Kimberly Musser

B.A. University of California, Berkeley (Geography) 1990
M.A. University of Oregon (Community & Regional Planning, Environmental Planning) 1996

Kimberly Musser is committed to enhancing the public’s understanding of and connection with water resources in the region. She enjoys the challenge of taking complex technical and scientific information and making it understandable to broader audiences to help inform planning and decision making.

Kim started her natural resource career as an environmental planner and worked for over a decade as a regional planner in Oregon and California. Kim taught a wide variety of courses at Minnesota State University in the Geography and Urban and Regional Studies Departments before joining the Water Resources Center in 2001. At the Water Resources Center Kim primarily focuses on planning, outreach, and civic engagement. Kim collaborates with WRC staff, students and conservation partners to distil and disseminate watershed data in engaging manner.

She has coordinated a wide variety of watershed projects, working with teams to distil and disseminate information via reports (Minnesota River Basin Trends Report, State of the Minnesota River Water Quality Monitoring Reports) and through development of informational websites (Minnesota River Basin Data Center, Minnesota Nutrient Planning Portal, Ask an Expert about the Minnesota River. In order to share stories, depict landscape change and watershed dynamics, she has also created many videos (Ask an Expert about the Minnesota River) and interactive graphics.

Musser has a long history of working with citizens and local conservation partners to support locally-led watershed planning efforts (Le Sueur River Watershed Network, Watonwan Civic Engagement Project, Cannon River Trends Report, East Fork Des Moines River Watershed). In order to share information regionally, the WRC regularly works with partners to host large informational meetings (Minnesota River Water Storage Forum, Minnesota River Basin Ag-Urban Partnership Forum).

Kimberly is increasingly driven to better understand the human and social dimension of watershed work supporting partnerships that promote local decision-making and action. She has been trained in the Art of Hosting, Civic Governance, and helped to coordinate the Southwest Minnesota Civic Engagement Cohort on Water Quality.

She serves on the board of the Friends of Minneopa State Park, Friends of the Minnesota Valley, Minnesota River Congress and Minnesota’s Drainage Management Team.