Institute Leadership and Staff
Kansas Water Institute Staff
The Kansas Water Institute will be staffed by the existing Kansas Water Resources Institute staff members who are already deeply familiar with the institutional and agency partnerships necessary to advance its efforts.
Susan Metzger, director
Susan Metzger serves as director of the Kansas Water Institute, or KWI, and the Kansas Center for Agricultural Resources and the Environment, or KCARE. Susan is the director of strategic interdisciplinary program development for Kansas State University.
Susan has broad experience representing K-State and Kansas agriculture. Before her work at K-State, she was the deputy/assistant secretary of the Kansas Department of Agriculture, where she served the farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses of Kansas and assisted in the development and delivery of tools to grow the state’s agricultural economy. Prior to that, she was the chief of planning and policy for the Kansas Water Office, where she was the team leader in the development and implementation of the Long-Term Vision for the Future of Water Supply in Kansas.
Melissa Harvey, marketing and communications coordinator
Melissa Harvey joined K-State as a marketing and communications specialist in 2017. She is responsible for developing materials for print and online publication, and working with faculty and staff to write any other articles for publication. She also works with the Kansas Center for Agricultural Resources and the Environment (KCARE) as a communications specialist. Prior to working at K-State, she has worked as a writer and communications coordinator at the University of California, Davis, as well as a consulting science writer and editor at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya. Melissa received her bachelor's degree in English from Washington and Lee University in Virginia.