At Hydros, we know that our personnel define us. We pride ourselves on hiring and retaining exceptional technical staff. Hydros staff have extensive expertise in water-quality and hydrologic numerical modeling, data analysis, forecasting and climate change modeling, stochastic hydrology, state and federal permitting of water projects, expert witness work, and the development of site-specific water quality standards.

Meet Our Team

Kevin Bierlein, PhD

  • Dr. Bierlein is an environmental engineer with over a decade of experience with lake and reservoir water quality. His professional experience includes developing river and reservoir water-quality models, modeling reservoir mixing and oxygenation systems, and performing detailed water-quality data analyses and reporting. This work has supported EIS’s and 401 Certifications for major water-supply projects, and often involves using models to better-understand observed water-quality responses or predict future water quality to inform management decisions. His research has focused predominantly on sediment-water interactions, reservoir hydrodynamics, and managing reservoirs as drinking water sources, with an emphasis on hypolimnetic oxygenation and mixing. Dr. Bierlein also has a significant amount of experience in field sampling to collect reliable physical and water-quality data to support his work.

Jean Marie Boyer, PhD, PE

  • Dr. Jean Marie Boyer is a co-founder and principal of Hydros Consulting and a water-quality engineer / scientist. After receiving BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering (University of Wisconsin – Madison and University of Colorado - Boulder), she shifted over to Civil Engineering for her PhD, focusing on limnology and the development of mechanistic water-quality models of lakes, reservoirs, and rivers, under the direction of Dr. Steven Chapra.

    Much of her technical efforts over the past 30+ years have been focused on 1) detailed analyses of surface water data to understand trends and site-specific, water-quality responses to important drivers and 2) water-quality modeling of lakes, reservoirs, and streams (coding, development, application, interpretation of results, and peer-review). The settings for Dr. Boyer’s work include:

    • Using Models to Predict Likely Responses to Various Scenarios

    • Permitting (NEPA, 401 Certifications, Fish and Wildlife Mitigation Plans)

    • Litigation Support / Expert Witness Testimony (deposition and trial)

    • Water-Quality Standards – Assessment and Development of Site-Specific Standards

    • Source Water Protection

    • Development of Options for Water-Quality Management and Mitigation

    • Watershed-based Water-Quality Trading Programs.

    In addition to management of large projects, much of her management work is focused on assembling a group of exceptionally talented, accomplished, curious, and passionate water experts, that thrive in a team environment and communicate clearly. Dr. Boyer is a professional engineer in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.

John Carron, PhD

  • Dr. Carron is a co-founder and principal of Hydros Consulting. He has a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (emphasis in water Resources) from the University of Colorado. John has 30 years of academic and professional experience in water resources planning and engineering, simulation and optimization modeling, reservoir operations, water policy, and litigation support. He has particular expertise in the development and use of decision support systems to support both long term planning and operational decision-making for complex river and reservoir systems. He is manager of the ongoing Colorado River Risk Study for the Colorado River District examining compact compliance and other water supply risks to Colorado River water users. He is a subject expert in the ongoing Texas v New Mexico and Colorado (No. 141 Original) before the U.S. Supreme Court, and has been involved in water rights permitting administration actions in Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico. He is a technical advisor to the State of Colorado on matters related to the Colorado River Basin. He is also currently managing the development of a water rights administration tool for the San Juan River in New Mexico, and is working for a private client in Texas on water rights permitting issues. The majority of his recent experience is in the areas of strategic planning, water supply reliability and risk analysis, litigation support, decision-support modeling, and operational efficiency studies.

John Craven, MS, PE, PH

  • Mr. Craven is an engineer with over ten years of professional experience in water resources engineering. Mr. Craven has worked extensively with RiverWare and MODFLOW, including the development of coupled models for conjunctive use analysis. Additionally, Mr. Craven has worked on a wide range of water resource projects that include, the analysis of riparian ET using remotely sensed data, rainfall-runoff modeling using PRMS, water rights administration and reservoir operations analyses, stream depletion analyses using MODFLOW, MODPATH flow path analyses, and model calibration using PEST. During his time at Hydros, Mr. Craven has worked extensively in the states of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Texas. Mr. Craven is proficient in multiple programming languages, such as Python and Fortran, and mapping software ArcGIS. Mr. Craven is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Colorado and Texas and a Certified Professional Hydrologist by the American Institute of Hydrology.

Maddy Pernat, MS

  • Ms. Madeline (Maddy) Pernat is a water resources engineer and data scientist specializing in operational decision support. She has expertise in RiverWare modeling, multi-objective optimization, and machine-learning methods for water-supply forecasting. Highly proficient in Python and R, Ms. Pernat leverages these tools to automate complex modeling workflows, process and analyze environmental data, and develop intuitive visualizations and interactive data dashboards. She excels at translating complex modeling results and large datasets into clear, actionable insights for water managers and stakeholders.

Christine Hawley, MS

  • Ms. Hawley is an environmental engineer with over 30 years of experience, including management of large, multi-component projects that include numerical modeling, detailed system conceptualization, field investigations, data analysis, diverse stakeholder groups, and regulatory components. Her primary focus is numerical modeling of water quality and temperature in lakes/reservoirs and rivers. This has included technical work for major water supply projects to meet NEPA and State of Colorado 401 Certification requirements. She has also worked with international and local teams of experts on high-profile projects evaluating contaminant transport in groundwater, surface water, transition zone water, and sediment, including CERCLA superfund projects. In addition to a management role on these projects, her experience includes extensive field work, hydrologic and water-quality model development, and complex data interpretation. She specializes in clear communication of complicated findings to clients, stakeholders, and regulators. Her clients range from local watershed groups to local governments, state governments, and federal agencies. Ms. Hawley is also a co-owner of Hydros Consulting.

Nick Mander, MS, PE

  • Mr. Mander has 12 of experience in water resources engineering. He is experienced in the development of RiverWare models and other decision-support systems for operations and planning studies, water rights administration, forecasting, and system optimization. Mr. Mander has exceptional skills in data automation, numerous programming languages, and GIS. He is highly proficient at explaining complex model results to clients in an understandable way to support informed decision making.

Jennifer Halleck

  • Ms. Halleck, a chemical engineer, is our office manager, responsible for bookkeeping, invoice support, human resources support, and many other things. We are very grateful to her for keeping us all on track.

Cory McDonald, PhD

  • Dr. McDonald is an engineer and scientist with broad expertise in the fields of water quality and watershed science. He has over 20 years of experience in the academic, government, and private sectors. He has extensive experience with numerical and statistical modeling of lakes and reservoirs, data analysis to support water-quality management, geographic analysis, and field sampling and monitoring. Dr. McDonald’s work has focused on nutrients and eutrophication, ecosystem metabolism and dissolved oxygen, and sediment-water interactions. He has experience with the development and application of water-quality standards and modeling in support of TMDL development and 401 Certification.

Steven Setzer, MS, PE

  • Mr. Setzer is an engineer and project manager with more than 20 years of experience in the design, implementation, and testing of water resources planning and management models. His areas of specialization include hydrology, RiverWare modeling, daily river and reservoir operations, water policy decision support systems, and water resources planning and management. He is well-versed in the use of stochastically generated inflow sets and Monte-Carlo simulation approaches to evaluate the risk and reliability associated with river basin operations, water supply, and water use. His current projects include the design, construction, and use of hourly and daily river operations models and long-term planning models for drought planning and water management. He is currently an expert witness in the ongoing Texas v New Mexico and Colorado (No. 141 Original) before the U.S. Supreme Court.