Mateo Scoggins has worked in stream ecology for the City of Austin Watershed Protection Department for over 20 years. He helped develop a robust biological monitoring program and has focused the latter part of his career on solutions to water quality problems in central Texas streams, including a ban on coal tar sealants and a riparian restoration program. Mateo grew up in California, attending the University of California at San Diego and then joined the Peace Corps in Honduras before moving to Austin, Texas in 1992. He has an MS in Aquatic Biology from Texas State and is a certified senior ecologist with the Ecological Society of America.