Drought Forum Members
Bradley Crowell
Director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
Bradley Crowell was appointed as the Director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources by Governor Brian Sandoval in December 2016. A native of Carson City, Nevada, Crowell has nearly 20 years of experience in energy and environmental policy at the state and federal level. His professional experience includes working for multiple Members of Congress on Capitol Hill, including former Nevada Governor and U.S. Senator Richard Bryan; and for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington D.C., and most recently serving as Assistant Secretary for Congressional, Intergovernmental, and External Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy.
Jim Barbee
Director of the Nevada Department of Agriculture
Barbee received his appointment as the Director of the Department of Agriculture in June 2011. Jim Barbee has worked on policy issues with both the Nevada State Board of Education and the Nevada Legislature. Barbee has served on the National FFA Board of Directors and Foundation Board of Trustees. He is a former Secondary Agriculture Educator with a certificate as a Certified Public Manager (CPM). Barbee managed millions in grant monies while a supervisor in Career and Technical Education at the Department of Education for eleven years.He has a Masters of Agriculture Science, Agriculture Education from Cal Poly SLO and a Bachelors of Science in Animal Science from CSU Chico. Barbee is a graduate of Douglas High School in Minden Nevada.
Jason King, P.E.
State Engineer of the Nevada Division of Water Resources
King was appointed State Engineer in April 2010. He joined the Nevada Division of Water Resources as a Hydraulic Engineer in 1991. Since that time, he has worked as Chief of the Engineering and Dam Safety Section, Chief of the Water Rights Section, Deputy State Engineer and Acting State Engineer before being appointed to the position. King has negotiated on Nevada’s behalf on numerous interstate water disputes and is a member of the State Environmental Commission. He earned his Civil Engineering Degree from the University of New Mexico and is a Registered Professional Engineer.
Caleb S. Cage
Nevada Homeland Security Adviser and Chief of the Division of Emergency Management, Nevada Department of Public Safety
Mr. Cage served under Governor Brian Sandoval's cabinet as director of military and veterans policy and was appointed in early July 2015 as the governor's homeland security adviser. Cage was also named by Public Safety Director Jim Wright to serve as chief of the Division of Emergency Management. Cage is a 2002 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He served during Operation Iraqi Freedom, earning a Bronze Star and Combat Action Badge.
Dr.Doug Boyle
Nevada State Climatologist, University of Nevada, Reno
Dr. Boyle is a watershed hydrologist with over 20 years of experience in the development, implementation, and evaluation of complex computer-based models of surface and groundwater hydrologic systems in arid and semi-arid environments. He was recently invited to join Dr. Wallace Broecker's Paleohydrology Group, based at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, to help further the group's understanding of paleoclimate and pluvial lake levels in the Great Basin.
Mark Walker
Dean of the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension
Mark Walker is the interim dean and director of the University of Nevada, Reno's outreach college, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. Prior to assuming this position in July 2013, Walker served as chair of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science in the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources. He began his career at the University of Nevada as an assistant professor in the Department in 1997, advancing to full professor in 2011. As a faculty member, Walker worked for 13 years as Cooperative Extension’s statewide water quality specialist. Much of his research focused on the protection of drinking water.
Before joining the faculty at the University of Nevada, Walker obtained a doctorate in soil and water engineering from Cornell University. As an Extension associate at Cornell, he led a complex watershed management project focused on protecting the water supply for metropolitan New York. He also worked closely with farmers throughout New York to address an emerging concern about groundwater contamination from agricultural chemicals. Walker was also a Peace Corps volunteer, constructing wells to provide clean, reliable water supplies in the central region of Burkina Faso, which is on the southern margin of the Sahara desert in central west Africa.
Justin Huntington
Desert Research Institute Representative
Justin Huntington is an associate research professor of Hydrology at the Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada. His research interests are focused on remote sensing, land surface energy balance measurement and modeling, drought monitoring, and hydrologic modeling. His projects are primarily being funded by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, NASA, and Google. He is one of 25 members of the Landsat Science Team.
John Entsminger
Southern Nevada Water Authority Representative
John J. Entsminger is the general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) and the Las Vegas Valley Water District (LVVWD). As general manager, Entsminger oversees the operations of the LVVWD, which serves nearly 370,000 customer accounts, and the SNWA, which is responsible for acquiring, treating and delivering water to local agencies that collectively serve 2 million residents and nearly 40 million annual visitors.
He was appointed general manager by both agencies' Boards of Directors in early 2014, having previously served as director of environmental and water resource law and senior deputy general manager. Entsminger joined the organization in 1999 as an attorney.
Entsminger was instrumental in the development of the 2007 Colorado River Interim Guidelines and of Minute 319 to the 1944 U. S. - Mexico Water Treaty, a significant development in international water management. In April 2014, he was appointed by Gov. Sandoval to serve as Nevada's lead negotiator on Colorado River matters. Other regional responsibilities include participation in the Colorado River Water Users Association and the Western Urban Water Coalition. On the national front, Entsminger serves on the Board of Trustees of the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies.
Committed to public involvement, Entsminger recently brought to conclusion the SNWA's Integrated Resource Planning Advisory Committee, a 21-member committee of community stakeholders tasked with making recommendations on issues related to resources, infrastructure and financing.
Entsminger is a graduate of the University of Northern Colorado and of the University of Colorado School of Law, where he was awarded the Charles N. Woodruff Natural Resources Law Fellowship. He and his wife, Erica, have two children.