Make Water Work Podcast

Most water conferences are built to inform. Catalyst was built to make you feel something.

In this first episode of the Catalyst Collab, a new mini-series exploring what makes water communication work, host Isaac Pellerin sits down with Chelsea Boozer (Executive Director, Rogue Water Lab) and Greg Wukasch (External Affairs Manager, San Antonio Water System) to unpack the experience design behind Catalyst, the immersive event resha...

The water sector is one of the most operationally resilient industries on the planet.

Systems delivering clean water 24/7 under aging infrastructure, workforce shortages, and increasing regulatory pressure — and for the most part, they work.

So why doesn't anyone know that?

Travis Kennedy has had a front-row seat to this industry for over 20 years — not as an operator or regulator, but as Chief Industry Officer, ...

One data center operator hired over 100 people just to solve their water problem. Another operator of equal size hired two.

That gap tells you everything about where this industry is right now.

Data centers are the hottest topic in water. And over the past several months, we've collected five perspectives from guests who are thinking about this differently — from community planners to state regulators to investors to infr...

This week's episode is a special on-location field report from the SWAN Conference — the Smart Water Networks Forum — held in Tampa, Florida. SWAN is a global annual event bringing together utility leaders, engineers, practitioners, and innovators to push the conversation on how the water sector adopts new technology.

I had the chance to facilitate a two-hour roundtable with Anthony DeRosa of ASDWA, exploring one of t...

The water industry doesn't want to be disrupted. And that's not a problem — it's the whole point.

In this episode, Isaac sits down with Adam Tank, co-founder and Chief Communications Officer at Transcend, to talk about what it actually takes to build and sell technology in one of the most risk-averse industries in the world. Adam has spent his career at the intersection of water, startups, and design thinking — from G...

85% of water systems in the United States operate with three or fewer employees.

They manage treatment, distribution, compliance, reporting, and public communication — often while also handling parks, snow removal, and everything else a small community needs. They are rarely celebrated. And when everything is working, they are almost invisible.

This episode is for them.

Make Water Work is launching a new series dedicated enti...

75% of the world's population lives in water-insecure countries. The amount of fresh water on the planet is fixed. And we are spending it faster than nature can replenish it.

The UN calls it global water bankruptcy. And according to Rodney Clemente, Senior Vice President of Water at Energy Recovery, the bill is coming due.

In this episode, Rodney breaks down what desalination actually is, why it costs 5-10x more to build a plant...

Water is the one infrastructure you cannot live without — and it got a D-minus rating from the American Society of Civil Engineers. In this episode, we sit down with Damian Georgino, Partner at global law firm Dentons and a 30-year veteran of the water industry, to talk about why everything you think you know about water is wrong — starting with the tap.

Damian shares his journey from selling water businesses for Alco...

In this episode of Make Water Work, Isaac Pellerin and Megan Glover sit down with Anne Mushow, CEO of Subeca, to explore how smart metering, IoT, and new business models are transforming water utilities.

Anne shares her journey from electrical engineering to leading one of the most innovative startups in water tech, and breaks down how Subeca is helping utilities modernize without massive capital investment. The conversation dive...

What does it take to actually scale innovation in water?

In this episode of Make Water Work, Isaac Pellerin and Megan Glover sit down with Simon Olivier, leader of Cycle H2O, an impact fund focused on accelerating water technology.

Simon shares the personal moment that pulled him into the water space...and how it led to building a venture fund designed to solve one of the industry’s biggest challenges: getting real solutions ...

In this episode of Make Water Work, Isaac Pellerin and Megan Glover sit down with Glenn Barnes to unpack one of the biggest challenges facing the water industry today: affordability.

Glenn brings deep expertise from his work helping utilities navigate funding, rates, and long-term infrastructure planning. This conversation goes beyond the headlines to explain why water rates are rising, why small communities face outsized challen...

In this episode of Make Water Work, Isaac Pellerin and Megan Glover sit down with Chris Miller, Vice President of Digital Services at USALCO and founder of Fontus Blue, to unpack the journey from academic research to startup success and acquisition.

Chris shares how a job in a university water lab led to a PhD, a company, and ultimately a platform helping utilities navigate one of the toughest challenges in water: balancing compli...

In this episode of Make Water Work, Isaac Pellerin and Megan Glover sit down with Lia Clark, Community Support Director at Water Finance Exchange and founder of Engineer With Empathy.

Lia shares her journey into water, from an orphanage service trip in China to working on some of the toughest water infrastructure challenges in underserved communities across Texas.

This conversation dives into:

• Why most small water systems s...

In this episode of Make Water Work, we sit down with Shellie Chard, former Water Quality Division Director at the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, to explore how policy, leadership, and long-term thinking shape the future of water.

With a 34-year career in environmental regulation, Shellie shares hard-earned insights on how water policy actually gets made, why trust in water systems is declining, and what it will tak...

What does real leadership in water look like?

In this episode of Make Water Work, Isaac Pellerin and Megan Glover sit down with Greg Wukasch to talk about leadership, community trust, communication, and the future of the water industry. Greg shares how water found him, why utilities need to stop being afraid of public engagement, and what it takes to lead with curiosity, empathy, and humanity.

From his early days at the San Ant...

AI runs on water. But how much? And what does that mean for the future?

In this episode of the Make Water Work Podcast, Isaac Pellerin and Megan Glover sit down with Peter Yolles (Echo River Capital) and Clara Drysdale (Stanford University) to break down the findings from the new Data Center Innovation Report.

As artificial intelligence and cloud computing explode, data centers are becoming one of the fastest-growing drivers of wat...

In this episode of Make Water Work, hosts Isaac Pellerin and Megan Glover sit down with Melissa Meeker, CEO of The Water Tower, to talk about the biggest issue facing the water industry that no one is talking about enough: workforce.

While the industry focuses on PFAS, AI, lead service lines and climate resilience, Melissa is focused on something even more fundamental...people.

💧 How do we attract the next generation into wate...

Summary

In this episode of the Make Water Work podcast, Isaac Pellerin and Megan Glover welcome Anthony DeRosa, the executive director of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASWDA). They discuss Anthony's journey in the water management sector, the challenges and innovations in modernizing water management, the importance of data management, and the impact of regulatory changes on water utilities. The conversati...

In this episode of the Make Water Work podcast, hosts Isaac Pellerin and Megan Glover talk with Chris Sosnowski, founder and CEO of Waterly. They discuss the critical importance of data quality in water management, the evolution of Waterly, and the challenges faced by public water systems. Chris shares insights from his journey in the water industry, emphasizing the need for human validation in data management and the significant r...