Melanie received her Ph.D. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder. In her graduate studies, Melanie developed and validated monitoring technologies to improve water management and support local policy compliance in California and Colorado. Using a combination of land-surface modeling, in situ groundwater extraction monitoring, and remote sensed data, Melanie’s research focused on developing a groundwater abstraction forecast model to aid agencies in complying with groundwater regulations in the drought-prone western United States. Currently, she is a Civil Engineer with the Bureau of Reclamation’s Technical Service Center, where she applies surface water and groundwater modeling techniques to operations and planning projects throughout the western United States.