MEREDITH GIORDANO

Principal Researcher

IWMI Headquarters - Sri Lanka

Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Meredith Giordano is a broadly trained development expert with an academic background in water resources geography, international relations and financial management. During her 10 year tenure at IWMI, she has been responsible for the overall planning and quality of the institute's research outputs and overseeing and carrying out studies related to IWMI's impact assessment program. For the past four years, Meredith has served as the co-project leader of a US$9 million collaborative research and outreach project to stimulate and support promising agricultural water management solutions in sub-Saharan African and South Asia through concrete, evidence-based knowledge and decision-making tools.

In addition to these research management functions, Meredith has contributed to the institute's research on smallholder agricultural water management and transboundary water management and has conducted analyses of transboundary hydropolitics at the global scale and in the context of the Middle East, South Asia, and Southern Africa. She has also analyzed issues of water quality and resource allocation in international basin accords. The results of her research have been published in such outlets as the Geographic Journal, Natural Resources Journal, and Water Resources Research. Complementing her management and research functions, Meredith has been active in IWMI's capacity building activities through her role as a mentor in the Institute's Gender and Diversity Program and innovative Leadership Development Program.

Meredith holds a doctorate degree in Geography from the University of Oregon and a Master's Degree in International Relations from the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University in the USA. Prior to joining IWMI, Meredith served as a university instructor of regional and human geography at Oregon State University, as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development, and as an auditor with Arthur Andersen & Co. Meredith's academic and professional work have given her substantial international experience including time living and working in China, Eastern Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Southern Africa.