Don Wilhite

Donald A. Wilhite’s research and outreach activities have focused on issues of drought monitoring, planning, mitigation, and policy; the use of climate information in decision-making; and climate change.

Wilhite served as director of the School of Natural Resources, from 2007 to 2012. He founded the National Drought Mitigation Center in 1995 and the International Drought Information Center in 1989 at UNL. In 2013, he was elected fellow of the American Meteorological Society in 2013 and chaired the International Organizing Committee for the High-level Meeting on National Drought Policy (HMNDP). He chairs the management and advisory committees of the Integrated Drought Management Program (IDMP).

In 2014, Wilhite authored National Drought Management Policy Guidelines: A Template for Action for the IDMP. He authored or coauthored more than 150 journal articles, monographs, book chapters, and technical reports. He is editor or coeditor of numerous books on drought and drought management, including Drought and Water Crises: Integrating Science, Management, and Policy, 2nd edition (CRC Press, 2018). He also coauthored two reports on the implications of climate change for Nebraska, published in 2014 and 2016, and coedited the Atlas of Nebraska (University of Nebraska Press, 2017).