Donald Wilhite

Dr. Donald A. Wilhite is a Professor of Applied Climate Science in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, U.S.A. Prior to August 2012, Dr. Wilhite served as director of the School of Natural Resources, a position he held from 2007 to 2012. Previously, Dr. Wilhite was the founding Director of the National Drought Mitigation Center in 1995 and the International Drought Information Center in 1989 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Recently elected a Fellow in the American Meteorological Society, his research and outreach activities have focused on issues of drought monitoring, planning, mitigation, and policy and the use of climate information in decision making. He chaired the International Organizing Committee for the High-level Meeting on National Drought Policy that was held in March 2013, sponsored by WMO, FAO, and UNCCD. Dr. Wilhite chairs the management and advisory committees of the Integrated Drought Management Program (IDMP), recently launched by WMO and the Global Water Partnership.

Dr. Wilhite has authored or co-authored more than 140 journal articles, monographs, book chapters, and technical reports. Dr. Wilhite is editor or co-editor of numerous books on drought and drought management, including Drought and Water Crises (CRC Press, 2005); From Disaster Response to Risk Management: Australia’s National Drought Policy (Springer, 2005); and Drought: A Global Assessment (Routledge, 2000). Dr. Wilhite is also the editor of a book series on Drought and Water Crises that is published by CRC Press, a subsidiary of Taylor and Francis Publishers.

Dr. Wilhite has been involved recently in the organization of regional capacity building workshops on national drought management policies under the auspices of several United Nations’ agencies, including WMO, FAO, UNCCD and UN-Water. These workshops were held in Eastern Europe and Latin America in 2013 and in Asia in May 2014. Additional workshops are planned for Africa—the first one for eastern and southern African countries in August 2014. At each of these workshops Dr. Wilhite serves as the keynote speaker and one of the facilitators. Dr. Wilhite recently prepared guidelines on the preparation of national drought management policies for the IDMP. He is also assisting Mexico and Brazil with the development of national drought programs and policies.