Rebecca Kauten, Waterloo, Iowa,USA

Rebecca Kauten enjoys the dynamism that exists when creative people come together on a common idea.

Rebecca currently manages the Office of Recreation Resources at the University of Northern Iowa. In this capacity she serves as a statewide resource to stormwater management professionals and fellow researchers. Her work is heavily involved with urban conservation, water quality and stormwater management efforts in Iowa, the Midwest and also at a national level. Her work also includes efforts to align the IOWATER Volunteer Water Monitoring Program with specific initiatives related to urban watersheds and K-12 education standards and practices. She holds a Masters of Public Policy Degree, with a research emphasis on land use policy and watershed management. The Office of Recreation Resources at the University of Northern Iowa, located in Cedar Falls, assists public agencies, non-profit organizations, local watershed groups and other stakeholders with water monitoring plans and implementation strategies, community planning within urban watersheds, overall watershed assessment, field-based data collection, analysis and professional training needs. The Program provides cost-effective, quality research, service and training to local, regional, national and international organizations on relevant water quality and watershed-based topics. Through a partnership with the Iowa Department of Natural Resource’s Watershed Monitoring and Assessment Section, the Program has effectively engaged with local watershed projects across Iowa since 2009. Results have led to local establishment of locally led watershed management projects, sustainable water monitoring projects in Iowa communities, and a quantifiable means of measuring the effectiveness of conservation practices on urban landscapes and within Midwest communities.

Rebecca has extensive experience with facilitation and implementation of local watershed projects, strategic planning, focus group facilitation, program assessment and strategic alignment among varied stakeholders including government agencies, academic institutions, nonprofit organizations and the private sector. She has experience with planning, installation, maintenance and performance assessment of best management practices, construction site erosion and sediment control, as well as outreach and conservation education experience with youth and adult stakeholders, including program assessment and evaluation. Since 2004, she has incorporated data collection, water monitoring plan development and quality assurance planning for projects where urban and rural stream data are collected.

Prior to her graduate degree, Rebecca spent nearly a decade in the software and telecommunications industry. She served as head of public relations for a $12 million corporation, and also represented several emerging telecommunication companies as a competitive research analyst. Her experience as a communication professional in software and technology prepared Rebecca well for a role as an interpreter and synthesizer for technicians, practitioners and community members.

Rebecca often engages with water science experts and technical resources across professional and academic disciplines to develop strategies for stormwater and urban watershed management. Strategic planning facilitation services have also been provided to the Great Rivers Chapter of the International Erosion Control Association regarding Chapter leadership, addressing shifts in industry demand and technical program content. Rebecca has presented technical papers and served in a faculty role for international coursework, professional development sessions for mid-career professionals, and as a panel expert discussing water quality, environmental education and sustainability efforts on a national and regional scale.

In 2011, Rebecca served as an instructor for the International Erosion Control Association both at the international conference and also at a regional workshop in the Chicago area this summer. She teaches basic methods of water quality monitoring as they relate to active and post-construction activities. In her daily work, she manages several projects in Iowa where these and other monitoring practices are implemented to gather data from urban watersheds, stormwater management BMPs and voluntary data from construction sites. In 2009, Rebecca received an adjunct faculty appointment from the University of Iowa International Studies Program and has led two trips to southern India where U of I students spend three weeks learning about water resources, sustainability and community development. In May, 2012, Rebecca will also lead an India program through the University of Northern Iowa.

In 2010, Rebecca was the lead author for the Iowa Environmental Literacy Plan, a document created as a guideline for environmental education in Iowa, a collaborative effort within Region VII involving colleagues from Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas. Her work with EPA Region 7 on environmental literacy initiatives has raised both the prominence of the Office of Recreation Resources in the Midwest, as well as the status of environmental education in Iowa.

She is head coach for the local high school speech team, coordinator of the Iowa Envirothon annual high school competition on wildlife, forestry, aquatics and soils, and works with K-12 educators to incorporate water quality and environmental education into curriculum. Since, 2005, she has owned a home in Cedar Falls Iowa, where she is president of the Cedar River Festival Group, a local river-cleanup nonprofit organization. When she’s not in the field or working with one of the aforementioned groups, she prefers to paddle local waters, explore wilderness areas, or play in the dirt in the backyard, where various impromptu stormwater management experiments have been known to take place. One of her greatest recent accomplishments was a four-day solo hike of Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior in the fall of 2010. In 2011, she plans to tackle her first trek on the Appalachian Trail in New England, after presenting a paper at the National Low-Impact Development Symposium in Philadelphia.

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