Oklahoma Water

Resources Center

May 4, 2023 is Water Professionals Appreciaiton Day! We asked some of our researchers, agency partners and students why they love working with water and how their research advances water resources. 

 

Kevin Wagner

I joined the Water Center in July of 2017. I have the great pleasure of leading the Water Center. We have a great staff and a lot of exciting research and outreach going on. My work primarily focuses on improving water quality on grazinglands, assessing the water resource benefits of regenerative ag practices, and improving irrigation efficiency. I also lead the Oklahoma NSF EPSCoR program which has a major focus on water reuse, terrestrial water and carbon dynamics, and improving our ability to forecast weather and extreme climate events.

 

Water and natural resources are critical needs here in Oklahoma and globally. And, they are intricately linked. I guess I’ve always had an affinity for natural resource and water management. I have been involved in ranching much of my life. I spent many hours of my childhood exploring my grandads’ ranches, particularly the streams and rivers that flowed through them. Ever since I began my career, it’s just been a good fit for me. I also like variety. No two days look the same. I get to work on a wide array of issues with a wide range of stakeholders. It’s fun, keeps me learning new things, and keeps me on my toes.

 

I have five kids, ages six to 16 years old. They keep me pretty busy running to soccer, basketball, music concerts, church activities, and FFA events. I joke that after 5:00, I’m an Uber driver, driving my kids around. I’m also an avid runner. It helps keep me sane. I’ve always like pushing myself and challenging myself to do better, whether pursuing a new initiative with the water center or running, especially marathons, has been a good training for me to be self-disciplined, develop a plan, and then sticking to it to achieve a goal.

 

Nicole Colston

I've been a part of the Oklahoma Water Resources Center since Jan 2020. I am also assistant research professor in NREM. At the OWRC, I am a STEM education specialist and grant writer. I am committed to initiatives that support Native American participation in STEM college and career.  Much of my work focuses on collaborating with scientists to connect their work to communities using a citizen science programming, like our Virtual Citizen Science Expo.

 

I enjoy spreading the good word about protecting Mother Earth. Water is life and we can not do enough education to raise awareness about this vital resource. 

 

I love to hike the trails at Lake McMurtry and camp with my beautiful daughter Eva.

 

Jack Edwards 

I have worked eight months on the regenerative agriculture research project of the Oklahoma Water Resources Center as a Graduate Research Assistant. I monitor and collect runoff from 12 edge of field sites in Altus that grow cotton. My research explores the differences in runoff quantity and nutrient concentration between sites that employ a winter wheat cover crop and sites that do not.

 

I am a part of a family of six, everyone who is old enough has attended Miami of Ohio for their undergraduate degree. I have three younger siblings: Emily and Adam are currently attending, and Luke is still in high school but we're hoping he continues the tradition.

 

Joe Williams

I’ve been employed with EPA’s Office of Research and Development for 36 years, with the current title of Principal Associate National Program Director for EPA/ORD’s Safe and Sustainable Water Resources National Research Program. I started in a Soil Scientist position providing site characterization and computer modeling technical support for remediation of hazardous waste sites, to ecosystem research Branch Chief, to Assistant Laboratory Director in multiple research programs up to the current role in 2014.

 

I work primarily in the strategic planning and implementation of research across the three broad research topics associated with water resources: Watersheds; Nutrients and Harmful Algal Blooms; and Water Treatment and Infrastructure. Generally speaking this includes working with the National Program Director to establish the strategic direction for the program, interaction with our partners and stakeholders (including federal and state agencies, tribes, local decision-makers and NGOs), funding allocation planning, and most importantly communication with ORD researchers and scientists and external collaborators.

 

Water is truly life; having the opportunity to be directly engaged with the identification of current and future research needs for the protection of our water resources and the provision of safe and healthy water for drinking water and thriving ecosystems is not only satisfying but a blessing.

 

I absolutely enjoy being with my grandkids; but when not around them, vegetable gardening is a great relief point for me. I just enlarged my garden over the last off-season and in the process built a small greenhouse for starting garden plants.

 

Sherry Hunt

I am been employed with USDA-ARS for approximately 21 years and with USDA for nearly 23 years. I worked for NRCS prior to joining ARS. I currently serve as the Research Leader of the Agroclimate and Hydraulic Engineering Research Unit with worksites in Stillwater and El Reno, OK.

 

I am responsible for planning and conducting research to develop basic and applied knowledge for the design and analysis of safe, economical structures and channels for the conveyance, storage, disposal, and measurement of runoff waters and the advancement of cloud-based technologies including low-cost sensors and instrumentation, decision support tools, and computational models to evaluate and manage environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Specifically, I conduct physical model research on the breach potential of embankment dams and rehabilitation alternatives for aging dams and infrastructure. I am also working with a team of scientists and collaborators in the development of low-cost, cloud-based sensor technologies for monitoring aging infrastructure. In addition, I manage approximately 20 scientists and technical support staff and serve as our agency’s Dam Safety Officer and as a technical lead for our agency’s Partnerships for Data Innovations.

 

While working in water and natural resources can be challenging, I know our research has impact worldwide. The ideas and solutions we develop have applicability in the real-world. Our research leads to safe, economical solutions for construction of new and/or rehabilitated dams. Although it may not be realized at the time, our research allows for communities to have protection from flood waters, municipal and rural water supplies, and water for recreation and tourism use. Indirectly, our research allows people to have access to food on their table as agricultural fields, transportation routes, and businesses are protected from flooding due to the implementation of thousands of dams by USDA across the US. If you have heard of the saying “do what you love what you do.” This is it. I do what I love; I love what I do.

 

My husband, Brad, and I are native Oklahomans, who grew up approximately 12 miles from one another, but we didn’t meet until we were set-up on a blind date. We have two daughters. Jaley will be a high school senior at Santa Fe High School, and Loran will be an 8^th grader at Summit Middle School in Edmond, OK next year. Both of our girls are gifted musically as Jaley plays the violin and Loran plays the viola and piano as well as sings. College visits for Jaley are starting this summer, which is exciting and sad at the same time. Our family loves to travel. We have traveled from the West to East Coasts of the U.S. and everything in between, and this past winter break we traveled to London for Jaley’s high school orchestra to perform in the London New Year’s Day Concert series.

 

Nathan Kuhnert

I have been employed with the USDI Bureau of Reclamation Oklahoma-Texas Area Office for nearly seven years and I am a hydrologist.

 

I perform technical assistance on an annual average of 30 WaterSMART and Native American Affairs competitive grants to address serious water challenges in the American West. I also am the principal investigator and project manager on a Reclamation-funded S&T research project in partnership with other federal, state and local entities to investigate the integration of constructed wetlands into water reuse and stormwater management.

 

I find it very rewarding to leverage my experience and passion of water and natural resources to help advance societal challenges and needs.

 

I am an avid birder and educated meteorologist and this time of the year fascinates me with the northbound migrations of neotropical migrants.