Donald Bren Hall: Room 6011

This event will include a Presentation by Debbie Franco, Governor’s Office of Planning and Research.

Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr declared a drought emergency in January of 2012. Governor Brown designated the Office of Emergency Services as the lead agency, unlike previous Governors who designated the Department of Water Resources. This talk will describe the emergency response structure and explore the opportunities and challenges of responding to drought under a structure designed for floods, fires, and earthquakes.

This talk is part of the Water UCI colloquium series — a program to provoke a thoughtful exchange of ideas and to better engage our regional colleagues regarding critical water issues facing the state, nation, and planet and what we can do to address them.

About Debbie Franco:
Debbie Franco is the community and rural affairs adviser and local drought liaison in the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR). She works on a range of issues, including environmental justice, water, water and energy, and rural community issues. She is a member of the Governor’s Drought Task Force. Before joining OPR, she served as the policy director at the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water. She holds a master’s degree in social ecology from the University of California, Irvine, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Davis.