SWT hires Sansom to direct water policy institute

SAN MARCOS, TEXAS — Andrew Sansom, the former executive director of Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPW), has been named to lead a new water resource policy institute at Southwest Texas State University.

Sansom will serve as executive director of SWT’s International Institute for Sustainable Water Resources. In that capacity, Sansom will help shape the role of the university in developing sound information and guidance for water resource policy and the management and sustainable use of water resources. The institute will also help raise public awareness of the importance of sustainable water resources.

“Many of us on the SWT campus share a vision that SWT will become one of the premier authorities in higher education on water issues. Andy Sansom will be instrumental in helping us achieve that vision,” said Robert Gratz, SWT vice president for academic affairs.

Sansom has more than 30 years of experience in dealing with water policy issues. He has served as special assistant to the secretary of the interior and as executive director of the Texas Nature Conservancy. He had served as executive director of TPW since 1990 before leaving that agency last August.

“This is a unique opportunity,” Sansom said of his appointment at SWT. “Conservation and education have always been very important issues for me. This is a chance to continue to pursue those interests in a new and challenging way.”

Public education has always been a priority for Sansom. During the 1990s, he was instrumental in the creation of Sea Center Texas in Lake Jackson and the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens. He was also a key participant in building the partnership between TPW and SWT, which is currently creating the Texas Rivers Center at San Marcos Springs, an effort that will combine research and public education regarding rivers, streams and estuaries in Texas.

Sansom is the author of two books in collaboration with photographer Wyman Meinzer, Texas Lost and Texas Past.

(Note to editors: Andrew Sansom is available for media interviews. Contact him at 512-245-2205. For an electronic image of Sansom, contact Mark Hendricks in SWT Media Relations and Publications at markh@swt.edu.)