Meet Dr. Mark Rains, New Member of FloridaWCA Steering Committee
The Florida Water & Climate Alliance is excited to welcome Dr. Mark Rains as a new member of its Steering Committee. As a member of the committee, Dr. Rains will assist the FloridaWCA with its mission of fostering partnerships to co-develop and share locally relevant and actionable climate science, data, and decision support that promote sustainability in the water sector. Dr. Rains serves as an ecohydrology professor at the University of South Florida and as the Chief Science Office of the State of Florida for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Dr. Rains earned his Ph.D. in Hydrologic Sciences, his Master of Science in Forestry, and his Bachelor of Arts in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution. His research is focused on two areas. One is hydrological controls on ecosystem structure and function in fresh, brackish, saline, and hypersaline aquatic ecosystems. Another focus is the role that science plays in informing water-related law, policy, and decision-making. Dr. Rains has experience in consensus building at the intersection of science and policy, and past and ongoing work includes providing the scientific justification underlying the definition of “waters of the US” subject to regulation under the Clean Water Act.
