DRBC Deputy Executive Director Kristen Bowman Kavanagh, P.E. Click for larger image.

Kristen Bowman Kavanagh, P.E., is the fifth Executive Director of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), a federal-interstate agency created in 1961 by compact legislation signed into law by President Kennedy and the governors of the four basin states with land draining to the Delaware River. As the Executive Director, she develops and implements plans, policies and projects adopted by the five-member Commission relating to the water resources of the Delaware River Basin. This includes formulating, reviewing, analyzing and evaluating program objectives, policies and operations based on the Delaware River Basin Compact and the DRBC Comprehensive Plan.

Kristen previously served five years as the DRBC's Deputy Executive Director. During this time, she led the Commission's team of scientists, engineers and planners in implementing the annual Water Resources Program, focusing on issues ranging from characterizing microplastics in the Delaware River, modeling dissolved oxygen in the urban Delaware River Estuary to creating tools for estimating extreme weather in the Delaware River Basin. She also served as staff liaison to the DRBC's Advisory Committee on Climate Change.

Prior to joining the Commission in 2019, she served as President and Principal Engineer at Flow Science Incorporated, where she led business operations and development. Kristen also held significant technical roles in hydrodynamic and water quality modeling studies of lakes and reservoirs, rivers and coastal ocean areas for use in adaptive management plans, spill response plans and long-term planning and operations.

Throughout her 30 years of leadership in water resource management and engineering, Kristen has worked with a broad array of public agencies as well as diverse stakeholders representing watershed organizations, water users, industrial, construction and engineering companies, water and wastewater utilities and academic and research institutions.

She is the current Interstates Representative on the board of directors of the Association of Clean Water Administrators, a Past-Chair of the Southeast District Pennsylvania American Water Works Association and a former President of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Kristen holds a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering: Environmental and Water Resources and an M.S. degree in Civil Engineering: Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology, both from Stanford University. She is a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and eight other states.

  • View News Release announcing Kavanagh's appointment to Executive Director (issued September 5, 2024)

  • View News Release announcing Kavanagh's appointment as Deputy Executive Director (issued October 7, 2019)