Sandra Postel, a leading authority on freshwater issues, is director of the Global Water Policy Project in Amherst, Massachusetts. From 1988 until 1994, she served as vice president for research at the Worldwatch Institute with which she remains affiliated as a Senior Fellow. Sandra is also visiting senior lecturer in Environmental Studies at Mount Holyoke College. In November 2002, she was named one of the “Scientific American 50” by Scientific American magazine, a new award recognizing contributions to science and technology. She was also named a Pew Fellow in Conservation and the Environment in 1995.

Sandra is an advisor to the Division on Earth and Life Studies of the National Research Council, and has served on the Board of Directors of the International Water Resources Association and the World Future Society, as a council member of the UK-based Forum for the Future, and as an advisor to the Environmental Media Association, the Environmental Leadership Program, and the Global 2000 program founded by President Jimmy Carter. During 1994-96, Sandra was adjunct professor of International Environmental Policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She has served as consultant to the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank, and a number of U.S. agencies. She has also served on several editorial boards, including those of Ecosystems, Water Policy, and Green Futures.

Sandra has published extensively in both popular and scholarly publications, including Science, Natural History, Scientific American, Foreign Policy, BioScience, Ecological Applications, Technology Review, Environmental Science and Technology, International Wildlife, and Water International. Her article, "Troubled Waters," written for The Sciences, was selected for the 2001 edition of Best American Science and Nature Writing (Houghton-Mifflin).

Sandra studied geology and political science at Wittenberg University and resource economics and policy at Duke University. She has been awarded the Duke University School of Environment's Distinguished Alumni Award, a lifetime chair with the International Water Academy in Oslo, Norway, as well as an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.