Debbie Whaley, a groundwater hydrologist with 30 years’ experience solving water, energy, and environmental challenges around the world, is the founding executive director of the brand-new iWEST (Institute for Water, Energy, Sustainability, and Technology) at Sacramento State.
“I am thrilled to be joining Sac State and iWEST,” Whaley says. “The institute provides an opportunity to act on my passion for preserving California’s environment, and to excite and enable the next generation to continue this important quest.”
Her first day with the institute is Monday, Oct. 26.
“She will be a wonderful asset to iWEST as we move forward with regionally important research in the critical areas of water, energy, and sustainability,” says Provost Frederika “Fraka” Harmsen, who announced the appointment. “I look forward to increasing our University’s footprint in these areas as a result of Debbie’s work.”
Whaley, 60, grew up in Fremont. She earned two bachelor’s degrees, in geography and German, from Chico State, and a master’s degree in geography, with an emphasis on water resources, from Northern Illinois University.
Whaley comes to Sacramento State from CH2M, an environmental engineering consulting company in the Denver area. As vice president in CH2M’s global water business, she led strategy development and sales for water and wastewater opportunities in the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia over the past decade. Her projects and pursuits ranged from million-dollar studies to $100 million, multiyear programs.
As executive director of iWEST, Whaley hopes to partner with three of Sacramento State’s research centers: the Office of Water Programs, the Center for Collaborative Policy, and the Sustainable Technology Optimization Research Center (STORC).
“At iWEST, we want to support ongoing work and provide a forum to incubate new ideas and capture additional opportunities,” Whaley says. “The University is located at the heart of California’s dynamic government and complex water system, and the state is in the middle of a historic drought. With this position, and a growing student population, there is exciting work to be done across campus and even more ideas for work to be started.”
The key to the new institute’s success, she says, is to establish its reputation and then leverage that reputation “into a robust pipeline of funding and opportunities that support faculty and students. Once we have refined the iWEST niche, we will seek experts from government, industry, and academia who can help guide our efforts to build the funding and opportunity pipeline.”
Whaley's husband, Ken, is a certified public accountant with a passion for the outdoors and wildlife biology. The couple met 30 years ago on a masters’ swim team in Oakland. Their first date was a bike ride along the American River in Sacramento, which took them past Sac State.
The couple raised their son, James, in Colorado, where they spent most of their free time over the last 20 years backpacking, kayaking, skiing, and cycling. James is now a junior at Brevard College in North Carolina, majoring in English.
Whaley went to work for CH2M in 1984, in Oakland, and 11 years later transferred to the company’s Sacramento office, where she was the regional environmental business group manager. She was with CH2M in Colorado since 1997, first as the environmental business development leader and most recently as vice president and sales director for the water market.
“Over time,” she says, “I migrated to the development side of the business. I realized that my greatest satisfaction comes from working with these discipline experts to develop new projects and, in turn, working with younger people to help them build the skills they need to make a difference and enjoy a satisfying career.
“It is with these skills and passions that I hope to make a difference at iWEST and Sacramento State.” – Dixie Reid