EP119: Reimagining Collaboration and the Conference Experience

Thank you to each and every one of you for joining us on this incredible podcast journey. This is not the end, just a branch in a new direction. Please stay tuned. There's more to come!

When was the last time you left a water conference session feeling moved by the dialogue and perspectives presented? Stephanie was fortunate to experience that rare conference high during both iterations of the Young Professional (YP) panel at UMC2021 in Atlanta and UMC2022 in Orlando. You can catch the summary in the April 2022 AWWA Journal article here. Stephanie was most impressed by the panel's ability to create a safe space where people felt comfortable enough to engage and have a genuine dialogue, even when there was disagreement.Join us in this discussion about rethinking the way we conference and the ways we have conversations around difficult issues. We also dive into the very real discomfort of stepping outside of your comfort zone. We talk about why its' important to do so and ways to lean into the discomfort. Meet Chelsea:Chelsea Boozer is the Government Affairs Manager at Central Arkansas Water and serves on AWWA’s Young Professionals Committee. She was named to Arkansas Business’s 2020 list of 20 in Their 20s and Arkansas Money and Politics included her on its 2021 Power Women list. She holds an Executive Master of Public Administration degree from Syracuse University, an undergraduate journalism degree from the University of Memphis, and a reporting certificate from the Johannes Gutenberg Universitat in Germany. Chelsea has been published in Opflow and Journal AWWA, and regularly speaks at national and regional water conferences about public engagement and workforce development as it relates to young professionals. As government affairs manager, Chelsea works with government, community, and wholesale partners and stakeholders on policy, economic development, and regionalism efforts.

Stephanie served as judge for the Environmental Policy Innovation Center's (EPIC) 2022 Water Data Prize. Submissions came form a diverse range of participants ranging from water utilities, to water tech companies, to professors and universities. Inventory, mapping, equity, and communications were the four award categories. The overall prize was awarded to the City of Newark, NJ and the engineer firm, CDM Smith.During this chat, Jessie (EPIC) shares an overview of the submissions and takeaways gleaned from the proposed solutions. Kareem (Newark) and Sandy (CMD Smith) then break down the winning project, their approach, and advice for other communities working towards meeting the requirements of the Lead and Copper rule updates. Meet the Guests:Jessie Mahr is the Director of Technology at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) where she focuses on the data gaps and capacity needs in environmental agencies that could speed up environmental progress. Prior to joining EPIC, she worked on climate change and environmental issues across sections in the US from engineering firms, technology companies, state agencies and non-profits. Jessie holds a Master of Science in Water Resource Engineering and Environmental Policy from Tufts University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from The University of Texas.Sandra Kutzing (Sandy) is a Professional Engineer and Vice President at CDM Smith in New Jersey with 20 years of experience in drinking water. Sandy is leading CDM Smith’s Lead in Drinking Water Practice with a focus in regulatory compliance, corrosion control optimization, distribution system water quality and developing and managing LSL replacement programs. When not thinking about lead, Sandy spends time traveling, spoiling her nieces and nephews, exercising, reading, and always learning.Director Kareem Adeem is a Newark native who began working for Newark in 1991 in the Department of Engineering and has moved up the ladder in his field. In 2013, Director Adeem was elevated to Superintendent of Maintenance Operations, where he oversaw daily maintenance operations of the Department of Water & Sewer Utilities. He earned a promotion to Assist Director in 2016 and Acting Director position in 2018. In addition Director Adeem is a member of Water Supply Advisory Council of New Jersey and NJ Task Force on Lead. Director Adeem is credited with rebuilding and rebrand Water & Sewer Utilities. By upgrading the water and sewer infrastructure, the City works to replace every lead service line, Upgrade to its water treatment plant, and the Long term control program (LTCP). He is a dedicated public servant who has and continues to give back to his native community.

Kathy made a post on LinkedIn that reminded us how absolutely necessary it is for the water sector to recognize the customer service staff in our utilities that have been walking side by side with our customers throughout a global pandemic. This episode is shout out to them and their stories. We all need a regular reminder of how important customer service reps are to utility work. Most importantly, we can learn from Kathy about how to support customer service reps while they take care of our customers. Check out her first appearance on the Water in Real Life podcast in EP046, "Innovating the Water Conservation Conversation."Meet Kathy:Kathy Nguyen graduated from Berry College with a BA in Speech/Communications and a Graduate Certification in Environmental Management from the University of Maryland. She has been with Cobb County Water System for since 2001. In 2004 she became the Water Efficiency Manager, where she developed, implemented and managed the Nationally recognized, award winning Water Efficiency Program until 2018. In 2009 she became the Senior Project Manager for Water Resources. She is currently the Customer Service Division Manager. Some of the most meaningful recognitions she has been fortunate enough to receive during her career are: the George Warren Fuller Award from the American Water Works Association for lifetime contribution to the Drinking Water Industry in Georgia, The Alliance for Water Efficiency’s Water Star Award for Career contribution to the field of water conservation, and Communicator of the Year for the Georgia Green Industry. She is a member of numerous professional organizations including AWWA, and the Georgia Association of Water Professionals, where she currently serves as Vice-President for the association. She is an active community volunteer with Good Mews a Non-profit no-kill cage free cat shelter. She lives with her patient husband and 5 demanding feline "children."

Karyn A. Riley, Esq. first splashed into the water sector 7 years ago after landing on the government relations team at WSSC Water. Since then, she has emerged as a key voice on the sector’s role in leveraging its widespread impact in community engagement and equitable economic development. Join us in this conversation that demonstrates the value communication and outreach brings to ALL utility staff and operations—not just communicators and communication initiatives.Top takeaways:How government often silos itself and the value of breaking down the barriers to collaboration.The balance required to operate with both a product-minded and service-minded business model as a water utility.Lessons learned from WSSC Water's public outreach efforts about their rates and affordability initiatives.Diversity, equity, and inclusion—what is the water industry doing well and where can it improve?Meet KarynKaryn A. Riley, Esq. had absolutely no clue about the water sector before landing with WSSC Water almost 7 years ago and has emerged as a key voice on the sector’s role in community engagement and equitable economic development.As a member of WSSC Water’s senior and executive leadership teams, Karyn develops and leads organizational strategy for stakeholder engagement and manages relationships with 200+ elected and government officials at the federal, state, and local levels. She guides the organization’s legislative and policy agenda, and as been responsible for legislation that expands affordability and transparency. WSSC Water’s “chief advocate”, Karyn represents the state’s largest water utility before industry, community, and business stakeholders and is recognized for her expertise in organizational leadership, engagement, strategic planning, and policy development.With her extensive background in economic, policy and program development, Karyn believes that water utilities are anchor institutions with widespread impact on public health, the economy, the environment, and social justice. With the unprecedented infusion of investment in the country’s infrastructure, Karyn knows that now is the time for all players in the sector to commit to using the funding to build not only the physical infrastructure of communities, but commit to building an equitable economic infrastructure as well - especially in underserved and underrepresented ones.A native Marylander, Karyn is a proud alumna of Hampton University, an HBCU, and holds a law degree from Syracuse University. Outside of her professional career, she is passionate about serving her community as a mentor and volunteer, and she loves dance.

Top Takeaways:The top three issues concerning state revolving funds.Data and its role in shaping policy around affordability and equity. Communication and how it can be a tool to ensure no one is left behind in infrastructure planning.Ways that the state revolving fund conversation is initiating change in other areas of the water sector. Resources for small to mid size communities to get assistance for funding. Resources:Katy Hansen, [email protected] Thomas, [email protected] For residents and community groups to discuss and take action on water, climate, and infrastructure: The Water Equity and Climate Resilience Caucus co-convened by PolicyLink and the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy.Anthropocene Alliance  For advocates and water utilities that want to know more about SRF programs SRF Advocates Forum co-convened by the Alliance for the Great Lakes, EPIC, PolicyLink, and the River Network.  Resource pages from River Network, including the Equitable Water Infrastructure Toolkit and State Revolving Fund ResourcesSouthwest Environmental Finance Center's SRF switchboardFor towns, cities, water utilities, and others interested in applying for SRF, reach out to technical assistance providers:EPIC's Funding NavigatorRCAPThe Drinking Water SRF report is here. Sign up for the SRF Forum here.Meet Katy and Tee!Dr. Katy Hansen works to improve equity in local public service provision. As a Senior Advisor for Water at EPIC, she focuses on the allocation of federal financial assistance for water infrastructure. Prior to EPIC, Katy worked at the Environmental Finance Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, Association for Water and Rural Development in South Africa, and Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in the Middle East. She led projects to digitize over 500 maps of

"What you don't do with us, you do to us." This is a truth Trina shared with us about how our customers feel when we don't communicate with them the purpose, intention, and value of the work we do. Top Takeaways:Tips on how to use the infrastructure bill as a conversation starter with the community.Humanizing how we communicate.Communication metrics.Tips on how to make the most of outsourcing communication work.and of course BRANDING!!Meet TrinaTrina is an award-winning public relations and marketing expert with nearly 30 years of experience developing and managing comprehensive communication campaigns across public and private sectors. Prior to joining HDR’s Strategic Communications practice in June 2018, she was Denver Water’s Director of Public Affairs – Communications & Marketing, where she led the agency’s renown traditional and social media, marketing, advertising, content journalism, organizational communications, and youth education programs.HDR brought her onboard to help their water clients across the country identify unique opportunities to inform and engage audiences, and spot potential social and political risks associated with their projects. Having spent 25 years in the trenches, Trina typically serves as a senior advisor to utilities’ communications teams.

Mae breaks down the details of the Infrastructure Bill specifically tailored to the water sector. We discuss actionable ways utilities can use this bill as a tool to open dialogues with all of their stakeholders including elected officials, advocacy groups, and customers. Check it out! Meet Mae: Mae Stevens is an Executive Vice President at Signal Group and the Chair of Signal Water. Mae provides strategic environmental and infrastructure policy expertise to a diverse range of corporate, municipal, and nonprofit clients. Most recently, she served as Environmental Policy Advisor to Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), winner of the 2020 US Water Prize. She handled the Senator’s responsibilities as the top Democrat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, including staffing the Senator during the crafting and passage of the FAST Act and the 2016 and 2018 Water Resources Development Act bills. During her seven-year tenure on Capitol Hill, Mae was responsible for the Senate Democrats’ response to the Flint water crisis, and focused most of her time on the intersection of water, equity, and affordability, and generally how to make cities and towns even better for the people who live and work there. She also spent nine years working with various nonprofit environmental organizations and think tanks. A sought-after public speaker, she has presented at the Democratic National Convention and her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Politico, Wonkblog, and Wired, and she was a featured guest on Fox Business News. Mae holds a master’s degree from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from The George Washington University.

Mike has been schooling us on the rules of design and creativity for six years. These rules set up every project for success by building clarity and bridging the gaps between a client's vision and the best design/creative solution to solve the actual problem. Mike's insight helps non creatives be better equipped and know what to expect when working together. He shares the "why" behind our process, our questions, and our relentless focus on the audience. Top Takeaways Good design is not all about making something pretty. Effective design solves a problem. Understanding the creative process sets up a project for success. Discovery, Discovery, Discovery. Don't get turned off or defensive during the process. The more information we glean from you, the more likely we will create a deliverable that meets your expectation. The creative rulebook helps remove some of the subjectivity of the craft by providing concrete purpose behind the artistic direction. Resources Check out Mike's blog about the rules about logo design. Meet Mike Mike Beitler is an artist with a passion for well-crafted, conceptually successful design. With nearly 20 years of work in the marketing and advertising industry, Mike produces brand strategy and artistic direction that grabs the attention of audiences. He is able to translate the complexity and technical language of water into visual pieces that demand attention.

As entrepreneurs, we've learned to listen to our intuition and when something feels right Arianne says she feels it in her bones. However, intuition and gut feelings shouldn't drive your communication strategy. Dr. Coy Callison heads the research lab at Texas Tech University's Communication Research Center where they run a variety of experiments to test the effectiveness of different communication assets. During our chat we discuss: The complexity of attitude formation, behavior, and memory-recall and you shouldn't just wing these things! The types of research Dr. Callison conducts and the data they glean. The dangers in simply mimicking the communication strategies that others are doing. Some of Dr. Callison's top takeaways from his research...one has to do with beer! The power of moral appeals to behavior change. Meet Coy: Dr. Coy Callison is a full professor and the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in the College of Media and Communications at Texas Tech University. His research typically focuses on source and message factors and their interaction with cognitive tendencies and saliency factors underlying the attentiveness of individual audience members. His academic research has appeared in Communication Research, Journal of Communication, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, and Media Psychology among others. He has worked professionally in newspaper, corporate and non-profit public relations, and media consulting in addition to his earning a Ph.D. in Communication and Information Sciences from the University of Alabama. In addition to having published more than 50 peer-reviewed research articles and given more than 70 peer-reviewed peer-reviewed presentations, his funded research projects have investigated strategic water conservation messaging and health communication.