Morgan grew up in a family of avid outdoor adventurers. She spent summers rafting on remote rivers in the Western U.S. and winters skiing and trekking in the mountains. She says these outings helped spark her first interests in and passions for water. “Water is a passion, a pleasure, and always a challenge,” she says.
At college, Morgan’s love of being outdoors led her to pursue a degree in Environmental Studies and Geology. With much of the coursework being conducted in the field, she knew she was on the right track. Through an internship with a local community land trust, she discovered her future career path. “By advancing my scientific and technical training, I could be useful to the environmental nonprofit industry, which at the time had a need for these skills.”
In between undergrad and graduate school, Morgan landed a job at a water resources consulting firm that introduced her to water management more broadly. Additional work prior to graduate school as a stream technician for the U.S. Forest Service had improved her skills in hydrologic data collection.
Morgan says she eventually found her way back to school at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she earned a Master’s in Geography. Her research at graduate school focused on climate change, hydrochemical cycling, and snow hydrology. While in graduate school, she reached out to a local nonprofit that was seeking help with assessing the impact of their water conservation programs. “When this opportunity came up, I recognized the opportunity to fulfill my vision of using my science and technical skills to advance the work of an environmental NGO.” The unpaid internship led to a full-time job, and she spent the next five years measuring and managing water conservation programs at the nonprofit.
In 2017, after getting married and having a baby (Rivers, now a two and a half year old), Morgan and her family relocated to the Bay Area, where she started work at the Pacific Institute as a Research Associate. “Working for the Pacific Institute is basically a dream job. I get to study issues I care about, with incredibly intelligent and hardworking people who also care about the same topics. And, we then get to help create and advance solutions to these issues, contributing to a better world. I’m very grateful to work here!”
At the Pacific Institute, Morgan says has had the opportunity to contribute to a wide variety of projects. She has spent her time on everything from growing the Water Conflict Chronology, to solutions for stormwater management, to crafting a framework for incorporating multiple benefits into water management decision-making, to evaluating the quality of oilfield-produced water for agricultural reuse. Over the next year, she says she looks forward to helping to advance solutions for “improving and securing drinking water for vulnerable communities in California and addressing challenges to water resilience through alignment of metrics and data for all users.”
Morgan now lives and works for the Pacific Institute from her home in Spokane, Washington, where she and her family hope to stay put, enjoying the beauty and outdoors of the Inland Northwest.