Betsy's background
Betsy Herbert completed her Ph.D. at UC Santa Cruz in environmental studies in 2004. Her area of expertise is forest management for drinking water protection.
Her dissertation, entitled 'Forest Management by West Coast Water Utilities: Influences and Consequences,' analyzed forest policies and practices of public water utilities in the coastal regions of California, Oregon and Washington. Her research results were published in 2007 in the Journal of the American Water Works Association. The article was republished in 2010 by AWWA in its Sustainable Water Resources Compendium.
Betsy relocated to Corvallis, Oregon in 2017 where she serves on the Communications Team of the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club.
A recipient of a Switzer Leadership Award in 2005, Dr. Herbert served as community liaison to the town of Felton, California, facilitating the public acquisition of the Felton water system from California American Water. The San Lorenzo Valley Water District successfully completed this public acquisition in 2008.
From 2006 - 2014, she administered the San Lorenzo Valley Water District's environmental programs, including watershed management, climate change greenhouse gas emissions tracking, and environmental grants.
From 2001 - July 2017 she served on the board of directors of Sempervirens Fund, the oldest land trust in California, and chaired its Science Advisory Panel.
Betsy also served on the Santa Cruz Mountains Bioregional Council, the Center for Farmworker Families, the Santa Cruz County Commission on the Environment, the City of Santa Cruz Watershed Technical Advisory Task Force, and the County of Santa Cruz Timber Technical Advisory Committee.
Betsy Herbert worked for the San Lorenzo Valley Water District from 2006 - 2014, managing the district's environmental programs. From 2001 - 2017 she worked with local land trusts, commissions, and nonprofits to protect thousands of acres of forest/watershed land in the Santa Cruz mountains from damaging timber operations and other impacts.
"Inspiring local change for communities everywhere . . . "
In 2017, Dr. Betsy Herbert received the inaugural "Distinguished Graduate Student Alumni Award" by the UC Santa Cruz Division of Social Sciences, for her work "Inspiring local change for communities everywhere . . . "
Dr. Betsy Herbert received the UC Santa Cruz inaugural Distinguished Graduate Student Alumni Award for the Division of Social Sciences, announced May 3, 2017.
Betsy's year-long trip around the world 2015- 2016
Betsy traveled for a year solo trip around the world to focus on global environmental issues. To read about her trip to 40 countries and six continents...check out her TRAVEL BLOG and her Earth Matters column under NEWS ARTICLES on this site!
You can read her farewell "Earth Matters" column here.
Betsy's published articles
From 2011 through 2017, Betsy authored a monthly column for the Santa Cruz Sentinel, entitled "Earth Matters." You can find these columns under "News articles" in the side bar.
Browse, search and read Betsy Herbert's published newspaper articles by clicking "News articles" in the sidebar.
Read Betsy Herbert's published journal articles by clicking "Journal articles" in the sidebar.