Thank you to our Participating Leaders
Derek Boese, Chief Administrative Officer, Southeast LouisianaFlood Protection Authority East
Dave Callahan, Rear Admiral USCG Ret; Maritime, Aviation, and HR Executive Leadership, New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board
Sherry Callaway, PG, Executive Director, Limitless Vistas Inc, and Implementing Partner, Emerging Scholars Programs
Tamika Duplessis, Ph.D., Executive Dean, Delgado Sidney Collier President, Pro tempore, New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board
Joseph Marquis Hankerson, EWQS'18 Program Assistant and Emerging Scholars program participant (AAG 2018 NOLA)
Wilma Heaton, Director of Governmental Affairs, Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority East
Joseph Kane, Senior Research Associate and Associate Fellow, Brookings Institute, Washington, DC
Mary Kincaid, P.E., Chief Resilience Officer, Office of Resilience and Sustainability, City of New Orleans
Michael Knapps, Apprenticeship Training Representative, Louisiana Workforce Commission, Baton Rouge, LA
Ghassan Korban, Executive Director, New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board
Alysia Ordway, Employer Engagement Director, Boston Private Industry Council (PIC)
Megan Scott, Manager, Policy and Government Affairs, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
Willie Thomas, Vice President, BFA Environmental, West Palm, Florida
Ifetayo Venner, P.E., Wastewater Treatment & Water Sustainability Leader - Arcadis NA; Trustee, Water Environment Federation
Francesca Vietor, Commissioner, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and Senior Director for Expanding Access to Opportunity, San Francisco Foundation
Arlanda Williams, Vice Chancellor of Workforce Development and Institutional Advancement and Dean of Technical Education, Delgado Community College
WEF Green Infrastructure Symposium
**The Infrastructure Workforce Summit Series
New Orleans 2018 was the first in a series of coordinated dialogue-sessions focused on collaborative workforce development solutions across infrastructure-related industries and occupations. These sessions leverage the perspectives and expertise of key stakeholders to inform local, regional, and national workforce programming.
Interested in hosting, convening, sponsoring, and/or participating in an infrastructure workforce dialogue-session? Please contact us!
INFRASTRUCTURE WORKFORCE LEADERSHIP MEETING
WEFTEC 2018 New Orleans
The Water Quality Workforce: A National Crisis or Opportunity?
As part of our Infrastructure Workforce Convenings Project**, on October 1, 2018, at the Tulane River and Coastal Center in New Orleans, we brought together national workforce leaders from Boston; New Orleans; San Francisco; and Washington, DC to talk about the challenges and career opportunities in the water quality workforce.
This three-hour working meeting occurred as part of the overall Water Environment Federation Technical Conference and Exhibition (WEFTEC) in New Orleans. Some 20,000 water professionals nationwide and internationally attended WEFTEC 2018 NOLA.
As detailed in the June 2018 Brookings report, Renewing The Water Workforce: Improving Water Infrastructure - and Creating a Pipeline to Opportunity (Kane and Tomer, June 2018), there are 1.7 million jobs in 212 different occupational categories in water-related industries. There are jobs and careers for people with all skills, at all skills levels.
At this convening, esteemed workforce development and water industry experts nationwide shared their local and national experiences and discussed how best to collaborate and systematically address the well-documented shortfall of water, utility and infrastructure workers nationwide.