Jeff Haozous is a founding board member of Ndé Bikéeya, the Chiricahua Apache Land Trust, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to helping the Chiricahua Apache return to their homeland. He is the great-great-grandson of Chiricahua Apache Chief Mangas Coloradas, the great-great-nephew of Chiricahua Apache Chief Cochise, and a member of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, whose ancestors were removed from the area in the 1800s. Jeff served as the chairman of his tribe in Oklahoma from 2002 to 2018, and in 2021, he moved to the Cochise Stronghold. He enjoys connecting with the land and is currently working on a memoir in his free time.

John Graffio is currently building an experimental research farm in Arizona featuring nopal cactus (opuntia ficus indica) and other arid crops in order to demonstrate that low water use crops can feed both people and livestock. Graffio has a background in systems management and software development, having created a produce packing system for packing houses and a search engine oriented to local businesses. Agriculture has always been his first love since childhood.

Jonah Ivy is a holistic land steward, focused on the installation, maintenance, and education of both water harvesting and arboriculture. Based out of Tucson, he started Transforming Terrain LLC, a regional dual-licensed contracting business. Jonah has experience installing active and passive water harvesting systems in both urban and rural settings, and will be focusing this talk on how to apply the two forms of water harvesting in the context of water and food security.

With a degree in Hydrology from the University of Arizona (1974) and a Masters in Civil Engineering from the Ohio State (1975) Kristine Uhlman, RG, is retired from the University of Arizona, Water Resources Research Center. Ms. Uhlman started her career with the United States Geological Survey and then worked with various consulting firms throughout the United States and internationally. Her work at the University of Arizona included a state-wide educational outreach program on water resources and watershed planning. Under a grant with the Arizona Department of Environment, she and her team modeled every watershed in the state of Arizona and published a series of watershed planning documents. With the University she also published the Arizona Well Owner’s Guide to Water Supply. Ms. Uhlman has extensive experience in groundwater resource management and protection, including projects in Willcox Basin aquifer quantifying groundwater recharge. Ms. Uhlman is a frequent speaker to the public, local and state government, and scientific conferences on groundwater quality issues and tools/information necessary to improve groundwater resource management.

Over the past five years Steve has been actively involved in efforts to protect the groundwater of the Sulphur Springs Valley including actively supporting the 2022 voter referendum to establish an Active Management Area (AMA) for the Willcox and Douglas Basins, campaigning for legislation to address rural groundwater management, and coordinating with the Governor’s Water Policy office to initiate the designation process for the recently established Willcox AMA. Steve is a member of Sulphur Springs Water Alliance and the statewide Rural Water Working Group. He has been a resident of Arizona for nearly 60 years and property owner in the Pearce Sunsites area for 27 years. 

Christian Sawyer is a local journalist, water policy researcher, and community volunteer. He’s lived in Douglas since 2020. You can read his coverage of Cochise County at GroundParty.beehiiv.com.

Alex is the Water Wise Youth Coordinator, Community Outreach, at the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension. Alex is a graduate of the University of Arizona who believes that our kids can make a big difference in the world, especially when it comes to our cultural attitude toward water. She has two kids of her own, on whom she tests many of her WaterWise Youth lessons. She lives in Sierra Vista and is excited to get into classrooms again now that some pandemic restrictions have been lifted.