Earthea Nance has over 20 years of experience in government, academia, and consulting. She is currently Principal Engineer and Regional Manager of the California Department of Water Resources (Southern Region). Dr. Nance is the former Regional Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (Region 6). In that role she delivered $5B in climate resilience and infrastructure funds across five states and 66 tribal nations, managed 772 staff, and personally convened 503 stakeholder meetings. She shut down the toxic brine pit at the Denka facility which was poisoning the community, and she launched the landmark imminent and substantial endangerment case against the company. She shut down open burning at the Clean Harbors facility, the only open burning and detonation facility in the US located near a community. She established air emission controls at the Seaport Oil Terminal deepwater port, the first such controls in the US, and she pushed for better scientific integrity at a cancer cluster in Houston. Among many other accomplishments, Dr. Nance identified loopholes in several environmental rules that allowed excessive chemical exposure in communities ‒ which is the topic of her current book project (Loopholes: Insider Knowledge for Community Scientists, Earthea Nance)
As a director on the Hurricane Katrina recovery team, Dr. Nance developed the city’s first hazard mitigation program, raised and delivered $60M in disaster recovery funds to support recovering communities, and established the city’s first sustainability strategy. As a member of the Greater Houston Flood Mitigation Consortium after Hurricane Harvey, Dr. Nance championed new policies on flood risk communication, green and gray infrastructure, and risk-based land use standards. As the Director of Watershed Protection for Ventura County, Dr. Nance oversaw the operation and maintenance of 55 dams, 216 miles of levees and channels, and over 1,000 catch basins and drains.
Dr. Nance served as Associate Dean and Professor at Texas Southern University, Assistant Professor at the University of New Orleans, and as a Visiting Assistant Professor at MIT. She led and participated in innovative research totaling $70M and she produced 67 journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, and technical reports, as well as 2 books. She mentored 58 graduate students and conducted research that has had significant policy impact. She authored the leading study of air pollution from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. She co-authored an influential publication in the journal Nature (2021) on equitable flood risk. And she co-authored recommendations for National Flood Insurance Program policy reforms that were adopted by FEMA.
Dr. Nance is also the founding CEO and Principal Engineer of GreenPath Advisory LLC, an advisory service that delivers strategies and solutions for achieving environmental sustainability and climate resilience. Clients include national foundations, university research centers, tribal nations, and local non-profits throughout the United States.
Dr. Nance holds a PhD in civil and environmental engineering from Stanford University, and MS and BS degrees in civil and environmental engineering from UC Davis. She is a licensed civil engineer and certified floodplain manager, and she has delivered over 100 public speeches.