Working Group
Mike Collopy
Dr. Mike Collopy was named director of the University of Nevada, Reno's Academy of the Environment in 2006. He joined the University in 2001 as professor and chair of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science. Collopy is an internationally regarded professor and researcher in the ecology and conservation of birds of prey.
Prior to joining the University of Nevada, Collopy led the creation of an interdisciplinary federal research lab located on the campus of Oregon State University and directed it for 10 years. Before that, he chaired the Wildlife and Range Sciences Department at the University of Florida for five years. He holds a doctorate in natural resources from the University of Michigan, a master's degree in wildlife management from Humboldt State University, and a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Collopy is serving as principle investigator for the Walker Basin Project, and he is also co-chair of the Walker Basin Project Study Group.
Milt Glick
Dr. Milt Glick was named president of the University of Nevada, Reno in 2006. He came to Nevada from Arizona State University in Tempe, where he spent 15 years, first as senior vice president and later as executive vice president and provost. During his tenure, the Tempe campus became the largest in the United States in terms of enrollment, and the number of National Merit Scholars enrolled rose from about a dozen to more than 500. Funding for sponsored research tripled, and ASU recruited 10 faculty members with prestigious national academy memberships and one Nobel Laureate.
Prior to joining ASU, he spent three years as provost at Iowa State University. He was interim president of Iowa State for the final eight months. His first senior administrative position was as dean of the College of Arts and Science at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo., in the mid-1980s, and he was responsible for many advances.
He holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, and earned his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Following a year of postdoctoral studies at Cornell University, he joined the chemistry faculty at Wayne State University in Detroit where he became a leader of the faculty senate and served as chair of the chemistry department.
In the initial phase of his academic career, Glick was a noted researcher in the field of X-ray crystallography. His work was funded for 17 consecutive years by National Science Foundation funding and he published 99 research articles during that time. Glick has been a technology consultant and is a senior fellow of the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, which conducts research on the roles and implications of information technology in higher education.
Marc Johnson
Marc Johnson joined the University of Nevada, Reno as provost in June 2008. He received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Emporia State University in Kansas, which named him a Distinguished Alumnus in 1994. His advanced degrees include a master of technology in international development from North Carolina State University, a master of economics from Michigan State University, and a doctorate of agriculture economics from Michigan State University.
He held faculty positions at North Carolina State University and Oklahoma State University, and later returned to North Carolina State University as associate head of the Department of Economics and Business. He then joined Kansas State University (KSU), where he was head of the Department of Agricultural Economics. From 1992 to 2003, Johnson was dean of the KSU College of Agriculture and director of the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service.
Johnson joined Colorado State University in 2003 as vice provost for agriculture and outreach and dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences. He went on to serve as interim director of Colorado Cooperative Extension and interim state forester of Colorado State Forest Service, both programs hosted through CSU.
His research and teaching has been based in economics, with an emphasis on national and international food distribution systems. On an international level, he has contributed to discussions and advancements in many countries, from Honduras to Botswana to Sri Lanka.
Dan Klaich, Working Group Chair
Dan Klaich, who coordinates the project on behalf of Chancellor James Rogers, is executive vice chancellor for legal affairs and administration for the Nevada System of Higher Education. Klaich joined NSHE in November 2004 as chief counsel, having previously served NSHE as member of the Board of Regents from 1987 to 1997.
Prior to that time, he served as executive vice president and general counsel for Clean Fuels Technology, Inc. from 1994 until 2004. In this role Mr. Klaich worked in a policy making capacity, advising the CEO and board of directors as well as overseeing and managing litigation. He has practiced law for close to 30 years including 12 years at Walther, Key, Maupin, Oats, Cox, Lee & Klaich.
Klaich holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Nevada, Reno, a juris doctor degree from the University of Washington in Seattle, and a master's degree from New York University. He is a member of the State Bar of Nevada and the State Bar of California.
Chris Maples
Dr. Chris Maples came to the Desert Research Institute as vice president for research in 2003. He became DRI's executive vice president for research and chief science officer in 2006. He received his bachelor's degree in geology from West Georgia College, and his master's and doctorate degrees from Indiana University in geology (paleontology) with a minor in biology. He served as visiting faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at Clemson University. He worked for eleven years at the Kansas Geological Survey, the last three of which were spent on leave to serve as a program director with several different programs at the National Science Foundation. Chris was department chair in geological sciences at Indiana University before joining the DRI.
Maples' scientific interests range from paleontology to geoinformatics and paleobiogeography. He also has keen interest in the curation and management of scientific data. He was the recipient of the Charles Schuchert Award, presented annually by the Paleontological Society to an outstanding paleontologist under the age of 40.
Maples has conducted fieldwork internationally, including desert areas in China and Iran. He has served on numerous external review and NSF proposal review panels and National Academy of Science committees, as well as holding various professional society offices. He is the former editor of PALAIOS, a journal of paleontology and sedimentology published bimonthly by SEPM (The Society for Sedimentary Geology).
Jim Thomas
Dr. Jim Thomas is an associate research professor and director of the Desert Research Institute's Center for Watersheds and Environmental Sustainability. Thomas holds a bachelor's degree in geology from the University of Vermont, a master's degree in geology from Indiana University,;and a doctorate degree in hydrology/hydrogeology from the University of Nevada, Reno, Mackay School of Mines.
Thomas' general research interests include hydrogeology, water chemistry, age-dating groundwater, groundwater recharge and discharge processes, watershed hydrology, and water resource potability and sustainability in developing countries. He has conducted research primarily in three geographic areas: northern Nevada watersheds, particularly the Lake Tahoe and Walker Lake watersheds; southern and eastern Nevada; and West Africa. His research in the Walker Lake Basin focuses on the hydrology of the Walker Lake watershed including determining the hydrologic and dissolved salt budgets of Walker Lake.
Thomas serves on the NSHE Walker Basin Working Group and is co-chair of the Walker Basin Project Study Group.
Stephen G. Wells
Dr. Stephen Wells is president of the Desert Research Institute (DRI), one of the world's largest multidisciplinary environmental research organizations with state-of-the-art facilities in Las Vegas and Reno. Wells is also current president of the Geological Society of America and is a graduate faculty member in the Hydrologic Sciences Program and Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Prior to joining DRI in July 1995 as executive director of the Quaternary Sciences Center, Wells was professor of geomorphology and chair of the Graduate Program in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of California, Riverside. Dr. Wells began his academic career at the University of New Mexico. At both institutions, he built internationally recognized research and graduate programs. Wells has held visiting appointments with the U.S. Air Force Office of Research, U.S. Geological Survey, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and The University of Liverpool, and has established consulting relationships with numerous federal agencies and private companies including the U.S. Department of Justice, Sandia National Laboratories, and environmental and geotechnical firms in the western U.S.
Wells is the recipient of three national awards for research excellence: Geological Society of America Kirk Bryan award for best scientific paper in geomorphology and Quaternary geology, Gladys Cole Award for best scientific proposal in arid land geomorphology, and Geological Society of America Farouk El-Baz award for desert research.
Wells has a bachelor's degree in geology from Indiana University and master's and doctorate degrees in geology from the University of Cincinnati. He has published approximately 60 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and edited six volumes. Wells' research career has blended applied studies, such as development of geomorphic criteria for selecting stable uranium tailings disposal areas, and basic research, such as the Late Quaternary paleohydrology of the eastern Mojave River drainage of California.
John V. White
Dean White joined the UNLV Boyd School of Law from Louisiana State University (LSU) Paul M. Hebert Law Center where he was the J. Dawson Gasquet Memorial Professor of Law. At LSU, he taught for 15 years and wrote and lectured extensively about civil rights law. A recent article, The Persistence of Race Politics and the Restraint of Recovery in Katrina’s Wake, was published in the 2006 anthology, After the Storm: Black Intellectuals Explore the Meaning of Hurricane Katrina. Dean White was also a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Insubria in Como, Italy, where he worked on the role of civil rights law and multicultural theories in responding to globalism. He helped organize and direct a summer school in comparative law in Insubria and twice directed the LSU summer program in Lyon, France. Before teaching law, he was an Orville Schell Fellow at Human Rights Watch in New York City where he worked on prison and human rights practices in Egypt. Dean White received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1991, where he was a notes and topics editor for the Yale Law Journal and participated in the Jerome N. Frank Legal Service Organization.