture (MLA) at the University of Washington, and a BS in Conservation and Resource Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She has served on advisory committees for: the National Academies of Sciences; the EPA Cold Climate Stormwater Center of Excellence; the Minnesota Department of Transportation; Burlington, Vermont’s residential stormwater program, "BlueBTV;" and Vermont’s Green Infrastructure Roundtable.
At UVM, Dr. Hurley is a Fellow of the Gund Institute for Environment, an Affiliate of the Casella Center for Circular Economy & Sustainability, a member of the Water Resources Institute Steering Committee, a Food Systems Faculty member, and a Sustainable Development Policy, Economics, and Governance (SDPEG) Faculty member. She also collaborates with the Institute for Agroecology. She teaches Landscape Design Fundamentals and Ecological Landscape Design Studio.
Meredith Niles, Ph.D.
Professor, Brown University
Dr. Meredith T. Niles is a dually appointed Professor between the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the School of Public Health and the Institute for Environment and Society at Brown University. Dr. Niles’ research focuses on advancing efforts to achieve sustainable food security and improve health, environmental, and rural livelihood outcomes in food systems, including through circular economy approaches.
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Her international research has resulted in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and dozens of open-source policy briefs and government reports, and she has a deep commitment to public scholarship and policy engagement. She has received notable honors including as an Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine Fellow from the National Academy of Medicine and the Vogelmann Award for Excellence in Research and Scholarship from the University of Vermont in 2024. She currently serves as an Associate Editor for the journals Current Environmental Health Reviews, Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, and Critical Insights in Agriculture.
Dr. Niles holds a BA in Political Science with honors in Environmental Studies from The Catholic University of America, a PhD in Ecology with a focus on sustainable agriculture and environmental policy from the University of California- Davis, and was a Sustainability Science Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
Prior to Brown University, she was the Robert L. Bickford Endowed Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Vermont, where she also served for a time as the Acting Director of the Gund Institute for Environment and the Associate Director of the Food Systems Research Center. Dr. Niles is also internationally recognized for her long-time work and advocacy for open scholarship to realize the public good outcomes of academic institutions.
Alexandros Stefanakis, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Technical University of Crete
Dr. Alexandros Stefanakis is an Associate Professor at the School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete in Greece and Director of the Laboratory of Environmental Engineering and Management. He also serves as the elected President of the International Ecological Engineering Society, elected Chair of the ‘Wetlands for Water Pollution Control’ Specialist Group of the International Water Association, and European Climate Pact Ambassador appointed by the European Commission.
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Dr. Stefanakis is an Environmental Engineer with MSc and PhD degrees focused on water and wastewater engineering, specifically on ecological engineering and nature-based solutions. He studies the transition to a circular economy by developing inter/multi-disciplinary approaches, such as integrating nature-based solutions in a circular water economy. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Springer journal ‘Circular Economy and Sustainability’.
Dr. Stefanakis’ expertise is in the field of ecological engineering, especially the design of sustainable decentralized water and wastewater management systems, namely constructed wetlands. He has designed, managed, and constructed several such wastewater treatment facilities across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the United States, and South America. His professional portfolio includes flagship constructed wetland facilities, such as the world's largest industrial system for oilfield wastewater management in Oman (175,000 m³/day), the largest system in the world for municipal wastewater treatment in Saudi Arabia (16,000 m³/day), as well as one of the largest systems for mine drainage treatment in Brazil (>100,000 m³/day).