Kate Brauman
Lead scientist, Global Water Initiative
Kate Brauman is the lead scientist for the Global Water Initiative at the Institute on the Environment, where she studies the coupled interaction of land-use change and water resources. Kate brings together the study of hydrology and plant-water relations with economics and policy to explore the effects of land cover on water delivery to downstream users. She is focused on hydrologic ecosystem services and global water availability and use, particularly by agriculture.
Kate received her doctorate from the Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources at Stanford University, where she designed and led a project on the Big Island of Hawaii, quantifying the effects of pasture and forest on groundwater recharge and calculating the associated costs of water extraction.