The Texas Water Resources Institute’s (TWRI) water team continues to increase its expertise and capabilities, adding three members within the last year: Ed Rhodes, Kirby Young and Nathan Glavy.
Rhodes joined TWRI as a research associate in 2017. In this position, he provides leadership for the various water quality monitoring projects performed by the institute and assists with quality assurance activities associated with primary and secondary data collection efforts.
His research interests include GIS applications in water quality assessment and monitoring and implications of land use/land cover on water quality and watershed assessment.
Rhodes received his bachelor’s degree in rangeland ecology and management from Texas A&M University and his master’s in rangeland ecology and management from Oregon State University.
As a research assistant, Young works on various watershed protection, management and research projects with university faculty, local stakeholders and state, local and federal governments to address statewide water-related issues. She assists with water quality monitoring on several projects.
Young initially joined TWRI as a graduate student assistant in 2016. She received her bachelor’s degree in geosciences with a minor in Spanish from Trinity University in San Antonio and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Texas A&M’s Water Management and Hydrological Science Program. She is a certified Texas geoscientist-in-training, and her research interests include hydrology, hydrogeology and water quality.
Glavy is an extension program specialist for the institute and works on watershed planning projects and trainings, as well as water quality and riparian education. He also provides leadership for various research and extension projects, working with university faculty, local stakeholders and state, local and federal government agencies to address statewide water-related issues.
Glavy initially joined the institute as a graduate research assistant in 2017. He received his master’s in the Water Management and Hydrological Sciences Program from Texas A&M University and his bachelor’s degree in environmental studies with a minor in geography from Texas A&M University as well. His research interests include water conservation and education and public health issues associated with drinking water quality.
TWRI also has three new graduate research assistants: Destiny Russell, Meaghan Owens and Xiao Shen.
Russell’s main project is TWRI’s new Urban Riparian and Stream Restoration Trainings and Demonstration project, funded by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
She assists with riparian and stream restoration trainings and conducts water quality monitoring and stream assessments on two demonstration sites. She will work on restoring one site and will monitor both the restored and non-restored sites to compare erosion rates and water quality between the two sites over three years.
Owens works on various GIS and hydrological modeling projects and has also worked on watershed protection and management projects.
Shen works on various watershed protection and management projects. She assists with obtaining data, mapping, analyzing and modeling in the mid and lower Cibolo Creek for its watershed protection plan.