President’s Update – Spring 2023

American Institute of Hydrology

March 15, 2023 

President’s Update

I am truly energized about my new leadership role these next few years with AIH. As President, I want to make connections, provide synergy, and fully utilize the strong leadership qualities of our Board members and members at large. I am excited about our committees and initiatives – not only for the resulting benefits, but for the process of getting to know each one of you through your involvement. It is critical that all AIH members get involved, whether it’s helping establish the DEI scholarship, expanding our webinar series, or improving our website for AIH members and the public.

Introducing New Board Members!
Salam Murtada, President Elect 2023-2024

Salam brings a wealth of experience to this position from his two-year tenure as Director of Institute Development and one-year as Treasurer. Salam will be transitioning out of his role as Webinar Committee Chair and into the role of President Elect! Salam will be continuing to engage with members and help improve the recertification process.

Luciana Kindl da Cunha, Director of Institute Development

As Director of Institute Development, Luciana will be taking on the role of Chair of the Webinar Committee. We are very excited to see the webinar series continue to expand under the guidance of this important Committee. If you have ideas for upcoming webinars and how to improve webinar outreach, delivery and access, contact Luciana to join the Webinar Committee! Luciana will also be helping the DEI Committee establish and sustain the AIH’s first DEI Scholarship Program.

 

Membership Renewal

If you haven’t yet renewed your AIH membership, do so today!
Renew Membership Here

 Benefits of AIH membership include:

  • Certification as a professional hydrologist or hydrologic technician
  • Membership as a hydrologist-in-training or student member
  • Free access to our webinar series
  • Eligibility for annual awards
  • Peer and employer recognitions of professional competence in hydrology
  • Opportunity to contribute to AIH Committees and articles in the bulletin  
Recertification Process

In addition to membership renewal, AIH members are required to recertify every five years by submitting 60 hours of Professional Development Credits (PDC). Please refer to the information regarding credits, listed in your AIH membership account. And note that AIH webinars count towards accumulating the required PDC credits. Please note that we are currently in the process of streamlining the recertification process in order to make it easier. If you have any questions regarding your ongoing certification status, please contact Kory Adams at kadams@aihydrology.org.

AIH Committees

AIH has a variety of committees and groups you can get involved in, and we are always looking for AIH members to join committees. Contact the Committee Chair/Co-Chair listed below if you’d like to join. Don’t hesitate to renew your membership today, so you can get involved with important committee work! 

Committee

Description

Committee Chair 

Contact

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee

Committee formed in January 2022. Currently focusing on establishing a DEI scholarship program.

John Ramirez-Avila and Matt Naftaly, co-chairs

jramirez@cee.msstate.edu

and

mnaftaly@dudek.com

Webinar Committee

Develop, produce and deliver AIH’s Webinar Series

Luciana Cunha, Chair

lcunha@westconsultants.com

Communication Committee

Develop and publish AIH bulletin, social media posts, and webpage improvements.

Brennon Schaefer, Chair

brennon.schaefer@state.mn.us

Board of Registration

Review and evaluate AIH application and recertification packages for education and experience, and make recommendations to the Board of Directors.

Nick Textor, Chair

nick.textor@austin.rr.com

As we know in our daily practice, the profession of hydrology is critical to water management. The prediction, modeling and management of extreme hydrologic events is taking center stage, across the nation and the globe, and our work is more important than ever. Thank you for your continued engagement with the American Institute of Hydrology, and keeping the profession of hydrology elevated through your work!

 

President’s Message – Winter 2023

GreetingAIHPresident Jamil Ibrahims! This is my last President’s Message, and it comes soon after our Board of Directors convened for our AIH Annual Meeting. During the meeting, our Board of Directors reflected on accomplishments and challenges from the past year and established specific strategies and tactics to achieve goals for 2023. I’m delighted about the continued achievements of AIH during my tenure as President, and I’m excited about the next steps for the organization.

While our activities and initiatives have attracted many new members to AIH, we experienced significant challenges over the past year in maintaining our previous members through membership renewals. Many members have retired from the hydrology industry, but others either have not updated their member contact information or simply decided not to renew their membership. Critical priorities for 2023 include continued emphasis on promoting the branding of our AIH certifications, and demonstrating the benefits of certification and membership to our members.

As we wrap up 2022, I’m pleased to report that we are nearly complete with a comprehensive update to our database of examination questions for our AIH certification exams. The process established by our team was successful and the approach may be applied for continued updates to our examination questions database. We convened a team of experts during the fall to develop new examination questions. Updates will be completed prior to our next round of examinations.

AIH held two Water New Year events in Sacramento, California and St. Paul, Minnesota, where members of our AIH Board welcomed the season of maximum soil moisture recharge with current and prospective AIH members. My hope is that we continue this ritual and encourage expansion across other geographies.

We also continued to engage with the American Water Resources Association (AWRA) and other affiliate organizations to promote PH certification for hydrologists and HT certification for hydrologic technicians. After a two-year hiatus from in-person attendance, we actively participated in the AWRA 2022 Annual Conference. Our involvement in the conference is detailed in a summary provided by AIH Director for Institute Development, Salam Murtada, in this Bulletin. Additionally, led by AIH Past-President, Dr. John Nieber, AIH collaborated with AWRA to produce a special issue of the AWRA publication Water Resources IMPACT, titled “Hot Topics in Hydrology.” This special issue features articles by AIH members on a handful of current topics and on recent advances in hydrology research and professional practice. We will look to share information on how AIH members can access this great publication at a later point.

We had a wonderful year – and the next will surely be awesome under the leadership of Julé Rizzardo. Look for continued initiatives by our Board to connect our AIH community and advance AIH through promoting the benefits of certification.

Lastly, I will close through reiterating important points you have seen before:

  • A call to all AIH certified members, as ambassadors of AIH, to take pride and flaunt your AIH acronym. Be HIT-, HT-, and PH-proud.
  • Member participation is vital to AIH’s success. We are eager to engage more members in AIH activities. Please reach out to our Secretary/Membership Liaison, Jolyne Lea, at membership@aihydrology.org, to get involved.

Best wishes for a safe, healthy, and joyful 2023.

Sincerely,

Jamil S. Ibrahim PH, PMP, ENV SP

AIH President, 2021-2022

President’s Message – Fall 2022

AIHPresident Jamil IbrahimThis is an overdue update to our AIH members and community about what your AIH leadership team has been up to this year. I am thrilled to announce completion of critical and timely updates to the governing documents for our organization – our AIH Articles of Incorporation (formerly, Constitution) and AIH Bylaws. We initiated the review and update process in 2016. Over the past six years, past and current AIH leadership team members devoted many, many hours to completing a comprehensive review and developing suggested revisions to these documents. This review and update provided a great opportunity to reflect on how we have operated and how we will function in the future. In the spirit of these changes, Leonardo Da Vinci once remarked (translated to English): “When you put your hand in a flowing stream, you touch the last that has gone before and the first of what is still to come.” It is extremely gratifying to see the results of our review/update process in our new governing documents, and I look forward to the next steps.

There are many other great updates to share:

·        Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee – Our DEI Committee developed and prioritized a list of initiatives and solicited feedback/input on implementation through a virtual meeting held in March of 2022. Please reach out to Julé Rizzardo (President-Elect) to join the DEI Committee and learn about these great initiatives.

·        Annual Meeting – Our leadership team held our (delayed) Annual Meeting virtually during March 2022. The meeting was supposed to be held during December 2021, to set our trajectory for 2022, but was delayed due to COVD concerns. In addition to specific tactics associated with strategies and goals that were identified by the Executive Director and members of our Board of Directors, we established three “working groups” to address: (1) Technical Journal/Conference Collaboration; (2) promotions, swag, and marketing; and (3) coordination with affiliate organizations. Contact myself or our management office to learn more and get involved. We are scheduled to get back on track and hold our Annual Meeting in December of 2022 (hopefully, in-person) and set plans for 2023.

·        AIH Webinars – Continued our AIH webinars with great presentations by AIH members Richard Koehler (PhD, PH) and Andrew Cohen( PhD, PH).

·        Engagement with Affiliate Organizations – Continued our engagement with other organizations through promoting PH certification for hydrologists and HT certification for hydrologic technicians at the 2022 World Environmental & Water Resources Congress (EWRI); Frontiers in Hydrology Meeting co-sponsored by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and CUAHSI (Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc.); and 11th International Symposium on Managed Aquifer Recharge (ISMAR).

·        AIH 2022 Awards – We Issued our distinguished AIH awards to our 2022 award winners: Bruce Wilson, PhD (Ray K. Linsley Award for Surface Water); Todd Halihan, PhD (Charles V. Theis Award for Groundwater); and Vijay P. Singh, PhD, PH (Robert G. Wetzel Award for Water Quality). Note, we will present these awards to our award winners this year at the American Water Resources Association (AWRA) 2022 Annual Conference during their Awards Luncheon on November 9, 2022, in Seattle, Washington.

·        Examination Questions Database Update – We have a plan in place and are about to embark on a comprehensive update to our database of examination questions for our AIH certification exams. Updates will be completed prior to our next round of examinations, scheduled for November 2022.

As I’ve stated in each of my messages previously, member participation is vital to AIH’s success. We are eager to engage more members in AIH activities. Please reach out to our Secretary/Membership Liaison, Jolyne Lea, at membership@aihydrology.org, to get involved.

Sincerely,

Jamil S. Ibrahim PH, PMP, ENV SP
AIH President, 2021-2022

AIH President’s Message

Your AIH leadership team and member volunteers are working hard on exciting initiatives for AIH. Thank you to all who have stepped forward to take on roles to help advance the mission of AIH. We rely on our members’ participation, and we are eager to engage more members in AIH activities. Even if not interested in taking on a leadership role for AIH or getting involved in various subcommittees or groups, we request all our members to be ambassadors for AIH and its certified members. Please contact me or others on our leadership team to get involved.

We are approaching an important pivot point for the focus of AIH’s leadership team. Much energy has been dedicated to improving fundamental processes for AIH over the past few years. While we continue our work to address challenges, changes are underway that we are confident will improve our processes. Examples include rollout of new online member application and database system, and upcoming solicitation for examination support services. Concurrently, we are advancing initiatives related to member engagement, along with collaboration and engagement with other organizations (e.g., American Water Resources Association (AWRA); Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI); etc.).

Noted in my previous message, we established a new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee along with a new Webinars Subcommittee. Kudos to: Ed Baquerizo, PH; Megan Gehrke, PH; Ramanitharan Kandiah, PH; Amesha Morris, Matt Naftaly, PH; John Ramirez Avila, PH; and Michelle Woolfolk, PH, and along with AIH leadership team members (Sarah Erck, CMP; Salam Murtada, PH; and Julé Rizzardo, PH) for stepping up to lead AIH’s DEI initiatives. Our Webinars Subcommittee members include member volunteer, Mike Talbot, HIT, and AIH leadership team members (Sarah Erck; Yige Gao, PH; Salam Murtada, PH; and Brennon Schaefer, PH). We’re excited for the rollout of actions from these two groups over the next few months.

On a matter related to inclusion, our Executive Committee (EC) advanced an action earlier this year to eliminate the constraint of nominations for serving on AIH’s EC to only certified Professional Hydrologists (PH)–all certified members (PHs, Hydrologists-in-Training (HITs), and Hydrologic Technicians (HTs) may be nominated to serve for positions on the EC. Subsequently, Chance Fulk, HT III, was appointed as Treasurer, the first HT to serve on AIH’s EC.

Please look for upcoming announcements regarding membership engagement. We’re planning a virtual “meet and greet” event during September and, if all goes well, an in-person social event in Sacramento, California to ring in the New Water Year on September 30. I’m very excited for these events!

 

PS: Note deliberate effort to include AIH certified members’ acronyms with names. I’m calling on all AIH certified members, as ambassadors of AIH, to take pride and flaunt your AIH acronym. Be HIT-, HT-, and PH-proud!

Sincerely,

Jamil S. Ibrahim PH, PMP, ENV SP
AIH President, 2021-2022

AIH President’s Message

The past few months have been very productive for the American Institute of Hydrology (AIH) and we have a lot to be proud of. Since my last President’s message, AIH:

  • Welcomed Chance Fulk, HT III as our new Treasurer–and first HT to hold a position on the AIH Executive Committee (EC). Chance takes over for Salam Murtada who vacated the Treasurer position after election as AIH’s Vice President for Institute Development.
  • Transitioned Salam Murtada from role as AIH’s Treasure to Vice President for Institute Development.
  • Held our AIH 2021 Annual EC Meeting over the week of March 14 to 21, 2021. EC members reflected on 2020 accomplishments/challenges, and proposed actions/initiatives associated to goals and strategies for 2021.
  • Established AIH’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force, which will be composed of AIH member volunteers, our AIH Executive Director (Sarah Erck), President-Elect (Julé Rizzardo), and me. The DEI Task Force’s kickoff meeting is scheduled Wednesday, May 19, 2021. If interested in joining the DEI Task Force, contact our AIH management office. Stay tuned for more information on DEI Task Force initiatives/activities in the coming months.
  • Implemented membership application and database changes and a complete website redesign. We’re very excited for these changes to improve ease of application development by perspective members, application review and processing by our Board of Registration, and provide enhanced member benefits through access of information and content. A welcome email with access information to this new certification platform will be going out soon.

My goal is for AIH to be the premier certifying organization and “home” for hydrologists and hydrologic technicians across the United States. The above updates help address priorities shared earlier this year to achieve this goal– and we have plenty of items on our to-do list to further address those priorities, along with the goals and objectives established by each of our EC members. We have a great team and I look forward to reporting on our accomplishments to you again soon.

Please do not hesitate to contact me, Sarah, our management office, or either of our EC members if there is anything you need or if you have suggestions– we are here to serve you!

JAMIL S. IBRAHIM
AIH President

President’s Message

I am thrilled to address our members in my first message as President of the American Institute of Hydrology (AIH). While the new calendar year does not bring the much-needed renewal that I, and I am sure most of you, thirst for – we do have a lot to be excited and enthusiastic about for AIH in 2021. We have a fantastic leadership and management team, along with strong priorities and ambitious initiatives for advancement of AIH. As AIH President, my priorities include:

  • Address “fundamentals” for improved effectiveness and efficiency of association
  • Improve outreach and engagement with AIH members, hydrology community, and public
  • Grow recognition of AIH and increase membership

Over the next few months, I will post messages that delve into more detail for each of these priorities and share status of the many initiatives that our all-volunteer Executive Committee and additional volunteers are working on. In the meantime, I encourage you to either reach out to me directly or contact our management office if interested in taking on a volunteer role to address either of the above priorities and/or AIH’s goal and mission.

Additionally, as I write this message on Martin Luther King Jr Day of Service, I’d like to remind our members to consider what we should do to help our communities advance social justice, racial equity, and inclusion related to hydrology and water resources.
 
In collaboration with Sarah Erck, our Executive Director, our management team, and Executive Committee, we are looking forward to next steps for advancing AIH’s goals and mission. If there is anything you need, please do not hesitate to contact me, Sarah, our management office, or either of our EC members – we are here to serve you!
 
Cheers.

– Jamil S. Ibrahim