About Gretel Follingstad

Gretel Follingstad

Senior Manager, Climate Resilient Water Systems

Contact

Remote Office

Work

Areas of expertise:

Climate resilience and risk management, adaptive management and watershed resilience, strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, water management and policy, land use and community resilience planning

Gretel Follingstad leads EDF’s efforts to advance climate resilience and water resources management in New Mexico. The New Mexico Water Program focuses on creating a statewide framework for local (aquifer basin-scale) groundwater management to safeguard the longevity of groundwater resources and best manage surface water and groundwater interaction. This work is particularly important for New Mexico’s First Nations, rural communities, surface water users, and ecosystems that depend on groundwater or groundwater-dependent rivers and streams.

As a fifth-generation New Mexican, Gretel is dedicated to broadening awareness and advancing education on water resources in New Mexico for policy and decision makers, funders and the residents of New Mexico, to safeguard water resources and resilient future for generations to come.

Background

Gretel joined EDF in 2025, bringing over 19 years of experience in water, land use and community resilience planning. As a versatile thought leader and early adopter of resilience thinking, Gretel’s professional praxis, scholarly research and publications focus on the necessity and urgency of an equitable approach to climate resilience planning. She has broad experience advancing collaborative water resource management and policy; risk assessment-based drought planning for mitigation and response; applications of environmental and social science research for hazards and disaster mitigation; modeling water, landcover/land use and remotely sensed data to inform strategic decision-making under uncertainty; and land-use solutions for growth management.

Education

  • Ph.D., Geography, Planning and Design, University of Colorado, Denver
  • M.S., Community and Regional Planning, University of New Mexico
  • Graduate Certificate in Science and Technology Policy, University of Colorado, Boulder
  • Bachelor of Business Administration in International Management and Latin American Studies, University of New Mexico

Publications

  • Lisonbee, J., Parker, B. Ford, T., Bocensky, RK., Fleishman, E., Follingstad, G., Frazier, AG., Hoylman, Z. (2025). Prioritization of Research on Drought Assessment in a Changing Climate. Earth’s Future. American Geophysical Union (AGU).
  • Lisonbee, J., Nielsen-Gammon, J., Trewin, B., Follingstad, G., & Parker, B. (2024). Drought Assessment in a Changing Climate: A Review of Climate Normals for Drought Indices. Journal of Applied and Service Climatology, 2024(001), 1-17. doi:10.46275/joasc.2024.05.001
  • Rumbach, A., Bierbrauer, A., & Follingstad, G. (2024). Are We Protecting Our History? A Municipal-Scale Analysis of Historic Preservation, Flood Hazards, and Planning. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 44(1), 88-101. doi:10.1177/0739456x20948592
  • Troy, A., B. Taylor, R., Follingstad, G., & Heris, M. P. (2024). The impact of urban tree shade on residential irrigation demand in a semi-arid Western US City. SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY, 100, 11 pages. doi:10.1016/j.scs.2023.105026
  • Stoker, P., Albrecht, T., Follingstad, G., & Carlson, E. (2022). Integrating Land Use Planning and Water Management in U.S. Cities: A Literature Review. JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 58(3), 321-335. doi:10.1111/1752-1688.13022
  • Follingstad, G., Troy, A. (2022). Water Demand Blueprints – A Novel Housing Typology for Urban Water Demand Forecasting in a Changing Climate. Submitted to Sustainable Cities and Society.
  • Follingstad, G. (2022). Modeling Future Residential Outdoor Water Demand in the US West. Land Lines Magazine. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
  • Rumbach, A., Follingstad, G. (2019). Urban disasters beyond the city: Environmental risk in India’s fast-growing towns and villages. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 34, 94-107. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2018.11.008