Ann Hayden is associate vice president of Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Resilient Water Systems Program and oversees strategy development and implementation of sustainable water management approaches across the arid U.S, including California and the Colorado River Basin. 

She focuses on advancing incentive-based approaches that ensure adequate water for ecosystems, improve agriculture’s resilience to climate change and address the water needs of disadvantaged communities. She leads EDF’s initiatives to help the agricultural sector transition to a future with less water in ways that minimize economic impacts, while taking into account the needs of disadvantaged communities and ecosystems. By fostering relationships with state and federal agencies, nonprofit partners, landowners, local stakeholders and the private sector, Hayden has developed an inclusive approach to resource management that considers a wide array of perspectives and disciplines. 

For more than two decades, she has built broad coalitions to advance pragmatic solutions that benefit both people and the environment. She is board chair of the San Francisco Estuary Institute and a board director of Restore Hetch Hetchy.  She received a B.A. in Marine Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a M.A. of Environmental Science and Management from University of California, Santa Barbara.

She joined the Water Education Foundation’s Board of Directors in 2023.