AIH - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Civil Engineer
• Director of Institute Development

Brian Walker is a civil engineer with 15 years of experience in hydrology and water management with the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and in private industry, currently serving as the District Hydrologist for the Sacramento District. He is the Regional Technical Specialist for hydrology related to the assessment of reservoir operation studies for the South Pacific Division. He received a B.S.C.E and M.S.C.E from Purdue University in Civil Engineering with an emphasis on watershed hydrology under Dr. G.S. Rao during graduate studies. As a civil engineer with USACE, he has worked on numerous flood risk mitigation, reservoir reoperation, and ecosystem restoration studies, as well as working on system-wide hydrology studies for the State of California Department of Water Resources. He was recently appointed as the divisional representative to the USACE National Hydrology Committee and is also an approved a member of the USACE Climate Preparedness and Resilience community of practice. Outside of work, he is an avid jazz bassist and soon-to-be father of two.

Job Titles:

• President - Elect
• Vice President

Dr. Cunha is a vice president overseeing WEST Consultant's Folsom office and has over 20 years of international experience in hydrology and water resources engineering. She started her career in Brazil engineering an integrated system for hydrological forecasting and multiple-use reservoir operation optimization. Her NASA supported PhD was followed by a postdoctoral at Princeton University, where she further developed multiple skills. At WEST, Dr. Cunha leads an amazing team on the development of a large range of projects, including reservoirs operations optimization, development of soil moisture-based tools to improve floods and droughts forecasts, Drought Contingency Plans and Water Control Manuals updates, climate change analysis, estimation of flood and precipitation frequencies, development of statewide criteria for flood design (PMP, PMF, rainfall frequencies, spatial and temporal patterns). On her free time, Dr. Cunha exercises by running after her two toddlers.

Job Titles:

• Member of the AIH Advisory Board
• Emergency Operations Coordinator / National Geospatial Technical Operations Center

Job Titles:

• Treasurer

Dr. James J. Connors is a certified Professional Hydrologist and licensed Professional Geologist and Geoscientist. He has more than 39 years of experience in surface and subsurface hydrology and currently serves as the President and Principal Scientist of James J. Connors & Associates. Dr. Connors has worked on hundreds of water-related projects across the U.S. and served as an expert witness in more than 60 cases in federal, state, and international courts. In addition to his private practice, he spent more than a decade in academia working as a university administrator and an award-winning professor, teaching hydrology, hydrogeology, geophysics, groundwater computer modeling, and geology. His current practice and research involve stormwater runoff and environmental contaminants, particularly per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). Dr. Connors is also a member of the Sigma Xi international research honor society, the Sigma Gamma Epsilon national Earth Sciences honor society, and the Geological Society of America. In his spare time, he enjoys hunting, exploring remote waterways, and fishing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Job Titles:

• Member of the AIH Advisory Board

Job Titles:

• AGI Executive Director / Alexandria, VA

Job Titles:

• Professor Texas a & M University / College Station, TX

Job Titles:

• Director of Policy & Advocacy

Dr. McMahon has accumulated more than 50 years of global water resources planning, engineering, design, construction, operations, and management experience. Areas of practice include: water resources engineering; hydrology and hydraulic analysis and design; hydropower engineering and design; comprehensive river basin planning studies; multipurpose water project benefit-cost analysis and cost allocation studies; plan formulation studies; institutional and regulatory capacity-building for participatory planning and integrated water resource management; reservoir and water resource systems analysis; modeling and model integration; statistical hydrology; water control decision support system implementation; permitting and environmental impact assessment; dam safety and emergency actions planning; coastal and waterways engineering; peer review, and expert testimony. Dr. McMahon has authored one book and more than 60 peer-reviewed journal papers, conference proceedings papers, and technical reports on technical, economic and policy aspects of water resources engineering and management. He currently serves as a Associate Editor for the ASCE Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management.

Job Titles:

• Agricultural Engineer
• Director of Academic Affairs

John J. Ramirez-Avila is an Agricultural Engineer (Universidad Nacional de Colombia) holding a Master's degree in Soils (University of Puerto Rico) and a PhD in Engineering with an emphasis in Water Resources (Mississippi State University). John is an Associate Professor at the Watersheds and Water Quality Research Lab, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Mississippi State University. Over his 25+ years of professional experience, he has held academic, research, and service positions at educational and research institutions, and professional organizations in Colombia, Puerto Rico, and the United States. His research has contributed to implementing management, protection, and restoration strategies for different ecosystems; and assessing and reducing point and non-point source pollution from agricultural and urban systems. John has an extended record of service and leadership in several professional organizations such as the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI), American Institute of Hydrology (AIH), Particles in the Americas (PIA), Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS), Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS), and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), among others. He became a Professional Hydrologist in 2020, joined the AIH Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee in 2021, and became its co-chair in 2023.

Job Titles:

• Director of International Affairs

Job Titles:

• Secretary - Membership Liaison
• the AIH Member

Jolyne is a Hydrologist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service at the National Water and Climate Center in Portland Oregon since 1991. In her position she is the lead for model calibration and operational seasonal water supply forecasting in the Great Basin, Pacific basins and Alaska based on mountain snowpack runoff. She is the business area expert in overseeing the agencies' operational SNOTEL data collection and processing. In addition, she oversees the climate data and products for the NRCS to support conservation activities of the agency. Jolyne Lea, the AIH Member-Liaison Secretary, is available for questions for current members on your membership and concerns that have not been responded to or resolved by the admin staff. In addition, please use this email for feedback, concerns and ideas to be brought before the AIH Board. Contact her at: membership@aihydrology.org

Job Titles:

• Director of Communications

Job Titles:

• Professional

Julé Rizzardo is a Professional Hydrologist and Registered Civil Engineer with over 25 years of experience in water resources engineering and management. She is currently the Past President of AIH and a Principal Engineer with the California Water Board. As lead of the Permitting and Enforcement Branch, she administers California's complex system of water rights, considering water availability, senior water rights, and flows needed to protect public trust resources. Ms. Rizzardo also has a decade of experience in the Board's Division of Financial Assistance, serving the drinking water and wastewater needs of small, disadvantaged communities throughout California. She received her B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Davis and her M.S. in Hydrogeology from the University of Nevada, Reno. She and her team are committed to an integrated approach to hydrologic modeling, collaboration, compliance assistance, and public engagement. When she's not conducting water right enforcement negotiations, she's out on the pitch using her conflict resolution skills to coach youth soccer.

Job Titles:

• Civil Engineer
• Board of Registration Chairman

Nick Textor is a Civil Engineer with a BS in Physics from Notre Dame and an MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison with post graduate work in Geo-environmental Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He is a Registered Professional Engineer, a Professional Hydrologist certified by the American Institute of Hydrology, a Diplomate of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers and a Certified Floodplain Manager. His experience includes over 47 years work in hydrology, hydraulics, stormwater management, dam design and rehabilitation and hazard mitigation. His career includes assignments in both the public and private sectors on national and international projects in both design and modeling.

Job Titles:

• President
• Civil and Environmental Engineer

Salam Murtada is a civil and environmental engineer working as floodplain hydrologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in St. Paul, Minnesota. His job duties include developing and reviewing hydrological and hydraulic models for FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA) and floodplain studies, culvert design using the geomorphic approach, watershed modeling to evaluate best management practices, and review of FEMA letter of map change (LOMC) projects and floodplain analysis/no-rise submittals. Before moving to Minnesota in 2008, he worked for the North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program (currently Division of Mitigation Services) to provide construction oversight and FEMA compliance of stream restoration projects. He has presented at several national and state conferences, including Transportation Resilience: International Conference on Resilience to Natural Hazards and Extreme Weather, International Drainage Symposium, Minnesota Water Resources Conference, North Carolina Stream Conference, Minnesota Association of Floodplain Managers Conference, and North Carolina Association of Floodplain Managers Conference. He graduated from West Virginia University with a Master of Science degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with Bachelor of Science degrees in Civil Engineering (Structural) and Petroleum Engineering. His post-graduate courses include Advanced Stream Design at North Carolina State University, Geographic Information Systems at the University of St. Thomas, and Watershed Hydrological Modeling at the University of Minnesota. Salam became a Professional Hydrologist in 2018. He joined the AIH Executive Committee as Treasurer in January of 2020 and became the VP of Institute Development in the spring of 2021.