Votteler, Todd H.

Todd H. Votteler, Ph.D. is the Principal of Collaborative Water Resolution LLC, which is devoted to resolving water conflicts through mediation and strategic issue analysis. He is also a partner with Four Worlds, a Corvallis, OR based firm that provides on-the-ground mediation, facilitation and collaborative process design for parties engaged in disputes, and for those working to prevent them. Votteler is the Editor-in-Chief as well as a co-founder of both the Texas Water Journal and Texas+Water, and hosts the Talk+Water podcast. He is a Fellow of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University, a member of the Advisory Committee for the Permanent Forum of Binational Waters (Rio Grande/Rio Bravo del Norte water issues), and a lecturer at Texas State University.

In 1996, after serving as the Assistant to the Federal Court Monitor during the Sierra Club v. Babbitt, Votteler was appointed by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Lucius Bunton as the Federal Special Master for the Edwards Aquifer Endangered Species Act litigation, Sierra Club v. San Antonio. In 2013, he was part of group that received the Partners for Conservation Award from the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell for work resolving the Edwards Aquifer conflict. In 2016, he negotiated an agreement between The Aransas Project and GBRA resolving a conflict over surface water use and potential impacts to the endangered whooping crane.

In addition, Votteler was Executive Manager of Science, Intergovernmental Relations, and Policy at the Guadalupe–Blanco River Authority. He also served as the Chairman of the Guadalupe Basin Coalition. In addition, he was a Research Scientist in Washington, D.C. for the Battelle – Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Executive Director of the Guadalupe-Blanco River Trust, and Chairman of the Texas Land Trust Council.

Votteler was a co-trainer for the 2018 Fellows Program at The University of Texas at Austin School of Law’s Center for Public Policy Dispute Resolution. In 2018, he was a faculty member for the National Judicial College’s Dividing the Waters program for judges in Reno, Nevada. In 2018 and 2020 he was a co-trainer for the Water Conflict and Transformation Workshop at the AWRA Annual Conference. In 2019, Votteler lectured in China on transboundary water conflicts. Currently, he is completing a comprehensive study on the creation of new water markets and facilitating a groundwater stakeholder’s committee.

Votteler has a B.S. in Natural Resources from The University of the South, an M.S. in Natural Resources from The University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Geography from Texas State University. He also has a Udall Certificate in Environmental Collaboration from the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution.