Deborah L. Swackhamer Early Career Award

Alycia Overbo received her MS in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2014. In 2015 she was appointed as a research fellow at the University of North Carolina, conducting a systematic literature review on sanitation policy and programming for development of the World Health Organization Guidelines for Sanitation and Health. She joined the PhD program in water resources science at the University of Minnesota in 2016, where she worked on a huge environmental challenge for the State of Minnesota: the fact that we are polluting our streams and lakes with chloride by using road salt, water softener salt, and—Alycia discovered—chloride salts in agricultural applications. Alycia developed a chloride budget for the State of Minnesota through compiling and analyzing various spatial, monitoring, sales, and survey data to estimate contributions of point and nonpoint chloride sources to Minnesota surface waters and groundwater. She then interpreted her findings to identify best management practices for salt use and recommendations for monitoring, research, and policy.

Alycia’s research has become an important part of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s chloride reduction and education practices. It has helped Minnesota better understand on a state level all the sources of chloride impacting our water resources, and revealed that fertilizer and livestock facilities are a much more significant source than was previously known. This prompted the MPCA to develop new resources to address this particular source of chloride. Her work is referenced and highlighted regularly in MPCA’s reports and presentations and has encouraged related research at the University of Minnesota.

In February 2019, Alycia was offered and took a job at the Minnesota Department of Health as the Strategic Initiatives and Communications Planner in the Source Water Protection Unit, and has already been promoted to a supervisor position in the Drinking Water Protection Section, leading special projects on the dissemination of information on complex topics, such as PFAS and contaminants of emerging concern. As a supervisor in this role, she is already providing leadership as the Communications and Strategic Initiatives program expands.

Xue Feng is a McKnight Land-Grant Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geo- Engineering (CEGE) at the University of Minnesota.  Xue received her PhD degree from Duke University in 2015 and, following a two-year postdoc at UC Berkeley, joined the CEGE faculty in 2017. Xue’s research interest centers on the role of plants in controlling the water cycle. Her work is highlighted by the multiple space and time scales she considers and the mathematical and mechanistic sophistication with which she couples plant physiology to hydrological outcomes.

Two projects in Xue's research portfolio closely mirror the combination of fundamental science and strong societal impact that were a hallmark of Professor Swackhamer's work.  In the first, Xue’s field-based research in the peatlands of Northern Minnesota is providing critical information on how climate change will affect the State’s and the country's future water cycle. In the second, Xue's research within the UMN-based NSF urban LTER, focuses on how to best control and manage the water cycle in urban environments to ensure the safety and well-being of our society.

Xue is also a leader in the scientific community. Of note, is her role in promoting women in the hydrological sciences, editing a special issue in the Journal of Hydrology entitled "Women in hydrology: celebrating the contributions of mentors, researchers, and leaders."

Stephanie Hatzenbihler champions water resources by welcoming, educating, and empowering people to be environmental stewards. Stephanie began her career with a BS in Biology from Western New England University and jobs in environmental education. Following her Fellowship with Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center in Southeastern Minnesota, she transitioned to nonprofit management roles while earning a Master’s in Natural Science and Environmental Education from Hamline University.

In 2017, Stephanie joined the City of Rochester as an Environmental Education Specialist with the stormwater team. She exceeded minimum permit requirements, by focusing on inclusive public engagement for surface water management, behavior change research and programming for chloride and pet waste pollution reduction, and utilizing Co-Design for Community Resilience Hub visioning. Stephanie also facilitated effective collaborations between city departments, Olmsted County SWCD, MPCA, and other stakeholders. Stephanie's efforts to reduce barriers to participation and build trust included working with DEI specialists for inclusive community engagement, mentoring future water resource champions through MN GreenCorps and MN Water Stewards programs and engaging the community with programs like Adopt-a-Drain, Litter Bit Better, and residential rain garden grants.

In March 2023, Stephanie joined Stearns County SWCD as a Water Plan Coordinator. She leads the Mississippi River-Sartell One Watershed One Plan, supports Wellhead Protection Plans, and hosts initiatives like the We Are Water exhibit. Stephanie also coaches the Sauk River Watershed Collaborative in Community-Based Social Marketing and serves as co-chair of the Minnesota Source Water Protection Collaborative and the Blue Thumb Steering Committee.

Maddy Nyblade completed her PhD in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Maddy has distinguished herself by pushing the boundaries of hydrology to tackle critical challenges faced by Minnesota tribes, whose priorities and perspectives have long been marginalized. As a settler scientist, she plays a key role in a collaborative between University researchers and tribal partners around the Upper Great Lakes (including Fond du Lac, Mille Lacs, St. Croix, and Lac du Flambeau Bands and the 1854 Treaty Authority and Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission). Her work focuses on protecting Manoomin (Ojibwe)/Psiη (Dakota), or wild rice, an aquatic plant that holds profound significance to Indigenous peoples throughout the region. Her recent book chapter presents innovative approaches that address the challenge of respectfully interfacing hydrological science and Indigenous knowledge. She has implemented these approaches to generate the first quantitative evidence of hydroclimatic change negatively impacting wild rice. Through this research and beyond, Maddy is committed to advancing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, particularly to stop and reverse harms inflicted by settler academic institutions on Indigenous peoples. Her article in the widely read Eos newsletter about the consequences of geological mapping for Minnesota tribes helped prompt a new, more ethical mapping policy on tribal lands in Minnesota.

Dr. Bridget Ulrich is the inaugural recipient of the Deborah L. Swackhamer Early Career Award. Bridget is a Minnesota native, and as an undergraduate was nominated by Deb herself for the UMN Presidential Student Leadership and Service Award to recognize her efforts to promote campus sustainability. After graduate and postdoctoral training in Colorado and Switzerland, Bridget was drawn back to northern Minnesota to begin her career at the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) at UMD. Bridget is a trailblazer much like Deb in finding new ways to protect Minnesota’s water resources. She is currently developing an Environmental Analytical Chemistry facility, that specializes in analysis of many of the contaminants that Deb focused on, as well as other emerging contaminants that are highly relevant to Minnesota including poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Bridget is also on the cutting edge of developing stormwater treatment technologies using filter materials derived from Minnesota wastes, including biochar and iron-mining byproducts. She is dedicated to service and science communication, having organized a special session on biochar at the 2021

WRC, and co-authored an article about PFAS for Lake Superior Angler magazine. She has shown willingness to create diverse partnerships, including current collaborations with CFANS, Lake County, and the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization. She also actively promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in workplaces and communities: she sits on NRRI’s DEI committee, and is steadfast to engage and support women in spaces where they are underrepresented, including engineering and mountain biking.