Kristen Averyt is the Associate Director for Science at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder. She was formerly the Director of the NOAA-funded Western Water Assessment, also based in Colorado. Kristen received her Ph.D. in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford University. She has earned several awards and honors, including a Fulbright Fellowship to New Zealand (1998), and a NOAA Congressional Fellowship (2005), during which she worked in the US Senate. She was a lead author on the recently released National Climate Assessment, and, as staff scientist for Working Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the 4th Assessment Report, she was one of the many scientists who receive the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Her current research focuses on the interplay between climate mitigation and adaptation, including the energy-water nexus.