Provost Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval announced on July 29 the appointment of Cordie Qualle, as the interim director of the California Water Institute, effective Aug. 1.

Mr. Qualle brings over 40 years of professional engineering and management experience in various aspects of Central California water. As full-time lecturer in the Civil and Geomatics Engineering Department in Fresno State’s Lyles College of Engineering, he also has many years of teaching, student mentoring and research experience.

As interim director of CWI, Mr. Qualle will focus on developing both internal and external collaborations to address some of the most challenging water issues of our region. Having begun his professional engineering career at the Fresno Metropolitan Flood Control District, Mr. Qualle entered into private consulting engineering with the firm of Lars Andersen & Associates, Inc. and later with the firm of Blair, Church & Flynn Consulting Engineers where he remained employed until 2017, when he became a full-time lecturer at Fresno State.

Over a span of 36 years at Blair, Church & Flynn Consulting Engineers, Mr. Qualle, worked on numerous water resources projects and became well versed in hydrologic and hydraulic modeling of watersheds, hydraulic modeling of structures and channels, flood control, drainage and wastewater management.

The California Water Institute was established in October 2000 with funding from Proposition 13, California’s water bond measure. Its goals include education, research and analysis of policy issues involving water resources, including water-quality issues and integrated regional water-management planning. The Institute has collaborated with other Fresno State institutes such as Center for Irrigation Technology (CIT), International Center for Water Technology (ICWT), and external agencies on many aspects of California water over the past 18 years.

The California Water Institute will be housed in the Lyles College of Engineering, which is also home to the Fresno State Transportation Institute and the Valley Industry Partnership for Cooperative Education.