Meet the Team
Graduate Student Researchers
Jo Anna Beck
Jo Anna graduated from University of Colorado, Boulder in 2012 with a B.A. in Environmental Studies and a minor in Ecology. As an undergraduate, she worked with the Aridlands Ecology Laboratory studying ways to effectively manage vegetation for areas where a controlled burn was prescribed. After graduating, she went on to work for Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment in the Water Quality Control Division. In her position as an environmental protection specialist, she wrote point source discharge permits in accordance with state and federal water quality regulations. At the Bren School, Jo Anna specializes in Water Resources Management.
Nathan Burroughs
Nathan graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2015 with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Conservation Biology. As an undergraduate, he worked in the Grether Lab in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and researched the evolutionary relationships between sexual dichromatism and nest shape in new world blackbirds (Icteridae). After graduating, he spent the summer as a sea kayak guide in Washington state’s San Juan Islands. Currently he is interning with the local non-profit South Coast Habitat Restoration which focuses on restoring habitat and steelhead passage throughout Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. At the Bren School, Nathan specializes in Conservation Planning.
Leah Gonzales
Leah graduated from UC San Diego in 2014 with a B.S. in Environmental Systems. She spent the next year as a member of the Watershed Stewards Program with the Department of Fish and Wildlife in Santa Barbara. She worked with the fisheries division monitoring steelhead trout in the Ventura River Watershed and Santa Barbara Coastal Streams. She also partnered with the City of Santa Barbara Creeks Division, aiding in their Clean Creeks Program by monitoring water quality and surveying streams in urban areas. In this position, Leah wrote technical reports, conducted water quality sampling and monitoring, conducted various field surveys, and organized outreach and educational events. Leah specializes in Water Resources Management at UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School and works as a Career Development Student Assistant.
Alyssa Obester
Alyssa graduated from UC Davis in 2014 with a B.S. in Environmental Science and Management and minor in Environmental Policy. For her honor’s thesis, she investigated the impacts of regulated flow regimes on basal aquatic resources in the Sierra Nevada. As an undergraduate, she worked at the California Freshwater Fish Laboratory, where she studied the effects of water diversions on native salmonids. Alyssa also worked at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, where she served as a GIS Analyst. At the Bren School, Alyssa specializes in Water Resources Management and is a Walton Family Foundation Sustainable Water Markets Fellow. She is interested in Western water management, river restoration, and the development of widespread environmental flow regimes.
Elijah Papen
Elijah graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2014 with a B.S. in Plant Sciences. While in school, he worked on the UCSC Natural Reserve Forest Ecological Research Plot (FERP) conducting a tree census and mapping the 16-ha region. He has also worked with Cramer Fish Sciences surveying freshwater systems and tracking juvenile salmon using radio telemetry. Elijah is currently pursuing a specialization in Water Resources Management at the Bren School.
Advisors
Derek Booth ~ Faculty Advisor
Derek has been at the Bren School since 2011, having worked in public agencies, academia, and the private sector as a geologist and geomorphologist. His recent projects span the fields of watershed assessment and planning, stormwater management, and stream restoration. Previously, he was a research professor in the departments of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Earth & Space Sciences at the University of Washington; he retains an active position as affiliate professor in both departments. He is presently the Senior Editor of the international scientific journal Quaternary Research and was past president of Stillwater Sciences, Inc.
Alexa Fredston-Hermann ~ PhD Mentor
Alexa entered the Bren School's PhD program in 2014, co-advised by Ben Halpern and Steve Gaines. Her research focuses on the effect of climate change on species distributions. She is working to predict how biogeography, species interactions, and abiotic factors may limit or promote the redistribution of species experiencing climate change. Alexa recently participated in a Science for Nature and People working group that studied the impact of anthropogenic runoff on coastal marine ecosystems. Prior to entering the PhD program she worked for Environmental Defense Fund's Pacific Oceans Team as a High Meadows Fellow, and graduated from Princeton University in 2012 with a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Client ~ South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL)
Rachel Hutchinson ~ Science Director
Ms. Hutchinson has been with SYRCL since 2013 as the lead for SYRCL’s restoration, water quality monitoring, and education programs. She oversees projects pertaining to lower floodplain habitat, meadow, and invasive species restoration; mercury and abandoned mine monitoring and long term water quality monitoring throughout the watershed; and SYRCL’s salmon and water conservation education programs. She received a BS in Environmental Resource Science from UC Davis and a MS in Water Resources from The University of Idaho. Before coming to SYRCL, she worked as a riparian ecologist for UC Davis in restored river floodplain and meadow systems. She specializes in riparian ecology, restoration monitoring, and GIS analysis.
