Pat Mulroy has announced her next move, and it’s not in real estate development or politics, as her career trajectory led some to predict. The former general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority has accepted a dual role with UNLV’s Brookings Mountain West, where she’ll spend 60 percent of her time, and the Desert Research Institute, where she’ll spend the other 40 percent.
Mulroy will concentrate on water policy development and research, an area in which she gained deep expertise during her quarter-century at the Water Authority. Both DRI and UNLV are partners in a Governor’s Office of Economic Development project to create a Nevada Center of Excellence in hydrologic sciences. At DRI, Mulroy will hold the Maki Distinguished Faculty Associate position, leading a water resources and technology program, which will feed into the Center of Excellence. At Brookings Mountain West, she'll be a senior fellow for climate adaptation and environmental policy, focusing on challenges that the Southwest U.S. is facing. She'll also be a senior fellow in Brookings' Washington, D.C.-based Metropolitan Policy Program, contributing her expertise to national policy-making.