Watershed Management Group Staff
Lisa Shipek is a founding member of Watershed Management Group and has served as the Executive Director since 2006. Lisa directs fundraising, strategic development, financial planning, community engagement, and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion activities for WMG. She co-directs the River Run Network program and manages the development of the Living Lab & Learning Center. Her specialized skills include developing experiential education programs; building community coalitions; and adapting technical information for public consumption. She holds a B.S. in Environmental Science and an M.A. in Latin American Studies. Lisa gives back to the community through serving on advisory boards, which has included: Tucson’s Environmental Services Advisory Committee, Tucson’s Transit Task Force, Tucson Conserve to Enhance, and the Santa Cruz Watershed Collaborative. Lisa was honored to be invited to join Women at the Top in 2020, a Tucson-based business networking group. She fills her free time with playing ultimate frisbee and dancing and enjoys gardening, bike touring, and camping with her husband Catlow.
Growing up in the border towns of ambos Nogales, Joselyn has always had a strong sense of community and a passion for helping others. She moved to Tucson in 2020 to pursue a career in language interpretation with the goal of minimizing the impact language barriers have on Spanish speaking communities across Southern Arizona. After working in the court system and seeing a lack of social justice in our bureaucracies, Joselyn saw her efforts making more of an impact in grassroots organizing and nonprofit work. Most recently, she worked as Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator at BICAS, gaining experience in community outreach and program coordination. Joselyn’s work reflects an understanding that sustainability is synonymous with education, liberation, and community. Her commitment to sustainability shows through her car free lifestyle, using various modes of transportation such as biking, walking, and taking public transit to get around. For fun, you’ll find Joselyn leading and organizing bike rides such as the Tuesday Night Bike Ride, upcycling thrifted clothes, or just hanging out with friends.
Charlie graduated from Dickinson College in 2012 with a B.S. in Physics and has worked in environmental education and non-profit communications. He ventured from Pennsylvania to Tucson in early 2016 and has become enchanted by the Sonoran Desert and Tucson community. Charlie is passionate about using community education to help drive sustainable decision-making on an individual basis and in city decision-making. In his role at WMG he designs and installs community green infrasturcture projects and oversees WMG's Phoenix Valley based programs. When he isn't talking about water harvesting Charlie likes playing soccer, cooking, and dancing with his two left feet.
Cody Calamaio is originally from Phoenix, but Tucson is her chosen home. Her career has been a journey across many different industries before transitioning into non-profit development. Cody holds a bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Arizona and a master's degree in Industrial Design from the Pratt Institute. In her spare time she enjoys crafting, birdwatching, and community-focused activities. Her life is ruled by a tiny gremlin dog who is, unfortunately, not very outdoorsy.
Melanie Cooley arrived in Tucson from the Midwest over 30 years ago and fell immediately in love with the Sonoran Desert. Their passions are desert-friendly gardening, habitat restoration, water harvesting, critters, and dance. When not at WMG, she can most likely be found with hands in dirt, tending plants, tracing the path of water across her yard, dancing, or hanging out with her three dogs, five chickens, and desert tortoise named Mr. T. Melanie has an MFA in Poetry from the University of Michigan and is a certified 5Rhythms (movement/dance meditation) teacher. She is deeply interested in the connections between the body of earth and human bodies. She speaks English, basic French and Spanish--and just enough Arabic to have a conversation with a four-year-old.
Valerisa (Val) Gaddy, PhD., is originally from the Navajo Nation and is of the Navajo (Diné) people. Gaddy has a passion for water quality and uses her research interests to advocate for Tribal water resources in Arizona. Prior to her current position, Gaddy was a post-doctorate research associate at the University of Arizona – Water Resources Research Center. Gaddy received her PhD and MS in Environmental Science with an emphasis in microbiology and her BS from New Mexico State University in microbiology. Gaddy’s research and extension interests include developing and validating methods to assess microbial water quality and communicating modern water quality and produce safety methods to growers. Most recently, Gaddy’s program Irrigation Resources Reaching Indigenous Growers and Tribal Entities, IRRIGaTE was a winner of 2022 MIT Solve Finals. She is a senior fellow of Columbia University – Mailman School of Public Health from 2022-2023. When Gaddy is not working, she enjoys family time with her son and husband which includes, hiking, bouldering, and playing with Legos.
Todd, born and raised in the Midwest, is passionate about the position that Watershed Management holds in the Tucson community. A graduate of Western Michigan University, where he played football and earned captain his Senior year. Todd came to Arizona following a career with YMCA where he married (Rebecca) his wife of 19 years, and has three daughters (Josephine, Abigail, and Vivian). Todd operated the iconic historic Hotel Congress and Maynards Market and Kitchen for 20 years before pursuing his passion for conservation, sustainability, and community development. Todd believes in teamwork, integrity, loyalty, hard work, and commitment. Garnering numerous awards such as Small Business Leader of the Year (2008), Small Business Growth of the Year (2010), Best Place to Work (2016), and Trip Advisor Green Leaf Gold Level Designation for Hotel Congress (2016). Todd has been very active in the community serving on multiple boards such as Women’s Foundation of So. Arizona, Tucson City of Gastronomy, AZPM, Downtown Tucson Partnership, and YMCA of Southern AZ. Founder and director of Agave Heritage Festival, his passion for improving Southern Arizona is only matched by his devotion to his family. Todd enjoys reading, driving in the mountains of Patagonia, Arizona, dining at local independent restaurants with Rebecca, and watching his daughters participate in sports.
Sky is a southwest native who loves our region's diverse biology, culture, and landscapes. He has worked primarily as a nonprofit administrator, naturalist/biologist, IT specialist, and website developer for organizations including Sky Island Alliance, The University of Arizona, SWCA Biological Consultants, National Park Service, among others. Sky is dedicated to protecting the region’s biodiversity through conservation action and lifestyle choices. In his free time, Sky enjoys exploring remote and wild parts of Arizona, Sonora, and the greater Southwest, attempting photography, studying birds and plants, and growing native plants in his yard.
Lauren has a B.S. in Watershed Hydrology and Management from the University of Arizona. As a Tucson native, Lauren has a passion for the environment and the community in this area and wants to continue spreading this excitement for nature, water and people through her work with the River Run Network. Lauren enjoys hiking, drinking coffee, and reading in her spare time.
Tucson seemed like the driest land imaginable to Jace when he moved here from the Land of 10,000 Lakes just before starting college at the University of Arizona. An early life immersed in the natural landscape of his grandparents’ rural Minnesota farmstead left a lasting impression that guided Jace to pursue a degree in Wildlife Conservation and Management. His childhood fascination with native herpetofauna, or “herps,” carried into fieldwork that would range from Gila Monster radiotelemetry on Tumamoc Hill, to salamander sampling in the Appalachian Mountains, to leopard frog conservation in Minnesota and southeastern Arizona. The objective of his frog work in SE Arizona was to support critical habitat for the recovery of threatened native species reliant on the health of our waterways. Jace has expanded that objective to encompass the health and recovery of the Santa Cruz watershed as a whole and desert rivers beyond. When Jace isn’t herping the Sky Islands or enjoying a long Rillito River Park Trail run, he’s balancing out his high-activity pastimes with meditative reads of Edward Abbey or Stephen King.
Joaquin specializes in building resilience in diverse communities by enhancing the connections between people, culture, and natural resources. Joaquin brings vast experience on the multicultural border region between the US and Mexico, where he has implemented community-based approaches to watershed management, river restoration, geo-tourism, conservation of native peoples, and best practices for the ranching community. His past work has been with the Sonoran Institute and as a consultant for National Geographic Society and other organizations. Joaquin is a graduate of the University of Arizona with MSc in Natural Resources and Agricultural Economics and a PhD in Renewable Natural Resources Studies with an emphasis on management, policy and economics of natural resources. A native of Sonora, Mexico and resident of Arizona, Joaquin is fluent in both Spanish and English.
Born and raised in the Colorado River Delta region, Luis always wondered why his native hometown of San Luis Río Colorado was named after a river that seldom flowed through there. As a result, Luis completed a B.S. degree in Environmental Hydrology and Water Resources at the University of Arizona in 2017. During his time at the university, Luis began to understand the complex relationship between rivers and their users, and decided to pursue a career that emphasizes community-centric, ecological approaches to educating the public about environmental issues of the Southwest and natural resource conservation. Luis is fluent in both Spanish and English, and you can find him reading, writing, cooking, or playing drums at home when he’s not digging through crates at record stores or looking for a good place to set up a hammock on top of a nearby mountain.
Ileana was born in Mexico City and lived much of her life in Guadalajara, Mexico. She received her Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Guadalajara. While working in IT for ten years she earned her MBA from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education and later a certification in data science from MIT. After she met her husband she moved to Tucson in 2011. While raising her young kids she ran Tucson and Phoenix’s only cloth diaper service for ten years. Ileana with her family and former business have participated in WMG programs for many years. She feels her values of wise land stewardship and promoting strong diverse communities fall in line with the principals WMG upholds. As an immigrant and woman of color she feels united with members of the community who have historically been disadvantaged and delights in the opportunity to uplift others through her work and advocacy. Ileana is an avid cyclist, loves swimming, traveling, and data science. She strives to have a sustainable home and to be a conscious consumer. She lives in a quiet neighborhood with her husband, two kids and her cat, Miao.
Catlow Shipek is a founding member of Watershed Management Group. He received a MSc in Watershed Management from the University of Arizona. Catlow has over 15 years of experience in applied watershed management, planning and policy specializing in urban applications like water harvesting, green infrastructure, stream restoration, and eco-sanitation. Catlow has worked on several successful local policy initiatives including Tucson's Green Streets Active Practice Guidelines, Tucson Water's residential rainwater rebate program, Tucson's residential greywater ordinance revision process, and through the Complete Streets Taskforce the adoption of Tucson's Complete Streets Policy. Catlow has served on the Citizens’ Water Advisory Committee for Tucson Water including Chair of the Conservation & Education subcommittee, Tucson's Complete Streets Coordinating Council, and on the University of Arizona's School of Natural Resource and the Environment's advisory board. Catlow enjoys growing and foraging for food, long mountain trail runs, and finding swimming holes.
Jim currently teaches geography and physics at Pima Community college. He has also studied geology, geophysics and hydrology. Growing up in Colorado, he got his start as a ranch hand chasing cattle, repairing irrigation ditches and building fence. In 2007, he initiated and coordinated a successful 10 year effort to remove Arundo or Giant Cane from the Sabino Creek watershed. He is excited to help manage and lead WMG’s effort to remove Arundo from Tanque Verde Creek, a part of WMG’s River Run Initiative. Jim finds working outdoors extremely satisfying and takes great pleasure in working with others to restore our unique southwestern riparian corridors by removing these invasive and non-native plants. Jim has traveled widely and enjoys swimming, hiking and reading.