Dr. Robert Gulley recently retired as the Executive Director of the Habitat Conservation Program at the Edwards Aquifer Authority. He is teaching a groundwater resources course at Texas State University and is a principal in Water Dispute Resolution LLC consulting on water/Endangered Species Act issues. He is also an editor with the Texas Water Journal.
Dr. Gulley mediated consensus-based decision-making process for the Edwards Aquifer Recovery Implementation Program. This program, involving 39 diverse stakeholder groups, reached consensus on a Habitat Conservation Plan regarding the use of the Edwards Aquifer that balanced the needs of the region for water with the needs of endangered species that were dependent on springflow from the aquifer. The agreement ended a half century of rancor and litigation over the use of the aquifer. Dr. Gulley has 25years experience as an environmental attorney in private practice and as a Senior Trial Attorney in the Wildlife and Marine Resources Section of the Department of Justice.
Dr. Gulley has a B.A. and J.D. from the University of Texas and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He taught in medical schools and worked as a scientist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
He is an author of over 35 scientific and six papers on legal and environmental issues and an upcoming book “Heads Above Water: The Real Story of the Edwards Aquifer Recovery Implementation Program” that will be published by Texas A&M Press.