Tom Sandy, Vice Chair

Vice Chair, Program Committee

Tom Sandy is a licensed Professional Engineer in five states and Associate Director of Brown and Caldwell’s Industrial Water Service line. He has over 30 years of industrial water, wastewater and air quality experience providing engineering, design, consulting, and operations services in a variety of industries, including the: upstream oil and gas, downstream oil and gas, petrochemical, chemical, power, and mining industries. He graduated from West Virginia University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Chemistry in 1984 and a Master’s of Science degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1987. He has been a WEF member since 1984.

Aditya Ramamurthy

Vice Chair, Utility Management & Leadership Symposium

Aditya Ramamurthy is an Asset and Utility Management leader at Hazen and Sawyer. He has over 19 years of experience driving multiple projects for water and wastewater clients primarily in the Mid-Atlantic Region. His focus areas include utility management areas including asset management, capital infrastructure planning and assessment, data analytics and governance, and business process optimization. Mr. Ramamurthy has a MS in Civil Engineering, and an MBA in Operations Management. Mr. Ramamurthy currently serves as the Chair for the CIP Planning & Delivery sub-committee part of the WEF Utility Management Committee.

Anil Tangirala

Chair, Stormwater Management Symposium

Anil Tangirala is the Practice Leader of Water Resources Practice at ms consultants Inc. in Columbus, Ohio. Anil is a professional engineer, Certified Floodplain Manager and ENVISION Sustainable Professional with 18 years of experience in water resources engineering. His expertise is in flood mitigation, Stormwater management, hydrologic, hydraulic and water quality modeling and watershed management. Mr. Tangirala graduated with a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering from University of Kentucky and a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from S.K. University in India.  Mr. Tangirala is currently the Chair for Water Environment Federation Stormwater Congress and Ohio Water Environment Association Watershed Management Committee.

Belinda Sturm

Vice Chair, Municipal Wastewater Treatment Process & Design Symposium

Dr. Belinda Sturm earned a B.S. degree in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her PhD in Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences from the University of Notre Dame. Belinda was a Visiting Scholar at the Technical University of Munich and a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of California – Davis before joining the faculty of the University of Kansas in 2006.

Dr. Sturm currently serves as Vice Chair of the Water Environment Federation’s Municipal Design Symposium and as the WEF KU student chapter advisor. Belinda is also a member of the International Water Association’s USA National Committee Executive Board and serves on the management committee of the Microbial Ecology in Water Engineering specialty group. At KU, Dr. Sturm began a Center for Microbial Metagenomics Community Analysis, which offers DNA testing services for environmental samples. In 2012, the American Academy of Environmental Engineers awarded KU an Excellence in Environmental Engineering honor award for her research on coupling nutrient removal with algae-mediated energy recovery.

Dr. Sturm’s primary interest is the use of microbial communities in water reclamation and resource recovery from municipal wastewater, with a particular emphasis on biofilm applications including granular sludge. The group applies a holistic research approach that includes microbial ecology, bioreactor design and operation, life cycle assessment, geospatial modeling, and collaborations with environmental economists. Students work within highly interdisciplinary teams and often work with utility partners, with the goal of advancing the rapid adoption of engineering innovations.

Carol Hufnagel

Vice Chair, Stormwater Management Symposium

Carol Hufnagel is the national wet weather practice leader for Tetra Tech, specializing in the evaluation and control of sewer systems impacted by wet weather flow, including separate sanitary systems and combined sewer systems. Her background in wet weather controls includes planning, modeling, design and post construction assessment of a wide range of wet weather technology controls. She also has a significant background in green infrastructure with an emphasis on institutional issues, project selection, outreach, design and assessment. She was the consultant lead for the establishment of the Detroit GSI program, and has also worked on CSO and green infrastructure programs in Omaha, St. Louis, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Toledo. She was the lead for the Water Environment Federation’s Green Infrastructure Implementation Manual published in 2014.

Christopher Wilson

Chair, Residuals & Biosolids Symposium

Chris Wilson Ph.D., P.E. is HRSD’s Manager of Process Engineering and Research.  Chris is responsible for day-to-day oversight of research being conducted with HRSD’s Water Technology and Research program and internal process engineering activities in support of HRSD’s 14 treatment plants.  Chris is a registered Professional Engineer in Virginia and received his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in 2009.

Daniel Burden

Chair, Water Reuse Symposium

Dan Burden is a Senior Associate and registered professional engineer with the consulting firm of Wade Trim in south Florida.  Dr. Burden holds a master’s and doctorate degree in civil and environmental engineering from Louisiana State University.  Dr. Burden has more than 30 years of consulting experience with the planning, design and construction of alternative sewer collection systems in South Florida and the Florida Keys.   He currently serves as a member the WEF’s Water Reuse and Program Committees.

Eakalak Khan

Co-Vice Chair, Research & Innovation Symposium

Eakalak Khan is a Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Department and the Director of Water Resources Research Program, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He received his Bachelor of Engineering in Environmental Engineering from Chiang Mai University, Thailand, M.S. in Agricultural Engineering from University of Hawaii and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from UCLA. He has published more than 100 journal articles. He was awarded a CAREER grant from NSF in 2005. He received several teaching and research awards from 2002 to 2017 while serving as a faculty at North Dakota State University, which was his previous employer.

Garry Macdonald

Vice Chair, Future Insights & Global Issues Symposium

Garry Macdonald has over 40 years experience in wastewater and environmental engineering in New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific. He specialises in technical design, client management, business development and stakeholder/public interface roles.  He has also held Board and Officer positions in professional and technical associations, at a national and international level. Garry has spend 4 years on the WEF Board of Trustees and is currently on the House of Delegates, representing WEF MA Water New Zealand. He is currently Co-Chair of OXFAM NZ, and has been on their board for six years.

Geoff Edwards

Vice Chair, Watershed Resources Management and Sustainability Symposium

Geoff is the U.S. Vice-President for AMG. He has over 25 years of experience working on planning studies, sampling and monitoring programs, and regulatory compliance issues.  In addition, Geoff has held management responsibilities for a wide range of environmental projects, and has managed projects for both municipal and industrial clients, including water quality monitoring, flow monitoring, and water and wastewater modeling projects.  Most recently, he was a team member on the Butler County Flow and Rain monitoring project.  Geoff is an active member of the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and currently serves on the Program and Watershed Management Committees.

James Shelton

Vice Chair, Collection Systems & Distribution Symposium

Jim is a Vice President and Technical Expert for Buried Infrastructure for ARCADIS.  Jim is National Technical Director for ARCADIS and Program Manager for several large sewer rehabilitation programs.  He has a degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Pennsylvania, is a licensed water and sewer contractor, and is a Professional Engineer in 11 states.

Jeanette Brown

Vice Chair, Municipal Wastewater Treatment Process & Design Symposium

Jeanette Brown is a Research Assistant Professor at Manhattan College, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She is a registered professional engineer, a Board Certified Environmental Engineer, a Diplomate in the American Academy of Water Resource Engineers, and a past-president of the Water Environment Federation. Her areas of expertise include biological nitrogen removal, biosolids processing and management, and energy recovery from wastewater. She has published and presented numerous papers on these topics nationally and internationally.

Jennifer Walsh

Chair, Future Insights & Global Issues Symposium

Jennifer Walsh is a Senior Principle Engineer with Hazen and Sawyer where she focuses on the design and optimization of wastewater treatment facilities. She is an active member of the WEF Student and Young Professionals Committee and Plant Operations and Maintenance Committee and WEFTEC Program Committee.

Jose Jimenez

Chair, Municipal Wastewater Treatment Process and Design Symposium

Jose Jimenez is a Vice President and Senior Process and Technical Specialist at Brown and Caldwell who has been involved with the functional design of numerous wastewater treatment plants across the U.S. Jose currently serves as Brown and Caldwell’s Director of Process Engineering and Water Technologies. Jose received his PhD at the University of New Orleans and is a licensed professional engineer in multiple states and board certified environmental engineer by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers.

Keith Bourgeous

Chair, Disinfection Symposium

Keith Bourgeous is a Professor of Civil Engineering at BYU Idaho and is responsible for teaching the water and environmental engineering classes in the Civil Engineering program. Prior to his current position Keith worked for 14 years as a principal technologist in the research and process groups of Carollo Engineers. Keith has conducted numerous bench, pilot, and full-scale performance studies on treatment processes used for water recycling and drinking water applications. He has been involved in the design of many filtration and disinfection facilities. He has also conducted many independent third-party validation studies on treatment systems to receive California Division of Drinking Water general/site-specific Title 22 conditional acceptance for water reuse applications.

Kent Nichols

Chair, Utility Management Symposium

Kent M. Nichols Jr. is a Vice President and Practice Leader for Weston & Sampson, headquartered in Peabody MA, and providing engineering services from offices along the east coast. With 30 years of expereince in the environmental engineering field, he has worked on a wide range of water resources and infrastructure projects, and currently focuses on water quality/wastewater/stormwater related planning and project delivery. Mr. Nichols is a graduate of Northeastern University (BSCE '88), and a registered Professional Engineer in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont. He currently serves as on the WEF Program Committee as a Steering Committee member, and is a Director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Water Resources Stewardship.

Liam Cavanaugh

Vice Chair, Facility Operations & Maintenance Symposium

Liam Cavanaugh is the Director of Operations for Metro Wastewater Reclamation District in Denver, CO, overseeing the treatment operations at both the Robert W. Hite Treatment Facility and the Northern Treatment Plant.  Liam has a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder, a Master of Science degree in Environmental Engineering and Science from Colorado School of mines, and is currently a doctoral candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado School of Mines.  Liam has worked in treatment operations at multiple utilities since 2009, and is a licensed Professional Engineer and Class A Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator. His main interests lie in sustainable wastewater treatment technologies and resource recovery opportunities. A native of Colorado, Liam enjoys hiking, skiing, fishing, and other activities that take advantage of our most precious natural resource; water.

Lucy Pugh

Chair, Industrial Symposium

Lucy Pugh serves as AECOM’s Technical Practice Director for industrial water and wastewater treatment. She has over 30 years of experience in the process design of industrial water and wastewater treatment and reuse systems. She has performed treatability and pilot studies, process optimization, design, construction and design-build of water and wastewater treatment facilities for a wide variety of industries. Lucy’s experience includes physical/chemical, biological, and membrane treatment of wastewaters, including pioneering treatment for recalcitrant chemicals such as perchlorate and PFAS. Lucy is a Professional Engineer, Board Certified Environmental Engineer, and holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Michigan.

Oliver Schraa

Chair, Facility Operations & Maintenance Symposium

Oliver Schraa is the CTO at inCTRL Solutions, and has over 22 years of experience in WWTP design and costing, process modeling and simulation, optimization, and process control. He is the chair of the WEF Biofilm Interest Group, vice-chair of the WEF I&C Workgroup, a member of the WEF Modeling Expert Group, and an expert member of the IWA Design and Operations Uncertainty Task Group. Oliver contributed to the following WEF publications: Operation of Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants – MOP 11, Wastewater Treatment Process Modeling – MOP No. 31, Nutrient Removal - MOP No. 34, and Solids Process Design and Management.

Pusker Regmi

Co-Vice Chair, Research & Innovation Symposium

Dr. Pusker Regmi is a Licensed Professional Engineer and Process Engineer with Brown and Caldwell in Washington D.C. area. He has a wide-ranging experience in research and development as well as the design of innovative biological nutrient removal technologies. He has U.S. patents for developing novel mainstream shortcut nitrogen removal and deammonification technologies. Pusker is the author of over 30 publications in peer-reviewed international technical journals and proceedings of national and international conferences. 

Susan Moisio

Chair, Collection Systems & Distribution Symposium

Susan Moisio serves as Jacobs' Conveyance and Storage Global Solutions Director. She is a Technology Fellow and has over 30 years of experience in the performance of wastewater projects. She is experienced in planning and executing capital projects. Her technical experience in wastewater includes 16 years in the Wastewater Collection Division of the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati in the areas of hydraulic modeling, SSES studies, rehabilitation projects, emergency response and utility operation and management.

Ms. Moisio serves as the Conveyance Lead for Miami Dade’s $5.7 Billion dollar Ocean Outfall program. This program includes the validation of the Water and Sewer Department’s hydraulic model and the refinement of the submitted plan to include climate change and sea level rise impacts, flow allocation, and sequencing of projects to meet cash flow projections. 

Ms. Moisio is a 30 year member of the Water Environment Federation and serves on the WEF Collection Systems Committee. She is a recipient of the WEF and OWEA Golden Manhole Awards for service.

Timothy Ware

Vice Chair, Water Reclamation & Reuse Symposium

Tim Ware is a licensed professional engineer and wastewater operator in Florida. He has a bachelors degree in Civil Engineering and a master degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of South Florida. He has experience in the management and operations of large wastewater treatment plants and water plants. He currently works as a consultant for Arcadis in their Tampa office.

Wendell Khunjar

Chair, Research & Innovation Symposium

Wendell O’Neil Khunjar, Ph.D. P.E, is an Associate and Director of Applied Wastewater Research at Hazen and Sawyer where he helps with process design and optimization, master planning and operations support.