Our Team

The OpenET Team

Staff

Chief Executive Officer, OpenET

slarsen@openetdata.org

Sara brings more than two decades of experience in water resources management, data sharing, and cross-jurisdictional collaboration to her role as OpenET’s CEO where she leads efforts to both refine and expand access to critical, field-level water data.

Larsen came to OpenET from dual leadership roles at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Internet of Water, a data modernization initiative through which she worked with a broad coalition to address technology and capacity barriers to water data sharing. 

From 2019 to 2024, Larsen served as Deputy Director and Chief Engineer for the Upper Colorado River Commission, where she managed multidisciplinary teams on crucial Colorado River Basin initiatives, including modeling, consumptive use estimation, water conservation program implementation, data infrastructure development, and more.

Her tenure at the Commission led to the four Upper Colorado River Basin states’ adoption of one of OpenET’s methods for the purpose of interstate water management. Her dedication to collaboration and innovation was instrumental in advancing the Commission’s goals of promoting partnerships, interstate cooperation, and the sustainable management of the Colorado River’s critical resources. Prior to the Commission, Larsen worked with the Western States Water Council to drive open water data-sharing initiatives across 17 states.

Larsen’s decade-long leadership on water data is built on an extensive foundation in civil engineering and water resource management. After early roles with the State of Utah and the Provo River Water Users Association, she earned a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering and Water Resources from the University of Utah. 

Sara is dedicated to expanding on OpenET’s mission to provide actionable water data that benefits agriculture, ecosystems, and communities. With her background she is poised to advance OpenET’s impact, helping water managers, farmers, and policymakers navigate the complex challenges of climate change and water scarcity in the West. 

Board of Directors

Brett Baker is the sixth generation of his family to live and grow up on Sutter Island (in the California Delta). He was raised on his family’s pear orchard and spent much of his youth working in production agriculture. 

He received his B.S. degree in Wildlife, Fish & Conservation Biology from UC Davis where he worked at the John Muir Institute of the Environment under his professor, Dr. Peter Moyle, doing field biology on mountain meadow systems throughout the Northern Sierras. From there, he moved onto the Heritage and Wild Trout program with the then California Department of Fish and Game and continued sampling systems throughout the Sierras and balance of the State. 

Brett was introduced to legislative policy making while working as an Agricultural and Water Policy analyst for then Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi. Following passage of the 2009 Delta Reform Act, he started Baker Advocacy & Consulting, Inc. and began assisting family, friends, and neighbors in complying with the newly mandated measuring, monitoring, and reporting regulations for diverters in the legal Delta. 

In 2019, Brett became a licensed member of the California State Bar, and currently practices Water Law in Stockton representing the Central Delta Water Agency and various other clients. He lives in Lodi, CA with his wife, three children, two horses, three cows, twelve chickens and a chihuahua named Billy. 

Joya (she/her) provides strategic counsel to social change leaders and organizations, with a particular focus on breaking down silos, building field capacity, and developing new partnerships. She currently serves as an advisor to a number of organizations working on water and the environment.  

Joya led the Environment Program at the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation where she developed a ten-year grantmaking portfolio designed to advance a more sustainable, equitable water system that can meet the needs of people and nature and adapt to the stressors of climate change. She also served as a Senior Fellow at the US Water Alliance and a Senior Fellow at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center.

Joya is a board member of River Network, the Center for Diversity and the Environment, and OpenET. Before her work in water, Joya was an attorney at Latham & Watkins and worked for the City of New York. Joya enjoys climbing trees and building driftwood forts with her two boys. 

As a board member for OpenET Inc., Maurice advises on the overall strategy and implementation of the project, with a focus on building support among agencies, policy makers and potential end users. He is also currently serving as interim Executive Director for the organization, and is responsible for leadership, management, and operations of OpenET Inc. Maurice is also the strategic advisor for EDF’s Climate Resilient Water Systems Team, and provides content support and guidance to EDF’s efforts to build more resilient water supplies for people and nature. He has more than 30 years of experience in water resources management and policy, with particular emphasis in agricultural water use and groundwater management. Maurice’s work has included consulting for urban and agricultural water agencies, serving in various water science and policy roles for global non-profit organizations, and serving as the water program lead for the Water Funder Initiative, a collaborative effort to identify and activate promising water solutions through strategic philanthropic investments in the U.S (PhD, Earth Resources, Watershed Sciences, Colorado State University; BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Tennessee Chattanooga; Professional Engineer (Civil), California).

Sarah Rountree Schlessinger is the CEO of Texas Water Foundation, a statewide nonpartisan nonprofit that works in water policy, workforce and leadership initiatives, and a statewide water campaign called Texas Runs on Water. She previously worked in groundwater policy and regulation, and has experience with international nonprofits and disaster response. Sarah currently serves as an appointed member of the Water Conservation Advisory Council and as a board member for Texas Water Trade.

 Luis is co-founder and general counsel at Tidelift, and serves on the boards of Creative Commons and the California Housing Defense Fund. Before starting Tidelift, he was in private practice, where he advised clients large and small on product development, open source licensing, and other tech-related legal matters. 

Luis is also an experienced open source community leader, with stints at non-profit technology organizations like Wikimedia and Mozilla, and on the boards of the Open Source Initiative and the GNOME Foundation. Before going into the law, he worked as a programmer and earned a computer science degree from Duke University.

As a board member for OpenET Inc., Yun provides scientific and technical guidance on the development and implementation of ET models, ensuring accuracy and reliability for diverse applications such as agricultural water management, water resources planning, and drought monitoring. She has been involved with OpenET since its inception and led the effort to integrate the ET models into the OpenET platform.

Yun is an Assistant Professor at Cornell University in the School of Integrative Plant Science. Her research focuses on monitoring plant water use and detecting vegetation stress through satellite remote sensing, machine learning, and cloud computing. 

In addition to her role with OpenET, Yun serves on the NASA ECOSTRESS science team and the NASA ACRES consortium. She is also the co-chair of the Land Product Validation (LPV) working group, an international initiative under the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) to promote the validation and intercomparison of global satellite ET products.