Hi there friends!

My water industry career began back in 2014, when I took a job as a Chemist/Assistant Department Head at a U.S.-based municipal drinking water utility. Prior to that, I had spent all my  professional career on the medical side of public health. I must admit, I spent the first couple months of my new job with my stomach in knots, wondering what I had done! This was my first position in a blue-collar, industrial, male-dominated industry, and my first job in a management position.

 

It didn't take me long to notice how few women were in this industry and how differently men and women can function at work. I loved my job, but I was really starting to feel like an island. I knew I had to change that, and I love a good challenge, thus the journey to launching Her2O began!

 

Over the past several years I have launched smaller women in water and sanitation efforts and assisted others to launch efforts around the U.S. But I knew I wanted to do more, and I just could not get the idea of an international organization out of my head. In 2019, I was invited to attend the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women, where I met women in water and sanitation from around the world. I learned more, and participated in, high-level conversations with other water professionals, UN Delegates, academics, and Parliamentarians about the challenges of women in water and sanitation globally and current efforts to empower them.

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Leading up to the event, I was introduced to the Executive Director of the Tanzanian Gender Networking Program (TGNP). I learned about the women-led groups that are designing and implementing water and sanitation solutions throughout Tanzania and the extreme challenges they faced in doing so. There it was again, that relentless feeling that I had to do something to help. I thought to myself, if these women can walk miles a day to fetch water, in worse climate conditions with less adequate equipment, I then had to challenge myself in the same way. In that moment I decided to trek Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise money for TGNP’s women-led water and sanitation projects. In September 2019, despite a nasty bout of altitude sickness, I reached Uhuru Peak, raising $3,000 for TGNP!

 

Upon my return from Tanzania, the glow of summitting Mt. Kilimanjaro still fresh and clearly visible upon me, I received an unexpected call. The caller was inviting me to present in the Women Leaders track at a water and waste management conference in India. At this point, I was completely  convinced that women in water and sanitation is my one true purpose in life. Her2O was legally founded on January 24, 2020 and just 14 days later I landed in Delhi.

 

This journey that has led me to found Her2O has been nothing short of thrilling, and I cannot wait to see where this journey takes me next. We are wather® and I invite you to join us in building the future of water, one woman at a time!