Herpel Joins Water Center Staff as Outreach Specialist

By Steve Ress

Rachael Herpel has joined UNL Water Center staff as a water education and outreach specialist.

"Rachael (Herpel) is well known throughout Nebraska, and nationally, for her 10 years of work as community programs director for the Lincoln-based Groundwater Foundation and we are very happy to have her bring her experience in water programming to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.” Said UNL Water Center director Kyle Hoagland.

At the Groundwater Foundation, Herpel directed projects focused on source water protection, septic system maintenance, water policy education, private wells, proper disposal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products, waterborne pathogens, and wellhead protection area management.

At the Water Center, she replaces Jessica Harder, who left UNL for a lobbying position in Des Moines, Ia. last Fall. Herpel will be working with Water Center student intern Kyle Jackson and other UNL colleagues to extend the Water Center’s educational and outreach efforts, particularly to those in state and local government, the state legislature, natural resources districts, state agencies, etc.

"With her wealth of experience at the Groundwater Foundation and professional credentials and interest in water and environmental issues, Rachael is an extremely good fit for the Water Center and for UNL’s water education and outreach efforts,” Hoagland said.

Herpel received a B.A. in Political Science and a Master’s degree in Community and Regional Planning from UNL, where she specialized in environmental planning and water quality issues and previously worked for the UNL Water Center. She also has worked for the Papio-Missouri River NRD, the Nebraska Natural Resource Conservation Service and UNL Extension’s Platte Watershed Program.

She is the author of Consensus Building: A Primer for Local Leaders and the Groundwater Foundation’s various Groundwater Guardian and source water protection publications. She edited Using Technology to Conduct a Contaminant Source Inventory: A Primer for Small Communities and most recently Protecting Our Water: A Primer for Preventing the Pathogenic Contamination of Drinking Water Sources.

Since 1999 she has facilitated over 100 source water protection workshops in 32 states.