CRB Celebrates Retirement of Executive Director Chris Harris

Photo of CRB Executive Director Chris Harris, surrounded by colleagues.

At its August 14 meeting, the Colorado River Board celebrated the career and retirement of CRB Executive Director Chris Harris. Chris will be retiring at the end of August after more than 24 years with the Board and a 40-year career in the Colorado River Basin.

Chris joined the Colorado River Board as Environmental Program Manager in 2000, after 14 years with the Arizona Department of Water Resources. During his time with the Board, Chris served as Deputy Director, Acting Executive Director, and, since 2017, Executive Director. Among Chris’s many contributions to the Colorado River Basin, he was instrumental to the completion of the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program in 2005, a unique fifty-year federal/non-federal partnership to conserve endangered species and create habitat along the Lower Colorado River. Chris also spearheaded California’s plan to create 400,000 acre-feet of conserved water annually from 2023-2026, which was a foundational to the Lower Basin Plan finalized this April.

Photo of CRB Executive Director Chris Harris, surrounded by CRB staff. — Colorado River Board staff members (left to right) David Rheinheimer, Shana Rapoport, Angela Rashid, Chris Harris, Jessica Neuwerth, Yuanyuan Myint, and Brian Alvarez.

At the August meeting, the Board named Deputy Director Jessica Neuwerth as the Acting Executive Director while the Board begins its search for a new Executive Director.