Deborah Slawson, Ph.D., is a semi-retired Fluvial Geomorphologist most recently working with the French National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture in Antony, France, specializing in dam removals and stream channel restoration. Previously, she worked with several environmental engineering firms in the mid-Atlantic area. She received a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University in landscape ecology and a Masters degree from Johns Hopkins University in environmental engineering.  Historically, she has served on the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) Legacy Sediment Workgroup, the Maryland Stream Restoration Association Program Committee, the Canaan Valley Institute (Mid-Atlantic Stream Restoration Conference Science Steering Committee), the Virginia Stream Alliance, and the Keystone Stream Team in Pennsylvania. Since retirement, she has become a mediator with the Mediation Services of Adams County (PA) and is pursuing landscape art studies in stained glass and copper plate intaglio printmaking. Deborah became interested in the Gunpowder watershed while doing her doctoral dissertation field work on old dam sites in the Upper Gunpowder Falls and canoeing most of the Gunpowder River.