Benjamin Grumbles (Moderator) is president of the Clean Water America Alliance, a not-for-profit educational organization based in Washington, D.C., committed to uniting people and policies for water sustainability throughout the country. He has a long career in water and environmental policy, serving the public and teaching law students and environmental professionals over the last 25 years. Most recently, he led Arizona's Department of Environmental Quality working on air quality and climate change, energy policy and waste management, water efficiency, and wastewater recycling. Regional priorities included protecting the Grand Canyon, Colorado River, and Arizona-Mexico border environment. Ben served as assistant administrator for water at the U.S. EPA from 2003 through 2008, where he was known for using collaboration, innovation, and technology to improve environmental performance and reduce costs. He launched EPA's water efficiency labeling program, WaterSense, and initiatives on green infrastructure, water and climate change, and pharmaceuticals. He carried out and defended the nation's clean water, drinking water, ocean and coastal, and wetlands laws and worked on great waterbody collaborations from coast to coast. From 1985 to 2001, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives in various environmental counsel and staff director roles for the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and Science Committee. Ben serves on the Board of River of Words, a national nonprofit committed to connecting kids to their watersheds and imaginations through poetry and art. He also sits on the nominating committee of the Stockholm World Water Prize founded by the Stockholm Water Foundation.

Michael G. Baker has worked at Ohio EPA for nearly 26 years and has served as chief of the Division of Drinking and Ground Waters at the Ohio EPA for twelve years. He is responsible for administering the State of Ohio’s Public Water Supply Supervision Program, Water and Wastewater Operator Certification Program, Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Program, Source Water Protection Program, Ground Water Characterization and Protection Programs, and Class 1 and 5 Underground Injection Control Programs. He is an active member of the Ground Water Protection Council and the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators, having served as president of both associations, and is a current GWPC Board member. Mike also served two terms on U.S.EPA’s National Drinking Water Advisory Council.

Stephanie Meadows is senior policy advisor in the Upstream Department of the American Petroleum Institute (API), a national trade association representing over 480 companies involved in all aspects of the oil and natural gas industry. Stephanie currently manages and coordinates API’s upstream environmental advocacy activities. In this role she focuses on the impact of federal and state regulations and legislation on operations; the development of industry standards and best practices; and cultivating strong relationships with other aligned industries, associations, and government. Stephanie joined API in March of 1987 and has gained extensive industry experience in several different roles within the organization. She received her Bachelor of Science from Bowling Green State University and completed her graduate studies in marine affairs at the University of Virginia.

Patrick O’Toole is a rancher and farmer on Ladder Livestock, which is a sixth-generation family operation along the Little Snake River at the Wyoming-Colorado border. It is a public lands ranch, meaning that it utilizes private land, private leases, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Colorado/Wyoming state leases. The family raises livestock, and they also raise the hay and alfalfa that sustains their livestock through the winter months. The operation depends on 150 mile (each way) trailing of their livestock to and from summer/winter ranges. Patrick was a Kellogg LEAD fellow, served on the Western Water Policy Commission, and was a congressman in the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1986-1992 on the Select Water Committee. He was appointed by President Clinton to the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Committee, which studied Western water issues from 1995 to 1998. Currently, he serves as president of the Family Farm Alliance, an organization dedicated to ensuring the availability of reliable, affordable irrigation water supplies to farmers and ranches in 17 Western states.

Mike Paque has served as the Executive Director of the Ground Water Protection Council since its formation in 1983. During that time he has served on numerous USEPA and USDOE task forces, work groups, FACA's on a variety of issues relating to ground water protection, underground injection, carbon dioxide geo sequestration, Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments, and numerous rule makings. Over the past three years he has appeared before more than a dozen House and Senate committees on topics related to hydraulic fracturing.

Richard Simmers was appointed chief of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management in November 2011. Richard is responsible for enforcing Ohio’s laws related to oil and gas drilling, production, plugging, orphan wells, solution mining, enhanced recovery, gas storage and underground injection control operations. The division employs about 70 employees, nearly half are field inspectors. An ODNR career employee of 26 years, Richard began working for the Oil and Gas Program in 1985 as a staff geologist and ground water investigator. In 1987, he was promoted to Northeast Ohio enforcement administrator for 19 counties. From 1994 to 1996, Simmers also served as acting Chief for the Division of Oil and Gas. When the division merged with the reclamation program to become the Division of Mineral Resources Management in 2000, Richard assumed responsibility for supervising all field enforcement activities across the state. Richard earned both a master’s of science degree and bachelor's degree in geology from the University of Akron. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Akron. Currently serving as Ohio’s representative to the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, Richard also has served on the Ground Water Protection Council.