Vianey Rueda

Vianey grew up in San Elizario, Texas, a small city in the lower valley of El Paso. Before starting her first year at the University of Michigan as a PhD student, Vianey worked for the City of Boerne, Texas as the city’s Data Architect, where her task included managing the city’s water data and building a water dashboard to be used for decision-makers. Vianey first became interested in water concerns, specifically the role of science and policy in water management, through her work on the family farm and her proximity to the Rio Grande. She grew increasingly more concerned as she saw the section of the Rio Grande that passes through El Paso go dry (as it remains today) and as the livelihood of many farmers became threatened by a scarce resource and a changing climate. Vianey aspires to have a career in policy, either through advising or a political career of her own.

Vianey’s current research is focused on the 1944 Water Treaty between the United States and Mexico and using an interdisciplinary lens to finding alternative water delivery mechanisms for the Rio Grande that reduce treaty non-compliance and protect community needs in the face of increasing basin variability. Her interdisciplinary approach is to combine socio-economic, hydrologic modeling, and a legal/political analysis in order to uncover holistic solutions. An important component of her research is the continued interaction with communities of the Texas-Mexico border and the co-production of knowledge.