Speakers
Kimberly Lutz
Kimberly A. Lutz (Kim) is the Executive Director of America’s Watershed Initiative (AWI). AWI has been working since 2012 to improve the health of the Mississippi River Watershed by informing, advocating, and leveraging improved decision-making about the watershed’s natural and economic resources. Our Initiative is built upon support and guidance from industry and commerce, conservation, local communities, government, and academia. Under Lutz's leadership, AWI has updated our report card process to focus on actions to "raise the grade" and launched a basin-wide partnership program designed to generate broad support and dedicated funding to drive integrated on-the-ground action to improve the health of the watershed and the human and natural communities that depend on it.
Lutz joins AWI from The Nature Conservancy, where she led two multi-state watershed programs. These programs improved river flows, restored floodplain forests, and protected 6,000+ acres. She also served in the U.S. Department of the Interior, working to develop a national program for protecting nationally significant rivers.
Lutz obtained her B.A. from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, and her M.S. in Biology from the University of Cincinnati.