Sandra Postel

Founding Director, Global Water Policy Project

Photo credit: Cheryl Zook/National Geographic

Sandra Postel is director of the Global Water Policy Project and the 2021 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate. For six years, she served as Freshwater Fellow of the National Geographic Society, where she spearheaded an initiative that has restored billions of gallons of water to depleted rivers and wetlands across North America.

Postel’s award-winning book, Last Oasis, appeared in eight languages and served as the basis for a public television documentary. She is the author most recently of Replenish: The Virtuous Cycle of Water and Prosperity.

Postel works to build a more water-secure world for people and nature. She has authored four books, written numerous articles for scholarly and popular publications, and appeared in the BBC’s Planet Earth, Leonardo DiCaprio’s The 11th Hour, and the National Geographic Channel’s Breakthrough series.

Postel has taught water policy courses at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, as well as at Mt. Holyoke College, where she also directed the Center for the Environment. She studied geology and political science at Wittenberg University and environmental management at Duke University. Postel is the recipient of four honorary doctor of science degrees.