Postdoctoral Scholar
Dr. Kelley (née Drechsler) Moyer’s upbringing in the foothills of California’s Central Coast prepared her for a volatile climate dodging wildfires and adapting to drought, inspiring her path toward a career in climate-resilient water resources management. Kelley received her Ph.D. in Biological Systems Engineering in 2021 at UC Davis where she specialized in site-specific irrigation management strategies for almond orchards. Kelley worked at the USDA-ARS Water Management Research Unit in Parlier, CA as an agricultural engineer, specializing in irrigation management of perennial crops from 2020 to 2021. She is now a postdoctoral scholar at UC Merced where she is working on climate-resilient data-driven water accounting strategies for a secure water future. Kelley spends her free time acclimating to running in ever increasingly hot weather in the Central Valley, and exploring the precarious beauty of the Sierra Nevada through hiking.