PFAS Summit
Speakers
Julia Anastasio
Executive Director and General Counsel, Association of Clean Water Administrators
Anastasio joined the Association of Clean Water Administrators in May 2014 as the Executive Director and General Counsel. ACWA is an independent, nonpartisan national organization of state and interstate water program managers, who daily implement the water quality programs of the federal Clean Water Act. At ACWA, Anastasio focuses on working with state water program directors and EPA’s Office of Water to ensure that the states have the flexibility and resources they need to implement the Clean Water Act in their home states. Anastasio has over two decades of experience in government, administrative and environmental law, and federal policy development. She began her career with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection as an Executive Policy Specialist and returned to Washington, DC in 2005 to work for the America Public Works Association (APWA). While at APWA, she focused on environmental, sustainability, and infrastructure development at the local, state, and federal levels. Ms. Anastasio earned her B.A. from Franklin Marshall College, her master’s in environmental law and policy from Vermont Law School, and her J.D. from American University.
Francis Boodoo
Director of Applied Technologies, Purolite Corporation
Boodoo is the Global Director of Innovation at Purolite, an Ecolab Company. He is the holder of a bachelor’s in chemical engineering and a master’s in business administration. He has over 35 years of expertise in the remediation of potable and groundwater, using ion exchange resin and adsorbent technologies for select removal of contaminants such as perchlorate, nitrate, arsenic, chromium, and uranium. His experience with poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) includes the development, testing, modeling, process design and operation of highly selective ion exchange resins for reducing PFAS in water to non-detectable levels. Mr. Boodoo is the holder of four water treatment related patents, provides technical training to the company’s salesforce, and leads the company’s efforts in developing high value sustainable ion exchange solutions in the air, water, and wastewater sectors.
Sandeep Burman
Manager, Drinking Water Protection, Minnesota Department of Health
Burman has worked in leadership roles on multiple aspects of investigating and remediating the environmental and public health impacts of contaminants of emerging concern (CEC), including PFAS, for over a decade. Since November 2018, he has served as the State Drinking Water Administrator for Minnesota, a position that resides in the Minnesota Department of Health. He leads Minnesota’s Drinking Water Program, which has the primacy for administration of the Safe Drinking Water Act in the State. In this role, he is responsible for oversight of the State’s efforts to address all known CEC impacts in public water supplies, as well as a major effort to assess the statewide occurrence of PFAS in drinking water. He is a member of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA) and serves on the Association’s PFAS Workgroup. In that capacity he participated in the development of two key ASDWA resources on CEC and PFAS, “State CEC Rule Development and Management Toolkit”, and “PFAS Source Water Guide and Toolkit.” From 2013 to 2018, Mr. Burman was the Manager of the Superfund Program in Minnesota, located in the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. He led the investigation and cleanup of PFAS-contaminated sites across the state, including the regional contamination in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (ASTSWMO) and the Association’s PFAS Workgroup. Sandeep was the ASTSWMO representative at the USEPA National Leadership Summit on PFAS in May 2018. In September 2018, he testified on behalf of ASTSWMO at the US House of Representatives hearing on “Perfluorinated Chemicals in the Environment: An Update on the Response to Contamination and Challenges Presented”. He also served as one of the founding Co-Chairs of the Environmental Commission of the States (ECOS) PFAS Caucus and was involved in the development of the ECOS White Paper: “Processes and Considerations for Setting State PFAS Standards.” In November 2021, he was appointed to the US EPA Science Advisory Board PFAS Panel, charged with supporting EPA’s National Primary Drinking Water rulemaking for PFAS.
Burman holds a master’s degree in hydrogeology with a minor in civil engineering from the University of Minnesota, and a master’s degree in applied geology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India. He is a licensed professional geoscientist in Minnesota.
Daniel Cho
CEO and Founder, Onvector
Cho is CEO and founder of Onvector. He has more than 15 years of experience in the development of emerging growth technologies in cleantech and nonchemical water treatment. A graduate of Harvard University, Cho is the inventor of the company’s proprietary Plasma Vortex technology. He has established Onvector’s go-to-market strategy, key partnerships with PFAS separation companies, and early traction with initial PFAS remediation customers, including the U.S. Air Force. He is the inventor of six of Onvector’s patents.
Chris Crockett
Chief Environmental Officer, Aqua America
Crockett has nearly 30 years of experience in the water, stormwater, and wastewater industry. Crockett is responsible for environmental compliance, safety, and sustainability covering 10 states, 1500 drinking water systems, and 186 wastewater systems for Aqua America and for Peoples Natural Gas under Essential Utilities. One responsibility is leading the Essential efforts to identify and address PFAS including its laboratory that analyzes thousands of PFAS samples annually. In addition, he leads Lead and Copper Rule compliance. Crockett is a recognized expert on environmental issues having served on various state task forces and industry committees. Crockett was formerly the Deputy Commissioner of the Philadelphia Water Department where he led many groundbreaking programs in infrastructure and water quality including his award-winning sourcewater protection program, Green Cities Clean Waters, and the creation of Philly Rivercast. Chris received a BS in Civil Engineering (’93), an MS in Environmental Engineering (’95), and a PhD in Environmental Engineering (’2004), all from Drexel University. Crockett is a professional licensed civil engineer in PA. Crockett is the winner 2019 George Warren Fuller Award by PA AWWA for distinguished service in the water supply field. He has been a resource for numerous national and local media interviews on water quality, stormwater, watersheds, and climate change.
Lynda DiMenna
Chief Environmental and Safety Officer, American Water
DiMenna serves as VP, Chief Environmental Officer for American Water. In this role DiMenna drives American Water’s focus on environmental stewardship and to evaluate and improve the company’s current impact on the environment and communities they serve to increase sustainability for the future. Through her expertise in environmental leadership, she will support American Water’s efforts in water quality, water management, system resiliency, as well as other environmental, social, and governance issues.
Prior to her current role, DiMenna served as President of New York American Water. She was the principal external contact for American Water in New York, serving approximately 350,000 people. In this role, she reinforced and strengthened customer, regulatory and local government relationships and drives operational and financial results for the state.
DiMenna joined American Water in 2018, after more than 20 years with Suez (currently Viola NA). She served in multiple roles of increasing responsibility, including Director of Environmental Health Safety Audit, Security and Emergency Preparedness, and Director of Internal Audit, both for Suez North America. Prior to that she was Company Manager for Suez Water Westchester, and she began her career in Operations for Suez, New York.
DiMenna serves on the Executive board and Secretary of Jawonio in the Hudson Valley and Chair of their Compliance, Audit and Risk Committee. She is also a member of AWWA and NY-AWWA Water Utility Council.
DiMenna earned an MBA from the Hagen School of Business, Iona College in New York, and a bachelor’s degree in business management and human resources from Dominican College in New York. She has earned her “D” Distribution System Water Operator and IB Water treatment licenses Operator and certifications.
Angela Maria Fasnacht
Gerhard R. Andlinger Visiting Fellow at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University
Fasnacht, an acclaimed environmental engineer and C-suite executive, is renowned for her dedication to sustainability, public health, and environmental conservation. With a career spanning over 26 years across the United States, Latin America, and East Africa in the water utilities sector, Fasnacht has made significant strides from grassroots nonprofit initiatives to leadership roles in major corporations, showcasing her expertise in facility design and operations, research, innovation, and executive leadership. As a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Princeton University’s energy and environmental center, and more recently as a Gerhard R. Andlinger Visiting Fellow at the Andlinger Center since June 2023, Fasnacht has been pivotal in integrating solutions for the decarbonization of the water sector and tackling pollutants. In collaboration with Peter Jaffé, she’s developing courses and constructing a global database to bridge gaps between researchers, operators, and policymakers, while also spearheading efforts to manage PFAS contamination, including organizing the PFAS Summit. Her work has not only earned national recognition from the National Association of Water Companies for digital innovation and environmental policy development but also reflects her active involvement in volunteer roles and board positions with the Global Water Alliance and Engineers Without Borders. Fasnacht’s commitment to improving water management and sustainability on a global scale is evident through her extensive contributions to the sector, making her a notable figure in environmental engineering and leadership.
Larry Gottlieb
President, ResinTech, Inc.
Gottlieb is president and chief technical officer of ResinTech, a U.S. manufacturer of ion exchange products based in Camden, New Jersey. A thirty-year veteran of the water treatment industry, Gottlieb is responsible for research and development, manufacturing, quality control, and technical support for all ResinTech media products.
Gottlieb joined ResinTech in 1989. In early 2000 and launched the Aries FilterWorks division of ResinTech, a business unit that makes Point of Use filter cartridges and high-purity lab water systems. Later, he took over sales and operations for ResinTech’s flagship division — media formulation.
Gottlieb was the driving force behind ResinTech’s investment in the laboratory and R&D resources necessary to identify and remediate PFAS contaminants. ResinTech’s Lab Services division employs over 20 technologists in a state-of-the-art 6,000-square-foot laboratory. The company can identify over two dozen distinct species of per and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
Gottlieb holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and is a board member of the Water Quality Association (WQA) and ASTM International Committee on Water and Environmental Technology.
George Hawkins
Founder and CEO, Moonshot Missions
Hawkins launched his innovation-focused non-profit enterprise Moonshot Missions after stepping down as CEO of DC Water, where he served for eleven years. Hawkins helps agencies identify and adopt strategies to deliver better service and lower cost, with a focus on small and under-resourced communities and water utilities.
In 2023, Moonshot was selected by USEPA to serve as one of four national Environmental Finance Centers to help disadvantaged communities access federal funding. Moonshot in 2023 assisted 79 communities of every size and demographic in 28 states, 2 territories, and 4 Tribal Reservations. Hawkins transformed DC Water into an innovative enterprise while tripling its investment in clean water. DC Water’s innovations ranged from Green Infrastructure to a $500 million investment in clean energy. DC Water issued the first century bond, first environmental impact bond, and spearheaded programs to support low-income customers and provide for local workforce development.
Hawkins served for six years on the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, which advises the White House. Hawkins is an advisor to Xylem, Inc., is an executive in residence for the private equity firm XPV Water Partners, and serves on the Board of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. Hawkins has served as a Senior Lecturer at Princeton University and an Executive in Residence for American University.
Hawkins also served as director of the DC Department of the Environment and served as director of non-profit organizations and held positions with the USEPA and the firm Ropes & Gray.
Hawkins is a popular speaker on water and environmental issues. He has been the recipient of many awards, including Global Water Intelligence’s list of top 20 transformational leaders in the water industry, the AWWA’s Fuller Award, Governing Magazine’s Public Official of the Year in 2015, WEF Public Official of the Year in 2016, and the Water Leader of the Year Prize in 2017. DC Water was awarded the U.S. Water Prize in 2016.
He graduated from Princeton University (Summa Cum Laude) and from Harvard Law School (Cum Laude).
David Haymes
Assistant Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
Haymes has worked for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection since 1989, as a geologist, a technical coordinator, and a Section Chief. From 2010 to 2017, Haymes was the Executive Assistant to the Assistant Commissioner for the Site Remediation & Waste Management Program. Haymes also served as the Director of the Division of Enforcement, Technical, & Financial Support and Administrator of the New Jersey Spill Compensation Fund from January 2018 to July 2022. David was appointed the Assistant Commissioner of Contaminated Site Remediation & Redevelopment in August 2022.
Throughout his career, Haymes has been actively involved in writing regulations, guidance, and legislation that form the framework for site remediation in New Jersey. Haymes has also been active in developing strategies and policies related to contaminants of emerging concern, including PFAS, and the Department’s ongoing litigation efforts to have polluters clean up contaminated sites and to reimburse the state for cleanups conducted using public funds. Haymes has a bachelor of arts degree from Colgate University and a master’s degree in geology from the University of Illinois.
Jim Ippolito
Professor, The Ohio State University
Ippolito is a professor of soil health and fertility at The Ohio State University. His 30+ year research program has focused on improving environmental soil fertility/chemistry/microbiology/ and soil health within agricultural, shortgrass steppe, grazed, burned, and metal-contaminated mined-land ecosystems. His research program connects the intimate linkages between soil macro- and micro-nutrients, trace and heavy metals, microbiological activity, and soil physical attributes, and how these factors combine to influence ecosystem sustainability and resiliency. A large majority of this work has been focused on beneficial use of biosolids to improve the environment and enhance food security. He currently works in the biosolids-biochar-PFAS intersection, focusing efforts on PFAS transport, uptake in plants, and sorption mechanisms onto a plethora of biochars..
Peter R. Jaffé
William L. Knapp ’47 Professor of Civil Engineering and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University
Jaffé joined the faculty of Princeton University in 1985 and is the William L. Knapp ’47 Professor of Civil Engineering, in Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He has three concurrent appointments at Princeton University with the High Meadows Environmental Institute, the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, and the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials. He is also a member of the NIEHS Center for Environmental Health Sciences at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, at Rutgers. He served as chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 1999 to 2005. His research has focused extensively on biological and chemical pollutant dynamics in porous media; simulation and analysis at the watershed scale of soil contamination processes and nutrient cycling; nitrogen cycling at the watershed scale; and dynamics of trace metals and radionuclides in sediments, wetland soils, and groundwater. Areas of current emphasis include biological defluorination of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), ranging from gaining insights into the defluorination mechanism to applications such as bioremediation of aqueous firefighting foam (AFFF) impacted sites. His work is also focusing on a novel biological process for anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Feammox), ranging again from gaining fundamental insight into this process, to field-scale transformations, and applications for wastewater treatment.
Stephanie Kammer
Emerging Pollutants Section Manager, Water Resources Division, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy
Kammer serves as the section manager of the emerging pollutants section for the Water Resources Division of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). Stephanie has worked for the past seven years on PFAS-related issues including the development of compliance programs and interim strategies to address PFAS in regulated wastewater and biosolids for the Water Resources Division. This includes work in municipal wastewater, industrial pretreatment, biosolids, groundwater discharge, industrial direct, and industrial stormwater programs as well as source tracking efforts in various watersheds. Before this role, she worked for over 20 years implementing water quality-related compliance programs and regulations within the Water Resources Division for EGLE.
Matthew Klasen
PFAS Councill Manager, Environmental Protection Agency
Klasen serves as the manager of EPA’s Council on PFAS, a cross-agency group of EPA policy and technical leaders created by EPA Administrator Michael Regan to develop and implement the Agency’s PFAS strategy. Klasen joined the PFAS Council in October 2021 after serving for five years in EPA’s Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations as the Congressional lead for EPA’s drinking water, water finance, and PFAS activities. Klasen began his EPA career as a Presidential Management Fellow in 2007, and has served in EPA’s Office of Environmental Information, Office of Water, Office of the Administrator, and Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, as well as in EPA Region 9 (San Francisco), at the Council on Environmental Quality, and at the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS). In his federal career, Klasen has worked on diverse issues including environmental indicators, the U.S.-Mexico border environment, energy and climate measures, mountaintop removal mining, Clean Water Act jurisdiction, and Clean Water Act Section 404. During his EPA career, Klasen has been recognized with EPA gold, silver, and bronze medals for exceptional, superior, and commendable service as part of cross-agency teams. Klasen has a B.A. in environmental studies and political science from Washington University in St. Louis and an MPA in environmental science and policy from Columbia University.
Hui Li
Professor of Environmental and Soil Chemistry, Michigan State University
Li is a professor of environmental soil chemistry at Michigan State University. His research program focuses on analysis, sorption, transformation, bioavailability, plant uptake, and mitigation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, legacy organic contaminants, heavy metals, and pesticides in the environment, understanding of fundamental environmental processes at a molecular scale, plant uptake of organic contaminants from soil and water, and development of environmental remediation technology and mitigation management strategies. His research program has been funded by EPA, USDA, NIEHS, and NSF. He has published over 170 peer-reviewed articles in major environmental science and soil science journals. Li received the Jackson Soil Chemistry and Mineralogy Award from Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) in 2017, and Environmental Quality Research Award from American Society of Agronomy (ASA) in 2023. He was elected as a Fellow of SSSA in 2018, and a Fellow of ASA in 2021.
John Lombardo
Product Manager, Xylem
Lombardo is a senior product portfolio manager in the Water Solutions & Services segment of Xylem. His responsibilities include sales and marketing support, product lifecycle management, and product innovation for activated carbon and media products and services. He also supports emerging contaminant opportunities for municipal drinking water, groundwater remediation, and industrial and military clients. He holds a bachelor of science in chemical engineering from Northeastern University in Boston, MA, and a master of business administration, and has been with Xylem for 29 years.
Iain McCulloch
Director, Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University
McCulloch is the Director of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment and a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Princeton University, as well as holding a Visiting Professor position in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford. He previously held joint appointments as Professor of Chemical Science and Director of KAUST Solar Center at KAUST, as well as a Chair in Polymer Materials in the Chemistry Department at Imperial College. Before joining academia, he spent 18 years managing industrial research groups at Hoechst in the US and Merck in the UK. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the European Academy of Sciences and a Member of Academia Europaea. He is the recipient of the 2022 Royal Society Armourers and Brasiers Prize, the 2020 Blaise Pascal Medal for Materials Science, the Royal Society of Chemistry 2020 Interdisciplinary Prize, 2014 Tilden Medal for Advances in Chemistry and the 2009 Creativity in Industry Prize. His interests are in the design and investigation of organic semiconducting materials.
Kobe Nagar
Co-founder and Chairman, 374Water
Nagar is a visionary entrepreneur and water evangelist with over a quarter-century in the renewable and cleantech sectors. His journey has been marked by the successful scaling and market introduction of groundbreaking technologies, including geothermal energy, fuel cells, green cement, and supercritical water. As the founder of 374Water Inc. (Nasdaq: $SCWO) and 1Watermark Inc., he leads two socially-driven, cleantech enterprises committed to environmental sustainability. 374Water Inc. has pioneered a transformative process that converts wet waste into valuable resources, simultaneously eliminating pollutants and ‘forever chemicals’ – steering the world towards a future that connects the drops between water, waste, energy, and food.
1Watermark Inc. is at the forefront of establishing stringent water standards for consumer products, particularly in the food, beverage, and cosmetics sectors, to enhance awareness and stewardship of water resources. – The kosher stamp for water.
Beyond his professional endeavors, Nagar finds joy in family life, the thrill of basketball, the pursuit of the perfect cup of coffee, and the vital mission of keeping our drinking water clean.
Julie Nemeth-Harn
Vice President, Komline-Harn
Nemeth-Harn is the vice president for Komline-Harn. Before employment at Komline-Harn she worked in consulting engineering for nine years. In her current position at Komline-Harn, she has supervised the design, fabrication, and start-up of over forty membrane treatment systems with capacities ranging from 20,000 gpd to >20 MGD. She has also been involved in numerous membrane pilot studies, including micro and ultrafiltration technology. Nemeth-Harn has a bachelor of science in civil engineering from the University of Florida. She has published numerous technical papers and is a registered professional engineer in the State of Florida. Nemeth-Harn is currently serving a second term as the president of the American Membrane Technology Associaton.
Robert F. Powelson
President and Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Water Companies
Powelson has over 25 years of experience in public and private sector leadership roles spanning the regulated utility sectors and wholesale power markets across the U.S.
Since 2018, Powelson has served as President and CEO of the National Association of Water Companies (NAWC) based in Philadelphia, PA. NAWC is a 128-year-old water association representing 73 million customers in the U.S.
Before joining NAWC, he was nominated by President Trump to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in May 2017 and confirmed by the US Senate. During his tenure at FERC, he and his colleagues addressed several key issues of national and regional energy infrastructure including shepherding Order 841 which created a clear legal framework for energy storage resources to operate in wholesale electricity markets. In 2018, Powelson was presented the Policy Champion Award by the Energy Storage Association of North America for his leadership on FERC Order 841. Commissioner Powelson was a leading advocate for LNG exports and natural gas pipeline expansion projects.
Powelson served as the former Chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission from 2008-2017. During his tenure, he worked very closely with PJM stakeholders on numerous capacity market reforms and energy infrastructure projects. Under Commissioner Powelson’s leadership, Pennsylvania ratepayers had an active voice on issues such as shale gas production, renewable energy investment, broadband deployment, energy efficiency programs, and low-income assistance programs.
In 2011, Commissioner Powelson served on Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission, which reviewed the Commonwealth’s existing statutes, regulations, and policies and provided recommendations to develop a comprehensive strategic proposal for the responsible and environmentally sound development of Marcellus Shale resources. His work helped produce new pipeline safety oversight reforms as well as the implementation of the Marcellus Shale Impact Fee which has seen over $500 million deployed directly to community-enhancing environmental and infrastructure initiatives across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Before public service, Powelson served as the President and CEO of the Chester County Chamber of Business & Industry, a 1,600-member business organization. During his tenure, the Accrediting Board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce awarded the Chester County Chamber a Three Star Accreditation standard of excellence, the highest level. In 2005, Powelson was selected as an Eisenhower Presidential Fellow.
Rengarajan Ramesh
Operating Partner, EagleTree Capital, Visiting Researcher, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University
Ramesh began consulting for EagleTree Capital’s predecessor firm Wasserstein & Co. in 2009 and formally joined Wasserstein & Co. in 2010. Before Wasserstein & Co., Ramesh held several senior management roles at GE, including Chief Technology Officer of GE Water & Process Technologies and Technology Council Leader overseeing GE Sensing, GE Fanuc Automation and Control, and GE Security. Before GE, Ramesh worked for two decades at A. Schulman, a global, multi-billion dollar specialty chemicals manufacturer, where he held numerous management roles, including chief technology officer.
Ramesh helps lead EagleTree’s investment activities in the water and industrial sector. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Gaylord, WaterFleet, and Andronaco. He previously served on the Board of Directors of High Pressure Equipment Company and Airtech. Ramesh received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Akron and his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Annamalai University. He currently serves on the Board of SRI International and the Board of Taghleef Industries. He previously served on the Board of Directors of Fluence, the Innovation Business Development Advisory Board for United Technologies Corporation, the advisory committee for Argonne National Laboratories, the Board of Advanced Enzymes USA, and the Board of Directors of LiqTech, and has advised multiple international governments on water sustainability strategies.
Emily Remmel
Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs, National Association of Clean Water Agencies
Remmel is the Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs at the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) where she oversees the regulatory priorities including efforts on PFAS, water quality, biosolids, stormwater, and water reuse. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Zoology from the University of Oklahoma and a juris doctorate from Vermont Law School.
In her free time, she is an adjunct professor teaching Introduction to Water Law and Environmental Law at the University of Oklahoma. She lives in Columbia, Maryland with her husband, Jeff, and son, Maxwell.
Charles Schaefer
Principal, CDM Smith
Schaefer is the director of CDM Smith’s Research and Testing Laboratory in Bellevue, WA. He received his Ph.D. in chemical and biochemical engineering from Rutgers University and has over 25 years of experience in the fate, transport, and treatment of organic contaminants in groundwater, soil, wastewater, and biosolids. Schaefer has served as a principal or co-principal investigator for several research projects funded through the U.S. Department of Defense and the Water Research Foundation and has authored over a hundred peer-reviewed publications. In addition to his research, Schaefer has served as the technical lead on several site investigation and remedial efforts, supporting many state, municipal, industrial, and federal clients.
Orren Schneider
Chief Science Officer, Aclarity, Inc.
Schneider received his bachelor in science degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University in 1987. He received his masters’s degree in environmental engineering and his doctorate in civil engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1990 and 1996. Schneider has previously worked at a number of consulting firms as well as at American Water in the corporate Innovation and Technology division. He currently serves in the role of Chief Science Officer at Aclarity, which he joined in 2019.
Schneider is a technical leader with expertise in evaluation and design of advanced coagulation, clarification, filtration, disinfection, membrane technologies, most recently, electrochemisty for water treatment. He has extensive experience with pilot plants specializing in collection and analysis of data for scale-up to full-scale operations. He has helped in the development of new water treatment facilities, water quality evaluations, and treatment optimization. He has also served as project advisor on a number of research projects. Schneider has made numerous presentations on a wide variety of topics related to drinking water treatment and has published many reports and papers as author or co-author.
Ashley Voskuhl
Senior Policy Analyst, Association of State Drinking Water Administrators
Voskuhl is a senior policy analyst with the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA) whose policy portfolio encompasses numerous technical and regulatory topics, including PFAS, lead, water reuse, infrastructure funding, drinking water treatment, and enforcement of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Before joining ASDWA in January 2022, Voskuhl spent five years as an engineer with Ohio EPA’s Division of Drinking and Ground Waters, focusing primarily on lead and copper, unregulated contaminants, engineering permits and approvals, and enforcement. She previously worked at U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development researching the impacts of corrosion on lead in drinking water during the Flint Water Crisis. Voskuhl holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from The Ohio State University.
Carol Walczyk
Vice President, Veolia North America
Walczyk is a licensed professional civil engineer, with 35 years of experience in environmental infrastructure planning, design, and operations. In her current role as Vice President of Engineering – Technical & Performance at Veolia North America, she leads a team of senior technical experts supporting operations, driving innovation, spearheading growth initiatives, and facilitating business development for Veolia’s water, waste, and energy businesses across the U.S. and Canada. Walczyk also serves as a Subject Matter Expert for PFAS and other contaminants of emerging concern for the Veolia global network. In addition to her role at Veolia, Walczyk is a member of the American Water Works Association’s board of directors and will be joining its executive committee as a vice president later this year.
John Warner
President and CEO, The Technology Greenhouse
Warner is one of the founders of the field of green chemistry. He wrote the book that provides the definition and 12 principles of green chemistry with Paul Anastas in 1998. As an industrial chemist, he has over 350 patents, has worked with hundreds of companies worldwide, and serves on the sustainability advisory boards of several multinational companies. He received the Perkin Medal in 2014 from The Society of Industrial Chemistry. As an academic, he was a tenured full professor of chemistry and a tenured full professor of plastics engineering at the University of Massachusetts where he started the world’s first Ph.D. program in Green Chemistry. He has over 120 publications in synthetic methodologies, noncovalent derivatization, polymer photochemistry, metal oxide semiconductors, and green chemistry. In 2004 he received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Mentoring (PAESMEM) from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and President George W. Bush and in 2022 he received the August Wilhelm von Hofmann Medal from the German Chemical Society. As an inventor, Warner’s inventions have led to the founding of many companies in the fields of photovoltaics, neurochemistry, construction materials, water harvesting, and cosmetics. In 2016 he received the Lemelson Invention Ambassadorship from the Lemelson Foundation and the American Association for the Advancement of the Sciences (AAAS). Warner is a member of the Club of Rome, and holds academic appointments at Monash University in Australia, Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, Somaiya University in India, University of Birmingham in the UK, Rochester Institute of Technology in the US, and Technical University of Berlin in Germany where they have named the “John Warner Center for Start-Ups in Green Chemistry.” Warner currently serves as President and CEO of The Technology Greenhouse. John received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Princeton University in 1988.
Amanda Wegner
Communications & Public Affairs Director, Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District
Wegner brings nearly 25 years of experience in marketing and communications to the District. From her start in her hometown newsroom in high school, she has held several roles across the private, nonprofit, and public sectors and runs a communications consulting business. Wegner spent seven years leading communications at Clean Wisconsin, an environmental nonprofit dedicated to clean water, clean energy, and climate change advocacy. Prior to the District, she led digital marketing efforts at Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. Wegner has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed her MBA at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Amanda joined the District in 2019.