Biography

In her role as program lead for Water in the West’s Sustainable Groundwater program, Tara combines her passion for science with strong communication skills and a strong desire for practical groundwater management solutions. She identifies research opportunities for improved groundwater management and connects groundwater managers throughout California and the western US with groundwater researchers at Stanford University. She also works with policy makers and other agencies to advance groundwater policy for more sustainable groundwater management.

Prior to moving into the program lead role, Tara worked as a Research Associate at Stanford University deploying groundwater imaging technologies. During that time, she developed a strong sense of the challenges facing groundwater managers throughout the state and a desire to help address these issues through multi-disciplinary research efforts. Before starting at Stanford University, Dr. Moran worked with a variety of stakeholders in natural resources management, both as a consultant and academic.

Tara has published numerous research papers focusing on water resource management and water isotope thermometry. Her most recent publication, uses electrical resistivity tomography (http://gemcenter.stanford.edu) to image saltwater intrusion along the coast of Monterey Bay. Funded by a prestigious Natural Science and Engineering Research Council Canada Graduate scholarship, Tara received her doctorate in Geography from the University of Calgary, Canada. She holds a first class honors B.Sc. in Environmental Science from the University of Calgary.