Colleen Haraden

Colleen Haraden is Balance’s Chief Operating Officer and Marketing Director she brings over 33 years’ experience in the geosciences, with a focus on water resources, environmental and public works fields. Colleen marries her passion for human connections, water resources, research, and art in her role at Balance. You can find her scrolling through historical images imagining early California, getting to know folks from a local watershed council, or strategizing with colleagues on how best to address a client’s needs. Throughout her career, Colleen has been involved in a broad spectrum of projects throughout the Western United States and Hawaii from regional groundwater studies to project management of technically rich projects such as the development of web applications and web portals for public outreach and program management, and GIS for analysis and presentation-ready graphics, she heartily jumps into project work or mentors staff in project management and client services. Colleen also supports our clients with Emergency Action Plans for dam failure planning and grant applications and strategies, she has prepared grant applications, assisted agencies with grant management (Prop 1, 50 and 84), and managed grant-funded projects. When she is not in the office, most likely she’s creating art or on or in the water – either swimming or stand-up paddleboarding in San Francisco and Tomales Bays. In 2024, Colleen achieved a personal milestone by completing a solo swim around Coronado Island (yes, she knows it’s not an island) in San Diego, covering approximately 12 miles. Colleen’s other job is working for the river otters, she is pleased to volunteer for the River Otter Ecology Project as a volunteer and Board member. Take a minute to visit some of her friends at https://riverotterecology.org/.