Delaware River Basin Commission Names New Executive Director

For Immediate Release

September 5, 2024

(West Trenton, N.J.)-- The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) has today appointed Kristen Bowman Kavanagh, P.E. as its next Executive Director, effective December 1, 2024.

"The Delaware River Basin Commission does exceptional work managing, protecting and improving water resources in areas throughout the Delaware River Basin, including across portions of New York State that benefit from a coordinated conservation approach," New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Interim Commissioner Sean Mahar said. "New York State congratulates Executive Director Kristen Bowman Kavanagh, who brings 30 years of experience and expertise in water resources management and engineering to this role. DEC looks forward to working with Ms. Bowman Kavanagh in this new leadership position to further protect and enhance the Delaware watershed."

Kavanagh has served as the DRBC's Deputy Executive Director since October 2019. In that time, she has led the DRBC's technical and managerial teams in implementing the Commission's water resources programs, forged a partnership with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency to advance hazard mitigation and climate resilience and secured grant funding from the Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund to advance scientific studies not otherwise feasible under current budgets, among other projects. Since 2020, she has served as staff liaison to the DRBC's Advisory Committee on Climate Change.

"Pennsylvania works closely with Kristen and the DRBC to protect the streams and rivers that feed into the Delaware River and to ensure that the communities that rely on them are engaged in how those resources are managed," said Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley. "We look forward to working with her in this new role and congratulate Steve for his well-earned retirement."

Prior to joining the DRBC, Ms. Kavanagh served as the President and Principal Engineer at Flow Science Incorporated where she led business operations and development and had significant roles in hydrodynamic and water quality modeling studies for use in adaptive management plans, spill response plans and long-term planning and operations.

Kavanagh holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering: Environmental and Water Resources and an M.S. in Civil Engineering: Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology, both from Stanford University. She is a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and eight other states.

She is the interstates representative to the board of the Association of Clean Water Administrators, a past-chair of the American Water Works Association's Pennsylvania Southeast District and a former President of the American Society of Civil Engineers' Philadelphia Chapter.

In March, DRBC Executive Director Steve Tambini announced he will retire effective December 1, following a decade in the role. A formal resolution appointing Kavanagh received unanimous approval at the Commission's Sept. 5 business meeting.

"We thank Steve for his dedicated public service to the Commission. Under his leadership, DRBC's scientific expertise continues to provide reliable answers to complex water management questions to decision-makers in our region and beyond," said Steven Smailer, P.G., DRBC Alternate Commissioner and Director of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control's Division of Water.

Kavanagh will take the reins as the fifth executive director in the DRBC's 63-year history. In addition to Tambini (2014-2024), she succeeds Carol R. Collier (1998-2014), Gerald M. Hansler (1977-1998) and James F. Wright (1962-1977).

The DRBC is a federal/interstate government agency created in 1961 by concurrent compact legislation, marking the first time that the federal government and a group of states joined together as equal partners in a river basin planning, development and regulatory agency. The five Commission members are the governors of the Basin states (Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania) and the commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' North Atlantic Division, who represents the federal government.

To learn more about the Commission, please visit www.drbc.gov or follow DRBC on X at @DRBC1961.

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Contact:

Elizabeth Brown, [email protected]

Kate Schmidt, [email protected]

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