Debbie Whaley, a groundwater hydrologist with 30 years’ experience solving water, energy, and environmental challenges around the world, is the founding executive director of the brand-new iWEST (Institute for Water, Energy, Sustainability, and Technology) at 萨克拉门托 State.

“I am thrilled to be joining 囊状态 and iWEST,” Whaley says. “The institute provides an opportunity to act on my passion for preserving California’s environment, and to excite and enable the next generation to continue this important quest.”

她在研究所的第一天是10月26日，周一。

“She will be a wonderful asset to iWEST as we move forward with regionally important research in the critical areas of water, energy, and sustainability,” says Provost Frederika “Fraka” Harmsen, who announced the appointment. “I look forward to increasing our University’s footprint in these areas as a result of Debbie’s work.”

现年60岁的惠利在弗里蒙特长大。 She earned two bachelor’s degrees, in geography and German, from Chico State, and a master’s degree in geography, with an emphasis on water resources, from Northern Illinois University.

惠利从丹佛地区的环境工程咨询公司CH2M来到博彩平台。 As vice president in CH2M’s global water business, she led strategy development and sales for water and wastewater opportunities in the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia over the past decade. 她的项目和追求范围从数百万美元的研究到1亿美元的多年项目。

As executive director of iWEST, Whaley hopes to partner with three of 萨克拉门托 State’s research centers: the Office of Water Programs, the Center for Collaborative Policy, and the Sustainable Technology Optimization 研究 Center (STORC).

“At iWEST, we want to support ongoing work and provide a forum to incubate new ideas and capture additional opportunities,” Whaley says. “The University is located at the heart of California’s dynamic government and complex water system, and the state is in the middle of a historic drought. With this position, and a growing student population, there is exciting work to be done across campus and even more ideas for work to be started.”

The key to the new institute’s success, she says, is to establish its reputation and then leverage that reputation “into a robust pipeline of funding and opportunities that support faculty and students. Once we have refined the iWEST niche, we will seek experts from government, industry, and academia who can help guide our efforts to build the funding and opportunity pipeline.”

惠利的丈夫肯是一名注册会计师，对户外活动和野生动物生物学充满热情。 The couple met 30 years ago on a masters’ swim team in Oakland. 他们的第一次约会是沿着萨克拉门托的美国河骑自行车，他们经过了萨克州立大学。

这对夫妇在科罗拉多州养育了他们的儿子詹姆斯，在过去的20年里，他们在那里度过了大部分的空闲时间，背包旅行、皮划艇、滑雪和骑自行车。 詹姆斯现在是北卡罗来纳州布里瓦德学院的大三学生，主修英语。

Whaley went to work for CH2M in 1984, in Oakland, and 11 years later transferred to the company’s 萨克拉门托 office, where she was the regional environmental business group manager. 自1997年以来，她一直在科罗拉多州的CH2M工作，最初担任环境业务发展负责人，最近担任水市场副总裁兼销售总监。

“Over time,” she says, “I migrated to the development side of the business. 我意识到，我最大的满足感来自于与这些学科专家一起开发新项目，反过来，与年轻人一起帮助他们建立所需的技能，以创造不同并享受令人满意的职业生涯。

“It is with these skills and passions that I hope to make a difference at iWEST and 萨克拉门托 State.” – 迪克西•里德