Kristen Bowman Kavanagh, P.E. is the Deputy 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. The Deputy Executive Director is responsible for the technical and managerial programs to develop and effectuate plans, policies and projects relating to the water resources of the Delaware River Basin.

Bowman Kavanagh brings over 25 years of experience in water resource modeling and engineering to the DRBC. Prior to assuming the duties of Deputy Executive Director, Kristen served as the President and Principal Engineer at Flow Science Incorporated, where she was responsible for company-wide operations management, business development, risk management and strategic planning. She led the Hydraulic and Transient Analysis group in the evaluation of raw, potable, recycled and wastewater pump station and pipeline systems throughout the U.S. She also assumed significant roles in hydrodynamic and water quality modeling studies to evaluate the fate of discharges into lakes and reservoirs, rivers and coastal ocean areas.

Bowman Kavanagh has developed calibrated water quality models for most of the major raw water reservoirs in southern California, developed coupled models of three in-stream reservoirs along the Lower Colorado River and evaluated the effects on receiving water quality of changes to once-through-cooling (OTC) operations at coastal generating stations. The results of these efforts have been used to inform adaptive management plans, spill response plans and long-term planning and operations. These studies have also included the investigation of strategies for controlling invasive quagga mussels, conceptual design of oxygenation and destratification systems to increase dissolved oxygen concentrations and evaluation of the effects of climate change on receiving water quality. She also recently led a successful effort to demonstrate compliance of a wastewater discharge to a tidally-influenced river with the requirements of a thermal plan exception. Prior to her role at Flow Science, Bowman Kavanagh worked for Woodward-Clyde Consultants (now AECOM) in Southern California. She developed stormwater management plans for NPDES permitting on behalf of counties, cities and flood control districts, as well as for industrial clients in the energy and transportation markets.

Bowman Kavanagh’s leadership in the water/wastewater industry has provided her with decades of experience working with diverse people including senior management executives, project managers, engineers, scientists and operators at public agencies, private corporations, construction firms and engineering consulting firms. She is the immediate Past-Chair of the Southeast District Pennsylvania American Water Works Association, a former President of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a member of the North American Lake Management Society.

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 in Palo Alto, CA. She is a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and ten other states. Kristen has been a resident of Philadelphia for over 20 years.

View News Release (October 7, 2019)