2026 Land and Water Summit Speakers
Glen Catlin “Cat” Ami
IP Program Manager
Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps
Cat is the descendent of 8 tribal nations: Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara (Three Affiliated Tribes/Ft.Berthold), Hunkpapa (Standing Rock), Cheyenne, Arapaho, Hopi & Tewa (1st Mesa). Cat graduated from the University of New Mexico with a degree in Biology and a minor in Psychology, specializing in Evolutionary Psychology. After ranching for a few years after graduation, he found Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps on a whim and served as a Crew Leader in 2021. Later that year, he became the Program Coordinator for the Albuquerque Office in the ALCC Crew Program. After 3 years, Cat switched gears to become the Individual Placements Program Manager. The ALCC- Individual Placements (IP) Program supports its participants across the nation, from coast-to-coast. ALCC-IP supports federal agencies in the Department of the Interior (BLM, NPS, USFS, USFWS, etc.), nonprofits and tribes. Our programs range from Traditional Trades and Historic Preservation to Mapping, Biology, Forestry, and Community Outreach. He supports the program’s coordinators to bring excellent experiences to all Individual Placements in Ancestral Lands. Cat feels emboldened by the efficacy of his team and wants to drive the IP Program participants to achieve their career goals and explore the world of conservation. In his spare time, he likes to go to concerts, travel to beautiful ancestral and present-day homelands, hit the gym, play pinball, get into newlywed shenanigans with his wife, and have the daily morning cuddle with our cat, Haku.
Dr. Maceo Carrillo Martinet
University of New Mexico
For over 24 years, Dr. Maceo Carrillo Martinet has been co-creating and implementing community-based ecological restoration and education projects across New Mexico and beyond. Dr. Martinet is an ecologist and educator with the Partners for Fish and Wildlife which provides technical and financial assistance to private landowners, Tribes, and schools across NM to improve the ecology of the land. He also teaches a hands-on course at UNM on watershed and community restoration. He is the author of “Healing the Land Teaches Us Who We Are”, a forthcoming book to be released this summer by North Atlantic Books. He received a doctorate in biology from the University of New Mexico with a focus on ecology, freshwater sciences and environmental education. Everything in this talk is strictly the opinions of Dr. Martinet.
Robyn DeYoung
Lead of Green Infrastructure Program
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Robyn leads the Nature-based solutions work at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Robyn plays a key role in protecting nature, creating healthy watersheds, and improving public health. At EPA she stood up the Green Infrastructure Federal Collaborative and has been instrumental in advancing environmental policy goals through effective collaborations and peer exchanges across the country. With her experience as a Leadership Coach, Mindfulness instructor and deep understanding of environmental policies, Robyn promotes innovative solutions that address today’s ecological challenges in an intentional way.
Prior to joining EPA in 2010, Robyn worked at Ohio EPA, where she conducted climate change policy analysis for the Director and Governor’s office. In grad school she was the Assistant to the Communications Director at the Environmental Business Council of New England.
Robyn was inducted into Boston University’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2017 for her international field hockey career. She holds an MA in Energy and Environmental Analysis and BA in Environmental Science, both from Boston University.
Greg Dorolek is vice-president and a principal at Wenk, a landscape architecture firm in Denver, Colorado. Greg has over 25 years of experience leading the firm’s urban design practice including the planning, design, and construction for public and private clients on projects with varying contexts and scales including parks, plazas, streetscapes, and campuses. Many of Greg’s projects, including the national award-winning Menomonee Valley Redevelopment in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the TAXI Redevelopment in Denver’s River North (RiNo) District, incorporate green infrastructure strategies that treat and manage stormwater runoff to enhance ecological, human, and economic value. Greg speaks nationally on the challenges related to designing landscapes in the semi-arid West.
Greg holds a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Georgia.
Elizabeth Fassman-Beck
Southern California Coastal Water Research Project
Dr. Elizabeth Fassman-Beck is the Head of the Engineering Department at SCCWRP, where her primary responsibility is to implement SCWWRP’s Stormwater BMP (best management practices) research theme. Her research combines field scale monitoring and laboratory studies to quantify the hydrologic and water quality performance of BMPs. Studies aim to advance understanding of how BMP design at the system and component scale influences stormwater mitigation functions, so that the industry can achieve receiving water protection goals. Research also develops tools and technologies to reduce field monitoring costs while improving data quality. Elizabeth co-leads the US EPA Southwest Stormwater Center of Excellence.
Kevin Gilbert
Bohannan Huston
Kevin Gilbert is an Engineer Intern in Bohannan Huston’s Surface Water Department and a proud Iowa State grad with a B.S. in Biological Systems Engineering (bio-environmental focus). He has experience in New Mexico and Colorado, contributing to work ranging from drainage studies and hydrologic modeling to erosion mitigation, stream restoration, detention ponds, and urban stormwater systems. With a love for the outdoors and a problem-solving mindset, Kevin aims to create designs that are practical, resilient, and built to last.
Jan-Willem Jansens (M.Agr.Sc.)
ECOTONE Landscaping Planning LLC
Jan-Willem Jansens is an ecological planner with expertise in landscape-scale planning and ecosystem restoration. Jan-Willem started his career as a student and researcher of agroforestry at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (now World Agroforestry Centre – ICRAF) in Nairobi, Kenya. He subsequently worked for three years as a forestry advisor in Niger, West-Africa. In 1993, he moved to New Mexico to work as a rural development specialist for the Forest Trust. In late 1997 he started his own business in forest and watershed restoration and was the executive director of Earth Works Institute. He presently is the owner and principal of Ecotone Landscape Planning, LLC, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In the last three decades, Jan-Willem worked directly and indirectly on the application of agroforestry principles in forest and watershed planning and restoration initiatives. As a student of soil health, woodland ecosystems, wetlands, and watershed dynamics he designed and oversaw the implementation of restoration projects in piñon-juniper ecosystems, in streams and wetlands, and in forest and post-fire areas as part of landscape-scale restoration initiatives. He holds a master of agricultural sciences degree with specializations in landscape architecture, forest ecology, and soil and water conservation from the Wageningen Agricultural University in The Netherlands.
Maria Lane
Professor of Geography & Environmental Studies
University of New Mexico
Maria Lane is Professor of Geography & Environmental Studies at the University of New Mexico, where she also serves as Dean of Graduate Studies. She conducts research on the historical geographies of natural resource management, and she teaches courses focused on historical geography, critical cartography, and the geography of New Mexico and the Southwest. Lane is the author of Fluid Geographies (Chicago 2024) and Geographies of Mars (Chicago 2011). She lives in Albuquerque.
Bobby Mullin
National Resource Scientist
Bernalillo County
Laura Norman is a research physical scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey whose work centers on watershed hydrology, landscape change, and ecosystem restoration in arid and semi-arid environments. Her research integrates field investigations, geospatial modeling, and remote sensing to understand water movement, sediment transport, and the impacts of land management practices on water resources. Norman’s work supports the development of science-based strategies for sustainable water management, climate resilience, and ecological restoration across dryland regions.
Whitney Phelan
Whitney Phelan (she/her) is a senior planner in the Strategic Planning & Design Division at City of Albuquerque’s Parks & Recreation Department, where she leads trail projects that often navigate diverse stakeholders and complex design challenges. Originally from Ohio, she earned a B.A. in Environmental Policy & Analysis with a focus in Land & Wildlife Management before moving to the Southwest in 2008. She later completed a Masters in Community & Regional Planning at the University of New Mexico, studying how the built environment shapes community wellbeing, neuroscience, public health, and long-term resilience. Whitney is a neurodivergent advocate who encourages neurodiverse engagement throughout the planning process. Outside of work, she loves to bike, climb, and garden with her husband and two sons.
Ken Romig, PLA, ASLA
Ken Romig is an accomplished Landscape Architect with over 25 years of experience envisioning and designing landscape that are responsive to place, human wellness, and vernacular traditions. Ken became acutely aware of the soils, microclimates and austere water regimes of New Mexico growing up on a goat farm outside of Santa Fe and uses this experience to inform the practice of landscape architecture in sites across the southwest, Ken received a bachelors in philosophy and studio art from Beloit College, Wisconsin and a Masters of Community and Regional Planning, Landscape Planning Emphasis at the University of New Mexico. Ken is a registered landscape architect in New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Arizona. Current work includes a variety of multi-family housing projects, parks, outdoor recreation, trails, planning and urban design efforts.
Paul Tashjian
Audubon Southwest
Paul Tashjian is the Director of Freshwater Conservation for Audubon Southwest. Paul’s work focuses on developing and implementing strategies for providing water for nature that embrace co-benefits for farming communities, riverside communities and compact deliveries. Prior to joining Audubon, Paul spent 26 years working as a regional hydrologist for the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the Southwestern United States where he coordinated the quantification and protection of water rights on National Wildlife Refuge, conducted numerous studies and workshops to improve wetland management on Refuges, and implemented river restoration projects throughout the southwestern United States.
Lani Tsinnajinnie
University of New Mexico
Dr. Lani Tsinnajinnie (she/her) is Diné/Filipina from Na’neelzhiin, NM. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Community and Regional Planning at UNM. She received dual bachelors degrees in Native American Studies and Environmental Science in 2007 and a Master in Water Resources degree in 2011 from UNM. She earned her PhD in Hydrology from New Mexico Tech in 2018. Her research expertise is in mountain and watershed hydrology and her work focuses on helping Indigenous and rural communities plan for and understand the impacts of climate change on water resources.
Diane Agnew
Water Rights Program Manager
Abq Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority
Diane Agnew is the Water Rights Program Manager for the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (Water Authority) where she leads the Water Authority’s Water Rights and Environmental Programs. She ensures compliance with the Water Authority’s water rights permits and her program includes Endangered Species Act compliance and permits, source water protection, and aquifer storage and recovery (ASR). Diane supports the Water Authority in implementing and tracking its 100-year water resource management plan, Water 2120, including the Reuse and Groundwater Management Plans which outline adaptive management approaches to building the Water Authority’s supply portfolio. Previously, Diane was the Environmental Manager for the Water Authority where she led the implementation of the Water Authority’s Source Water Protection Program and advocated for groundwater contamination site cleanup throughout the service area. Before joining the Water Authority, Diane worked as a consultant in environmental remediation and worked as a lead regulator for groundwater contamination sites at the New Mexico Environment Department. Diane’s earned degrees include a B.S. in Geology and M.S. in Hydrology, both from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, NM.
Jason Casuga
Chief Engineer/CEO
Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District
Jason Casuga is the Chief Engineer/CEO for the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (MRGCD), located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a professional engineer with over 20 years of experience in water resources that spans both the private and public sectors, Jason has spent the last 16 years working within the Middle Rio Grande Valley. Prior to being appointed as the Chief Engineer/CEO in February 2022, Jason was MRGCD’s Chief Operations Officer (COO), responsible for the agency’s technical services and field maintenance divisions.
Before joining MRGCD in June 2016, Jason was a River Maintenance Engineer and Project Manager at the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR). In his role at the BOR, Jason was responsible for managing river maintenance and habitat restoration projects along the Rio Grande from Velarde, New Mexico, to Elephant Butte Reservoir.
Jason was raised in Dexter, New Mexico, and has an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from New Mexico State University.
Carolyn Donnelly
Bureau of Reclamation
Carolyn Donnelly is a supervisory civil engineer for the Bureau of Reclamation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She holds degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of New Mexico. She began working as a consulting engineer then moved to Reclamation in 2006 and is responsible for water operations on three Reclamation Projects: San Juan – Chama, Middle Rio Grande, and Carlsbad. She is a licensed professional engineer in the State of New Mexico and spends much of her time outside of work exploring wild places.
Megan Ewbank
Community Habitat Program Manager
Tucson Bird Alliance
Megan Ewbank is the Community Habitat Program Manager at Tucson Bird Alliance. She specializes in urban habitat restoration, green stormwater infrastructure, and science-based invasive plant management. Megan combines low-tech, process-based restoration with native plants and ecologically informed maintenance practices to preserve the Sonoran Desert ecosystem. She is passionate about creating resilient greenspaces that benefit both wildlife and local communities.
David Gatterman, P.E.
Executive Engineer
SSCAFCA
After working in the private sector for the first few years after graduation, Dave began his public service career with the New Mexico Environment Department, working for the Groundwater Quality Bureau and Drinking Water Bureau. After receiving his Professional Engineering license in 2000, Dave went to work for the New Mexico State Parks Division as the parks engineer, dealing primarily with water and wastewater issues at state parks. In 2006, Dave was promoted to Bureau Chief of Design and Development for New Mexico State Parks Division where he oversaw capital outlay budgets for the Parks Division and oversaw the development of new state parks and capital improvements within the New Mexico State Park system.
In 2012, Dave began his tenure at SSCAFCA as the Environmental Services Director. In that role, he worked with other drainage agencies in the middle Rio Grande area to develop cooperative efforts responding to the EPA’s watershed based MS4 permit in addition to ensuring SSCAFCA’s compliance with its MS4 permit. Additionally, Dave managed numerous capital outlay projects for SSCAFCA, as well as assisting the Executive Engineer in obtaining and managing federal and state grants for construction of facilities. In 2017, Dave’s responsibilities at SSCAFCA increased when he was promoted into the role of Facility Operations Director, overseeing the operations and maintenance of SSCAFCA-owned facilities, while still performing all his previous duties in environmental permitting and capital project management. In February 2022, Dave was promoted to be SSCAFCA’s Executive Engineer by the SSCAFCA Board of Directors, overseeing all operations for the agency.
Dave attended the University of New Mexico, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1994. Dave received his Professional Engineering license from the State of New Mexico in 2000.
Aubrey Harris, PE PhD
US Army Corps of Engineers
Dr. Aubrey Harris is a research civil engineer at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC), Environmental Laboratory. She has worked previously at the US Army Corps of Engineers Albuquerque District and at the US Bureau of Reclamation. She has a PhD in Civil Engineering with a minor in Community and Regional Planning at the University of New Mexico. Her research foci include increasing the use of Nature Based Features and Local Knowledge in infrastructure projects, as well as developing planning tools to integrate ecosystem function with civil engineering analysis.
Kathleen Kambic
University of New Mexico
Kathleen Kambic is an Associate Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of New Mexico. She has worked for multiple nationally known design firms, including NBWLA and EDAW. Her research interests include water infrastructure, marginalized urban space, feminist political ecology, and landscape design theory. Her current research explores feminist critique of landscape architecture as well as water governance and the political ecology of arid landscapes. Recently, Kathleen has taught graduate seminars and studios on decentralized water infrastructure, design competitions, and typology. She has also won multiple international design competitions on interdisciplinary faculty teams. Kathleen’s research on water infrastructure has expanded to a study of the Rio Grande and its many subbasins, which was begun with the “Water Scarcity Elephant Butte Reservoir” report for the American Roundtable of the Architectural League of New York. She has a new book co-authored with Katya Crawford entitled, The Design Competition in Landscape Architecture: Pedagogy and Practice.
Ashlie Maxwell
Consensus Planning
Ashlie Maxwell is a Landscape Designer III with over 12 years of experience designing parks, recreation spaces, streetscapes, and community-focused landscapes. Her work spans all phases of design, from site planning and construction documents through construction-phase services, supporting projects that strengthen public spaces and enhance everyday experiences for the communities they serve.
She earned both her Master of Landscape Architecture and Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico, blending technical expertise with a strong visual and creative foundation. Ashlie specializes in digital visualization and graphic production, creating detailed 3D models and renderings that translate complex ideas into clear, compelling visuals for clients and communities.
Her experience includes city parks, community centers, multifamily housing, higher education campuses (including the University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College), streetscapes, traffic calming and Main Street revitalization, and native landscape restoration. She has contributed to large-scale master planning efforts that integrate mapping, visualization, space activation, and long-term visioning to create vibrant, resilient outdoor environments.
An active member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Ashlie is passionate about designing universally inclusive environments that serve people of all ages and abilities. She believes that just as nature is infinitely diverse, our design responses should be equally adaptable, equitable, and welcoming.
Laura M. Norman
U.S. Geological Survey
Laura Norman is a research physical scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey whose work centers on watershed hydrology, landscape change, and ecosystem restoration in arid and semi-arid environments. Her research integrates field investigations, geospatial modeling, and remote sensing to understand water movement, sediment transport, and the impacts of land management practices on water resources. Norman’s work supports the development of science-based strategies for sustainable water management, climate resilience, and ecological restoration across dryland regions.
Aloha kākou from Albuquerque, New Mexico! Marley represents the maternal lineages as a kānaka maoli (Native Hawaiʻian) under the Waikīkī line and Taíno (Native ancestral ties to Borikén/ Puerto Rico) thru the Santiago family; and their paternal Smith line with a western cowboy legacy. They have joined the Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps as the Program Director, assisting in areas such as external partnership relations and staff support. After gaining some academic knowledge in Hawaiʻian Studies, Ethnic Studies and Forestry Management-Biology, beginning their professional journey with the USDA Forest Service (R3, R6). Over the past five years, they
began their work in mālama ʻāina (land stewardship) as a District Natural Resource Specialist focusing on Watershed, Rangeland and Small Products Forestry management. Eventually, they were encouraged to transition into A role as a Tribal Relations Liaison out of Southwest Oregon.
These opportunities created a space for deeper understandings of establishing sustainable
resource practices focused in the framework of transnational solidarity, social justice, and equity for all when it comes to honoring relationships to land. Working with various and diverse peoples of the land has led them to aspire to provide holistic support and guidance for all our future land practitioners. In the words of my people:
“Hahai no ka ua i ka ulu lāʻau” – The rain follows the forest. –
While living in the Southwest, they have found a deep sense of peace in their nāʻau (heart/ soul) residing in the māuna (mountains) of the Sangre de Cristos of Northern New Mexico with their two companions, Luana and Yumi. Here, they spend much time in community enjoying the country life along the ʻahupuaʻa (watersheds) of the Pecos, Gallinas and Sapello rivers.
Katherine(Rin) H. Tara
The Utton Transboundary Resources Center
Rin Tara joined the Utton Center as a staff attorney, as a UNM law school graduate, in the fall of 2023. They are primarily interested in questions of water management in the face of climate change. They have done work in riparian restoration, river connectivity, tribal water sovereignty, climate change adaptation, and water rights. Rin’s recent publications include a series of white papers drafted with a team of experts on the future of Colorado River governance, the companion articles “A Horse Called Stream Depletion Theory” and “Unfinished Business” co-authored with Eric Kuhn and John Fleck, and a forthcoming paper on the Rio Grande silvery minnow. Additionally, Rin co-hosts the Utton Center’s flagship water education podcast, Water Matters!.
With over 30 years of experience in hydraulic engineering and engineering geomorphology, Stu has completed projects throughout the United States and internationally involving a broad range of stream types and physical environments. The projects have varied in scope from serving as the owner’s representative/reviewer through development and application of mathematical models to evaluate hydrologic, hydraulic and sediment-transport conditions. His primary areas of expertise are in hydraulics, hydrology, fluvial geomorphology, and erosion and sedimentation. He has served as the lead design engineer and/or project manager for numerous stream and river restoration design projects focused on habitat improvement, municipal development, flood conveyance, irrigation and agriculture, recreation, flood damage recovery, and water quality, among other things. He has significant experience in performing analyses to support the planning and design phases of river rehabilitation and sediment management projects, as well as preparation of design plans, cost estimates and specifications. He also has extensive field experience in topographic and bathymetric (GPS and total station) surveying, sediment sampling, stream gaging and geomorphic mapping and interpretation, as well as construction management/observation.
Shayla Woodhouse, PE
Biohabitats
Shayla has a passion for connecting disciplines in biology, chemistry and engineering to create water treatment solutions that harness the power of natural systems. She has in-depth experience in all phases of water treatment projects, including data analysis, master planning and schematic design, full design and construction documents, and construction observation and administration. A thoughtful and collaborative problem-solver, Shayla not only coordinates work efforts with multidisciplinary team members; she also listens to them and consistently seeks solutions that raise the bar in sustainable water treatment.
