Katherine Jacobs

Ms. Katharine L. Jacobs is the Executive Director of the Arizona Water Institute, a consortium of the three state universities (Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, and Northern Arizona University) focused on water-related research, education and technology transfer focused on water supply sustainability. She is also the Deputy Director of the NSF Center for Sustainability of Arid Region Hydrology and Riparian Areas at the University of Arizona, and Professor and Specialist at the Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science and Water Resources Research Center. She has more than twenty years of experience as a water manager for the state of Arizona Department of Water Resources.  Her research interests include water policy, connecting science and decision-making, stakeholder engagement, use of climate information for water management applications, and drought planning. Ms. Jacobs earned her M.L.A. in environmental planning from the University of California, Berkeley. She was a co-author of the National Assessment of the Impacts of Climate Change and part of the National Assessment Synthesis Team, and has served on numerous National Research Council committees.