Speakers and Panelists
The Implications of Mining and Extraction in the Modern Era
Friday, May 22nd, 9:15 - 10:30 am
Maglione Hall (Sie Complex #5025)
University of Denver
Deborah Avant
Moderator, The Implications of Mining and Extraction in the Modern Era
Deborah Avant is the Sié Chéou-Kang Chair and Distinguished University Professor at the Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs, University of Denver. Her research has focused on civil-military relations, the roles of non-state actors in controlling violence and generating governance, and pragmatic approaches to research and ethics.
​
She is author/editor of Civil Action and the Dynamics of Violence in Conflicts (with Marie Berry, Erica Chenoweth, Rachel Epstein, Cullen Hendrix, Oliver Kaplan, and Timothy Sisk), The New Power Politics: Networks and Transnational Security Governance (with Oliver Westerwinter); Who Governs the Globe? (with Martha Finnemore and Susan Sell); The Market for Force: the Consequences of Privatizing Security; and Political Institutions and Military Change: Lessons From Peripheral Wars, along with articles in such journals as International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, International Studies Review, Security Studies, Perspectives on Politics, World Development, and International Affairs. She is an observer member of the International Code of Conduct Association (ICoCA) and was the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Global Security Studies as well as President of the International Studies Association (2022-23).
Steve Recca
Moderator, Climate as a Threat Multiplier
Steve Recca is Executive Director of the Center for Human Security in the University of Colorado Colorado Springs College of Public Service. He concurrently serves as the Director of the University and Agency Partnership Program for the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Center for Homeland Defense & Security and as Senior Operations Advisor for the Pacific Disaster Center. Steve’s previous positions include security policy assignments with the State Department, Department of Defense, Central Intelligence Agency, and in academia. He serves on the Board of Trustees for Marian University (Wisconsin) and the Board of Directors of the Colorado Emergency Preparedness Partnership. Steve recently returned to the Board of the Colorado Springs World Affairs Council as Vice Chair.
Most important, Steve is married to lovely Darlene. Together, they have three daughters and six grandchildren.
Jared Ebert
Panelist, The Implications of Mining and Extraction in the Modern Era
​Jared Ebert is a Senior Environmental Protection Specialist at the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (DRMS), where he has eighteen years of experience. He is responsible for leading a team of specialists in the implementation and enforcement of regulations pertaining to mining operations and reclamation. Mr. Ebert holds a Master of Science in Environmental Policy and Management from the University of Denver and a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from Colorado State University.
Richard Schwering
Panelist, The Implications of Mining and Extraction in the Modern Era
Mr. Schwering has over 16 years of experience in exploration and database management, as well as 13 years of experience in geologic modeling, mineral resource estimation, and technical reporting. He has worked on a variety of deposit types including precious metals, base metal, and industrial minerals. He is a Professional Geologist licensed by the National Association of State Boards of Geology (ASBOG®) in the State of Wyoming. He is a Registered Member of the Society of Mining Metallurgy and Exploration (SME®) with core competencies in Geology and Resource Modeling. Richard is an active member of the SME Colorado Section and served as Chair from July of 2018 to July 2020.
Weathering Change: Navigating Colorado River Governance in Uncertain Times
Friday, May 22 10:45 a.m. - 12:00 pm
Maglione Hall (Sie Complex #5025)
University of Denver
Linda Mendez-Barrientos
Moderator, Weathering Change: Navigating Colorado River Governance in Uncertain Times
Linda Mendez-Barrientos is an Assistant Professor at the Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs at the University of Denver. In this role, she leads the Environmental Justice & Policy Research lab (ejpr), which is dedicated to understanding how inequality and power asymmetries shape institutional change processes and environmental justice. She is also the co-founder of s2e-Science to Empower, an environmental justice initiative that leverages data and innovative research to facilitate environmental accountability and human rights protection, and increase the participation of diverse and historically excluded voices in the decisions that define new sustainable trajectories.
Dr. Mendez-Barrientos research lies at the intersection of institutional change, public policy implementation, environmental justice, and natural resource governance, with a focus on water policy and management. Her work has been published in top interdisciplinary journals including Scientific Reports, Society & Natural Resources, Ecology & Society, Environmental Policy & Planning, Environmental Policy & Governance, and Environment and Planning E: Nature & Space, as well as leading water journals, including Nature Water, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, Water Security, Water Policy, and the International Journal of Water Resources Development. She is also the recipient of a number of prestigious and competitive awards, including the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (2016-2021), NSF Integrative Graduate Education & Research Traineeship (2015-2017), and European Commission Agris Mundus Scholarship (2008-2010).
Dr. Mendez-Barrientos earned her Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California Davis, and holds a MSc. in Water Management from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and a MSc. on Tropical Agrarian Systems from Montpellier SupAgro in France. Before academia, Dr. Mendez-Barrientos served as an environmental policy analyst for several years with the Environmental Defense Fund.
John Berggren
Panelist, Weathering Change: Navigating Colorado River Governance in Uncertain Times
John Berggren is a regional policy manager with WRA, where he develops and advances equitable policies to improve regional and inter-state water governance and management in ways that benefit rivers and the communities, recreation opportunities, and environment they support. Using his deep knowledge of Western river and water issues, he collaborates with conservation community partners, water providers, federal and state agency staff, and other decision makers to further the next generation of water management strategies. John completed his Ph.D. at the University of Colorado where he focused on sustainable and equitable water management in the Colorado River Basin.
_edited.jpg)
Anne Castle
Panelist, Weathering Change: Navigating Colorado River Governance in Uncertain Times
Anne Castle is a senior fellow at the Getches-Wilkinson Center at the University of Colorado Law School, focusing on western water issues, particularly Colorado River policy and management and Tribal water interests. She is the co-founder of and senior advisor to the initiative on Universal Access to Clean Water in Tribal Communities and is a founding member of the Water Policy Group. She served as the U.S. Commissioner and Chair of the Upper Colorado River Commission from 2022 to 2025. From 2009 to 2014, Castle was Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the U.S. Department of the Interior where she had responsibility for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Geological Survey. Castle practiced water law for 28 years in Denver, Colorado with the law firm of Holland & Hart LLP.
Amy Ostdiek
Panelist, Weathering Change: Navigating Colorado River Governance in Uncertain Times
Amy Ostdiek is the Chief of the Interstate, Federal, and Water Information Section at the Colorado Water Conservation Board. Much of her work focuses on Colorado River matters, including supporting Commissioner Becky Mitchell in her role as Colorado’s principal negotiator on interstate Colorado River matters. She oversees a team focused on managing and protecting Colorado's water interests in interstate compacts and coordinating with federal agencies and other states, particularly regarding the Colorado River issues. Prior to joining CWCB, Ms. Ostdiek was an Assistant Attorney General with the Colorado River Subunit at the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. Ms. Ostdiek is originally from rural Western Nebraska. She attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Colorado Law School.
Tom I. Romero, II JD, Ph.D.
Panelist, Weathering Change: Navigating Colorado River Governance in Uncertain Times
Tom I. Romero II is a legal historian and law professor whose work centers on the intersection of race, environment, and public policy in the American West. He currently serves as a professor of law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and used to teach at the University of Denver, where he was associate professor of law and director of the Interdisciplinary Research Institute for the Study of (in)Equality. His scholarship explores water law, land use, immigration, and urban development, with a strong emphasis on environmental justice and water inequity in arid regions. Romero has led community-based research on water access in marginalized Latinx communities and contributed to national conversations on water policy and racial equity. He holds a Ph.D., J.D., and M.A. from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from the University of Denver, grounding his interdisciplinary approach to law and history.
The Security Implications of Resource Competition
Friday, May 22, from 2:30 - 3:30 p.m
Maglione Hall (Sie Complex #5025)
University of Denver
Steve Recca
Moderator, The Security Implications of Resource Competition
Steve Recca directs the University and Agency Partnership Program for the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Center for Homeland Defense and Security and concurrently serves as Senior Operations Advisor with the Pacific Disaster Center. Steve’s previous positions include security policy assignments with the Central Intelligence Agency, State Department, and Department of Defense. He teaches Intelligence, Homeland Security, and Human Security courses at the University of Denver, University of Colorado, and University of Alaska, and is a Trustee for Marian University. Steve also is on the Review Boards for three peer-reviewed journals: Homeland Security Affairs; Journal of Security, Intelligence, and Resilience Education; and Pracademic Affairs.
Cullen Hendrix
Panelist, The Security Implications of Resource Competition
Cullen Hendrix is Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Nonresident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Climate & Security, and Fellow at the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines. He was previously Professor at the Korbel School and Director of the Sié Chéou-Kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy.
His research on natural resources, international markets, and conflict has appeared in Nature, the Journal of Peace Research, Political Geography, and Global Environmental Change, among others. He is coauthor of Confronting the Curse: The Economics and Geopolitics of Natural Resource Governance (Columbia University Press, 2014). Hendrix has consulted or written for the National Intelligence Council, USAID, US Southern Command, the World Bank, the IPCC, and Willis Towers Watson. His commentary on critical minerals and resource politics appears often in Foreign Policy and Barron's. He holds a PhD from UC San Diego.
Daniel Green
Panelist, The Security Implications of Resource Competition
​Daniel Green has over a decade in public service, working in external affairs, diplomacy, emergency management, and intelligence analysis. His work has focused on building national resilience and forging community partnerships between international, state, territorial, and local partners, as well as serving as a liaison officer to twenty-nine recognized tribes across the Mountain West and the northern Great Plains. Daniel holds a master's degree in International Studies from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, and a master's degree in Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School. He currently lives in Denver with his two dogs, Yuki and Margot