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Leadership Profile

Christopher Dunn, HEC Director

Mr. Dunn has been the Director of the Hydrologic Engineering Center (CEIWR-HEC) since May 2006. He leads a staff of 50, consisting primarily of hydrologic engineers, economists, and computer scientists, and oversees an annual budget of approximately $20 million. CEIWR-HEC's program focuses on hydrologic and hydraulic engineering, water management, and planning analysis encompassing research, software development, special projects, training and technology transfer, and technical assistance to USACE field offices, HQUSACE, and other agencies and nations.

The Center participates in a wide range of domestic, interagency, and international projects and activities including development of post wildfire hydrology and debris flow techniques; enhanced inundation mapping capabilities; technical assistance to Ecuador for the Rio Coca waterfall collapse; water management model development and support of the nationwide CWMS implementation; leadership of the Sustainable Rivers Program; collaboration with FEMA through the Future of Flood Risk Data initiative; implementation of Forecasted Informed Reservoir Operations, and training in numerous international locations such as Brazil, Korea, Panama, the Mekong, and India. HEC adjusted its internal business processes to utilize the DevOps practice of continuous integration/continuous deployment to improve the customer experience by providing better products faster while reducing stress to the HEC staff.

Previously, Mr. Dunn served five years as CEIWR-HEC's Chief of the Water Resource Systems Division leading the Center's development and application of Flood Damage Analysis, Ecosystem Restoration, and System Analysis software packages. Mr. Dunn served as project manager for CEIWR-HEC's work in support of CETAD on the Helmand Valley Water Management Plan for Afghanistan; and, in support of CEGRD as the team lead for data and water systems modeling for the Tigris and Euphrates River Basins in Iraq.

Mr. Dunn began his career with USACE at CEIWR-HEC as a Senior Hydraulic Engineer working on the Flood Impact Analysis (HEC-FIA) software and its incorporation into the Corps Water Management System (CWMS). Mr. Dunn also worked on the integration of HEC-FDA (Flood Damage Reduction Analysis) and HEC-FIA; and, served as CEIWR-HEC's Project Manager for the Center's role in the Sacramento/San Joaquin Comprehensive Study.

Prior to joining HEC, Mr. Dunn worked in the Federal sector for thirteen years as a Regional Hydraulic Engineer with DOT's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).  Mr. Dunn served as the Regional Hydraulic Engineer for FHWA's Pacific Northwest and Alaska region, specializing in urban hydrology, urban highway and bridge hydraulics, stream stability issues and erosion control; and, also participated in international training in Honduras and Argentina.

Mr. Dunn holds Bachelors and Masters of Science degrees in Civil Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University; is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Oregon; an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); and, is a Diplomate of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers (D.WRE). Mr. Dunn's technical specialties include: flood risk management and impact analysis; planning analysis; risk analysis, levee certification, river hydraulics, surface water hydrology, storm water management, urban drainage design; watershed analysis; IWRM; along with extensive teaching experience.

Photograph of Christopher Dunn, HEC Director

Christopher N. Dunn, P.E., D.WRE
Director
Hydrologic Engineering Center
Institute for Water Resources
Davis, CA

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