Maureen I. McCarthy, PhD, is Research Professor of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences at the Desert Research Institute (DRI), Graduate Faculty in Hydrologic Sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), and Affiliate Faculty at the Montana Climate Office of the University of Montana. As director of the Native Resilience program, she works with Tribes throughout Indian Country to enhance the resilience of Native agriculture. Her research portfolio also includes projects to quantify ecosystem and soil fluxes and enhance community preparedness to extreme weather events. Before moving west, Dr. McCarthy spent over twelve years in Washington, DC, leading national security research, intelligence, and policy programs for the Departments of Defense, Energy, and Homeland Security. She was a Lady Davis Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from the University of Colorado, and a B.Sc. in Chemistry from Boston College. She splits her time between Reno, NV and her ranch on the Flathead Reservation of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes in northwest Montana.