Debra Perrone

Debra Perrone is an Associate Professor in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Her research integrates engineering, physical sciences, and legal frameworks to address water sustainability and policy challenges. She focuses on groundwater depletion, policy effectiveness, and environmental risks associated with water resource management. Prior to UCSB, she was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Woods Institute for the Environment). She earned her PhD in Environmental Engineering from Vanderbilt University in 2014, winning the Graduate School’s Founder’s Medalist award.

Her work bridges academic research and real-world applications, leveraging peer-reviewed journals, policy briefs, and interactive dashboards to disseminate findings. Notable achievements include the Hydrologic Sciences Early Career Award (2022) and an NSF CAREER Award (2023). She co-authored an undergraduate textbook on global water resources, emphasizing science and policy foundations.

Research interests span groundwater sustainability, climate impacts, stakeholder engagement, and equity in water management. Recent studies highlight rapid groundwater declines in arid regions, risks of orphaned oil wells, and strategies for aquifer recharge. Her NSF-funded projects address economic limits of groundwater use and sustainable governance frameworks.

Labs/Teams: Collaborates with interdisciplinary teams at UCSB and institutions like Stanford’s Water in the West initiative. Her research frequently involves policy analysis, field data collection, and computational modeling to address global water challenges.