In this episode of 21st Century Water, we sit down with Heather Collins, president of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and operations leader at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. We trace Heather’s path from engineering intern to managing water treatment for 19 million people, hearing how she was drawn into the water industry by chance and has stayed ever since. Her career journey is rooted in a commitment to innovation, collaboration, and public service, and it shapes her priorities as AWWA president today.
We discuss the scale and complexity of running one of the nation’s largest wholesale water operations, including the balancing act of hydrology, source water quality, demand planning, and emergency preparedness. Heather explains how her team maintains agility with five-layer-deep contingency plans and how their Climate Action Master Plan (CAMP) for Water aligns infrastructure, planning, and sustainability.
Shifting to her role at AWWA, Heather outlines three key priorities: rebuilding public trust in water, cross-sector collaboration, and mentoring the next generation. She sees public trust as rooted in proactive communication, storytelling, and connecting with people on a human level. On collaboration, she’s committed to engaging water-intensive industries like tech, agriculture, and healthcare in dialogue, making AWWA the go-to resource for best practices and research. Her goal is for these industries to reference AWWA as the authoritative source on water.
Mentorship is also central to her leadership. Heather aims to demystify water careers for students and workers across generations, often drawing direct links between their interests and potential water sector roles. She emphasizes the power of being present and giving younger professionals the “cliff notes” to accelerate their learning and career development.
Heather also reflects on managing crises, highlighting her work on emerging groundwater contaminants like MTBE and perchlorate while a public health regulator. That experience reinforced her belief in the value of engineered, science-based solutions. We close with a look at technology’s role in water, where Heather embraces AI and advanced tools but insists we maintain a manual understanding to ensure resilience.
Her legacy? To be remembered as a leader who led with kindness, purpose, and built lasting bridges—between people, sectors, and generations.
21st Century Water - Heather Collins
Speakers: Mahesh Lunani & Heather Collins
[Music Playing]
Voiceover (00:01):
Tremendous challenges and opportunities exist right now for our nation's water infrastructure. In this podcast, the industry's top leaders and innovative minds share their knowledge and insights for ensuring our water systems are operating safely and efficiently.
These discussions are designed to motivate and create vibrant 21st century water systems and the innovative workforce required to lead and operate them. This is 21st Century Water with your host, Aquasight founder and CEO, Mahesh Lunani.
Mahesh Lunani (00:34):
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. I have with me today Heather Collins, president of American Water Works Association, but her day job is a leader and a manager at the water treatment operations at Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the largest water utility in the U.S., serving over 19 million people.
We would like to have in this discussion an amazing person whose experience is deeply rooted in collaboration, innovation, and public service. Looking forward to getting to know Heather, her style of leadership, the changes she has brought, and she wants to bring, and what her role as AWWA president would mean.
Heather, welcome. Looking forward to have the discussion.
Heather Collins (01:21):
Really nice to have the opportunity, thanks, Mahesh.
Mahesh Lunani (01:24):
So, let's start at the beginning. You were an engineering intern, and then you now lead the water treatment operations at the largest utility in this country. How did this come about?
Heather Collins (01:37):
Yeah, it's been a journey so far. I started my roots in study in engineering. I started off, I wanted to be working in space with aeronautics and aerospace and loved the space program and flying when I was growing up, it was one of those that I think water found me at the right time.
I think in the way that I was working with school looking for internships, the internships in that aerospace arena were not to come to be. So, I found an internship in water, and I've never looked back. I think if you look at a tagline, I've switched rockets for reservoirs, if you will.
I've been working in water, in public health, and serving the industry, and building things in the sector through a very volatile but interesting time that has always been innovative and working through change. And I think that's what keeps it interesting and engaging.
Mahesh Lunani (02:33):
Yeah, I like the word water found you. You almost got drowned by the industry.
Heather Collins (02:37):
(Laughs)
Mahesh Lunani (02:38):
No pun intended, but in a very positive way. You also went on to take this role in a small organization called American Water Works Association. And I don't mean small in a very easy way. David's a good friend, David LaFrance. So, how about that new role? What does this mean to you?
Heather Collins (02:58):
So, it's interesting when you say water found me, it did. I found AWWA when I was a student interning at Metropolitan reading the periodicals routed around the office. I kept seeing articles with my peers’ names on them, and I've come to find that, okay, that was AWWA’s journal, American Water Works Association, publishing all the new integrated articles on research or new things that were going on in the industry or ways to combat our treatment or distribution treatment issues at the time.
So, I figured, okay, that's the authoritative association I need to join. So, I joined them and have been working with them over the decades, really, in the journey of working with them technically, also in the section and organizational leadership of this international organization, as you mentioned, really being that influential one that provides the education and reach to all of our members across regulatory, academia, industry, manufacturing, and the utilities.
It's really a culmination point for me to be able to lead this organization. I've grown from within, and I want to help us continue to grow and expand in our international space that we're focused on. And it seems that over the years, water has really grown up and become more recognized in the media to the general public. So, they want to know more. So, I want to lead them to the authoritative resources that we have for education and information on the topics that are covering different headlines these days.
Mahesh Lunani (04:42):
Yeah, it's quite interesting. You said you got really into AWWA by researching and looking at the articles they published, and now, you, as a president, want to make these kinds of resources available for general public so they're more knowledgeable about what water means. And you're also succeeding a highly capable person, Cheryl Porter, if I remember that correctly. So, a very smooth change in baton as you take on this role.
Heather Collins (05:09):
Yes, it's really interesting to have this historical milestone with Cheryl Porter, first African and woman leader, president in AWWA, also working for a very, very large water utility wholesaler retailer in Michigan. I've worked alongside her in technical capacities and the information exchange that we do as utilities on PCCP pipe and different instances that we work on with research.
But then being able to work with her in the leadership of AWWA and really talk about how we're going to change the narrative and focus on the truth in storytelling to widen the reach, the understanding, and the engagement with not only our members, but then also in that cross-collaboration with other sectors. That's really important and kind of the next step that I'm focusing on for AWWA.
Mahesh Lunani (06:05):
Yeah, I want to dive deep into this cross-collaboration topic in a second. But I want to go back to your day job, because that's not a joke. You are managing water supply or at least water treatment for 19 million people. Can you paint the picture on the complexity of what you're doing and the work you manage every day?
Heather Collins (06:24):
Yeah, it's big when we talk about Metropolitan serving 19 million people through a six-county area across Southern California, it's definitely done with a team. It's no feat alone, it's of cross-collaboration between all of our team, those on the ground, those that are planning, and through our member agencies and their retailers. That's how we reach those end users, totaling 19 million people.
It is a large wholesale operation. We bring in water from the Colorado River Aqueduct, which we own and operate. We're a state water contractor in California bringing water from Northern California, and managing where that water needs to go based on the needs of our member agencies and retailers.
From what I'm doing ensuring that whatever water we're given can be treated to very high standards and be safe for our consumers, and those demands we're managing for our 26 direct agencies that then serve through 300 retailers to 19 million people.
It's really about changes of hydrology, climate, constituents, and complexities and blends of water. We have really good staff and a high-quality, internationally recognized water quality lab that helps us collaborate on strategies that we can employ.
That goes into a lot of planning, a lot of communication, a lot of round tabling about what will the schedule look like, what are our options. We're always literally five-deep on options depending on water availability, quality, and system operational modes.
It does get quite complex, but trying to really simplify it for everyone, it's dynamic, it's exciting at the same time. And just when you think you have it figured out for the day, you always have things that are unexpected. That's, I think, the drive and the excitement of operations for me. It's always something different.
You can always plan your day, but you're always going to have it turned upside down potentially in an instant. And so, being able to have that reliable team and the dynamic team that we have, it's just an incredible engine collectively across our metropolitan enterprise. I’m fortunate to really work with such talented people.
Mahesh Lunani (08:54):
No, it sounds like a thrill ride every day.
Heather Collins (08:56):
(Laughs)
Mahesh Lunani (08:57):
I want to ask you, though, a deeper question still related to your day job. Just putting your hat on (and I can never do that because I'm never capable of running what you're doing), between able to manage raw-water quality so that you can treat it to consistent portable-water quality as one spectrum of variation to managing through blending (because there's different blends that goes on), to managing the supply, make sure that it's there, what you want in the volumetric things — among these three areas, which are the most complex, requires most taxing day-to-day grind?
Heather Collins (09:44):
Well, to those points in those areas, we're working on that day in day out. Obviously, Metropolitan is really ingrained in long-term integral planning when it comes to making sure we have available long-term water supplies. So, our water resources folks work on that long-term viewpoint.
We have long-term agreements for our water supplies through our different contracts or our different water allotments that we are afforded as Metropolitan, as the agency for different rights on different supplies. We have a lot of different exchange programs and agreements with our Central Valley users and other agricultural users. There's a lot of, I'll call it, accounting buckets of water.
Yes, they are things that are managed on a calendar-water-year type of thing, but we also look at it from the long term. But then when you mesh the operational strategies more like a short-term, whether it be 0 to 5-year type of strategy, you're looking at where you're moving the water, you got to move the water so it's available, and then you're trying to take advantage of energy and power generation with that.
So, that's aligning different types of contracts and market positions and buys that are very dynamic in today's world that have changed over time. But then also, it brings down to those long-term planning, the shorter-term, bringing water in, having it available, and then figuring out where the demands are.
So, that's really a planning and integral phase with our member agencies so we can hopefully match what their forecasted demands are. Obviously, the advancement of different modeling and data and hydrology information has helped us with this, but it does get very complex.
And I think, while I mentioned you can plan for all this, and we have operational strategies that through history and time and what we know we have capacity-wise, we're looking at treatment not being a blockade in this ability to treat and deliver. We want to be able to operate over a full spectrum of source water conditions and quality and flows, whether they be high or low.
We are dealing with a system that was designed close to 100 years ago, been operating for 75+. It does get dynamic when we've had conservation hardening and drought and you're really reducing what is flowing through these very large systems. You also have aging infrastructure.
So, it gets complex to know – and it's hitting the right orchestration mode of where to operate, how to operate, and how best to assure resource efficiency and affordability for all that we're doing. I would say it gets tough when you have an unexpected blip due to a breach in a pipeline, or maybe there's a natural incident, whether it be fire, flood, earthquake, something that takes you out of the norm and out of your mode of operation right away.
But with that said, the long-term planning and the short-term planning and the different exercises that we implement and do at Metropolitan, we can pivot super quick into knowing, “Okay, what are our operational strategy contingencies?”
Remember I said we're always kind of five-deep, we always know where we're going to go next before we have to go there. And I think that level of planning and communication and exercise that we have imparted in past and continue to do really has helped us be able to react quickly and ensure that we're not having any interruptions or chokepoints for our member agencies in the Southland.
Mahesh Lunani (13:46):
What you are saying is over the years, you've built an agile and flexible, both planning system and operational system that can do in different modes based on the stresses that are put on your system?
Heather Collins (14:05):
Right.
Mahesh Lunani (14:06):
It's not easy to think, especially when you are supplying the most important ingredient for human beings in general. So, put that in context, it's even more essential, all your flexible system planning and operations, different modes, and able to turn on the gears depending on what you're getting space. And I think that by itself is worth a book in my opinion.
Heather Collins (14:33):
(Laughs) Yeah, and I think it's one thing we have found as we get more instances and events that seem to be coming more closer together and more extreme. You used to hear about drought once every … we used to model in one every 10 years. Now, it has upped its ante over the past decade or so where we've seen these real long intensive drought cycles. We know we have fires and earthquakes and other instances.
So, we've really brought that into our integral planning, and really looking at everything from the standpoint of full comprehensive model of planning that also is responding to the changing times that we're seeing.
And it's been one that a lot of people want to have a greater insight and look into how we're doing that and how we're evaluating not only our operations, but all of the priorities that we have stacked up in our asset management and our capital improvement plans. The system is getting aged in that many things have been there for 75 years plus.
We all have heard about aging infrastructure. There's a lot of money that is in infrastructure need that everybody has. So, that readiness component folded in with the planning becomes a new dynamic entity that we call our camp for water process. The climate action master plan for water is kind of what we moniker it by.
Mahesh Lunani (16:01):
Fascinating. And I think it's a great leadership topic in of itself. And I think, Heather, at some point, we should talk about this topic and what this could mean for hundreds of leaders out there that want to mimic in a small way an agile water system that could manage these dynamic environments that they're faced under.
I want to come back to this presidency role you have for AWWA. If you were to pick three most important priorities as a president, what would that be?
Heather Collins (16:35):
Well, thanks for asking the question. I've really kind of looked at three areas that I feel I can lend my expertise and background to. And being really into public health and being that servant as regulator and operator in systems for years in my career, elevating public trust in water is really important to me.
Also, when I was a student, I had mentors empowering me. So, definitely as another item, I want to empower the next workforce opportunities for the generations that are coming behind us, even for those that don't even know about water yet. I want to help others find water like water found me.
We do a really good job collectively in water, talking amongst ourselves in the water and wastewater communities, that's great. But everyone in the world uses water. Everyone in the world needs water, and hey, no water, no products out there for many.
So, the cross-sector collaboration is really something that I want to focus on because when we look at everybody using water and especially kind of in these tech areas now with data center growth and what is going on in scarcity, water is kind of being found where it doesn't need to be, and so what's our long-term sustainability for that?
So, really working with others to help them know what we're working on through AWWA and having the knowledge and cross-dialogue to partner on some things, rather than have them go at it alone. I think there's opportunities in tech and agriculture, in medical, pharmaceutical, in other types of good manufacturing that are not water-related.
But that's where I think we can grow our opportunity and build that connectivity to give them the research, the advancements, and things that we're doing in water. We're kind of their SMEs, if you will. Let's share some knowledge and do things together rather than reinventing the wheel in their own sector.
Mahesh Lunani (18:47):
So, let's just pick public-sector and cross-sector collaboration, which are two important principles that you talked about. What would be the North Star for you in each of these two areas, saying, “Aha, I've actually achieved this goal?” Of course, it's never-ending, don't get me wrong. There's no end point for these topics you laid out, but at some point, there is a milestone. What would that be for each one of the two?
Heather Collins (19:16):
Oh gosh, I would love for other cross-sector collaborations to be referencing and in referencing the water sector (namely AWWA), and pointing out the research, the education, and our 50,000 members that are their resources for their questions, and have that be the point that they go to first for information, rather than a blogger or someone else that may have the information skewed a bit, may have telephoned it differently in their post or so forth.
I think that would be a sign of great mutual respect and really a strategic one for what we do in our United Nations sustainability goals with water being number six. Many businesses and other sectors are really focused on those ESG goals, and I think we could help them raise awareness and maybe partner together to reach some of those for greater sustainability of water 30 years from now in the year 2050.
Mahesh Lunani (20:28):
This is fantastic. And I actually just want to take one more step on this whole cross-sector collaboration. Does that mean, Heather, you are in these other industry conferences where you are talking and presenting it, does it mean you invite them? How are you tactical and going to make it happen?
Heather Collins (20:48):
First off, it's focusing on medical, cybersecurity is core and crossbred, but looking at agriculture and some manufacturing, big tech stuff, starting with some of those; what conferences are they going to and in their topics that they're talking about with water in how they're building data centers, we all know that cloud computing is becoming huge for every entity out there.
We've seen sort of a shopping of our core resources going to these other industries. Let's figure out a way where we can work together so that they don't have to recreate the water sector pieces in their sectors. So, that's one, it's having the dialogue with their leaders to have awareness.
Do they know what we're working on? Do they realize the wealth of materials that we can assist them with? It's interesting because we have a lot of similar demands across our different sectors, and I think they don't realize how similar we are in many of them.
I think when they're looking at what they produce for their products, they are still issued the same kind of constraints in their discharges, in their treatment, in their qualities, they want high products. That's how we think we're experts in that, so lending that arm.
So, it's working with cross-sector association leaders. It's making the context, inviting them into our events and our different regimes to have dialogue. I think we're really doing that, and we've exemplified that by how we brought our think tanks into AWWA's Water 2050 initiative, where we brought sector leaders from not only water but cross-sector because of those in beverage or tech or finance, economy, et cetera.
Brought them in to think with us in, “Okay, we're all here invested to make sure that we have water for our purposes (whatever they may be) to ensure that for our future generations.” And so, Water 2050 really culminated a lot of these cross-sector collaborations, and that is one thing that we are tangibly putting into more tactile implementation. We're creating short-form guides and checklists and dialogue points and demystifying different topic areas to focus on, whether it be the types of water that are available to use.
We go into different things with reuse and everything else. We talk about conservation, we talk about affordability, we talk about the circular economy to reduce waste and be efficient on things. But making sure that the terminology crosses that cross-sector collaboration too, because what we may call something, they may call something else, but it's the same thing. So, that's some of the thoughts.
Mahesh Lunani (23:57):
It's fascinating. And I think, this area or gap that you've identified, I'm really looking forward to seeing how it's going to evolve in the next 12 months. And actually, I was fortunate to be part of the 2050 on the tech side, and I definitely saw a lot of good cross-pollination of ideas and thoughts.
I want to talk about public trust. What's your North Star for public trust? What would that be?
Heather Collins (24:21):
There's a lot of mistrust right now. There's a lot of things going on. So, we're trying to make sure that our trust point is to be more communicative. More communicative with those we're serving. The more they hear from us, it builds that trust rather than hearing about us or talking to us in times where there's an incident such as a fire or earthquake, something like that. Something that's interrupting our service.
But letting them know what we are bringing, what we're doing day-to-day, boots on the ground, helping them really understand what water is and how it impacts them personally, and why it's important for what we do for them to have that water supply available to their business, home, institution, et cetera.
We found that through surveys and so forth, those that are more connected have the greater trust, and if you start to establish the trust, they're more apt to come to you with questions, wanting to know more, being open to listening to what you say.
And in today's day and age, the traditional methods of how we get our news, our education, they're really changing. So, when you're hearing less – things get clouded out if you have a hundred different sources of media out there to get media from, which one are you going to choose? So, the message can get telephoned also, which can lead to mistrust because there's so many pieces of information out there.
So, we're trying to remain that for a water agency, a wholesaler, or institutional associations like AWWA that are out there to support the industry, we're giving tools by mainly storytelling and making that connection because the connection and the connectivity to those individuals is that first trust-building component.
So, if I can connect with people wherever I'm at (because I'm always on the go a lot), whoever I encounter, I find a way to talk about water to them. It is so interesting by the end of our conversation that they go, “I had no idea how complex but how interesting water is, and thank you for taking me on a journey to fill my water receptacle and cool it in the fridge, I could save a bunch of money by doing that.” Or “How my water gets to my tap, who's all involved and why I can't see this stuff very often because it's hidden in infrastructure.”
They're really appreciative of just talking to them and having the dialogue, and I can see that they're resonating. And usually, I have people in the car or people with me, they go, “Okay, you got through to them.”
So, really being the human touch, the storyteller — you think about it, the stories are what you remember, you don't try to memorize facts and all that. Well, that's all well and good, and we do have a lot of science and data behind what we do, that doesn't work anymore to sell and connect the trust.
Mahesh Lunani (27:37):
Narrative is important. But as you were saying that, your North Star for public trust, it's three Cs: communication, connected, and channel.
Heather Collins (27:50):
I love it.
Mahesh Lunani (27:51):
Channel is the modes of communication. So, perhaps that is … I just made it up. Maybe it's-
Heather Collins (27:55):
(Laughs) Oh, thank you.
Mahesh Lunani (27:56):
I want to talk about mentorship, leadership, next generation. This is kind of important. What's your philosophy? What's your thoughts? What is your plan?
Heather Collins (28:07):
So, it's important to keep those that we have working with us working and helping them develop to the next level. But then it's also more important, too, to help guide those that are looking for meaningful careers or meaningful work to lead them to water.
There's a lot of different workforce initiatives out there. We have a lot of trees planted and rooted in different areas, but they're not working together to cultivate the same crop. When I'm talking to groups, whether it's a group of veterans, a brand-new group of students, whether they're in third grade or junior high or high school or college, I ask them what do they like to be doing? I take what they like to be doing, and I crosswalk it or show them a pathway that that applies into water.
These generations that are out there now, everyone wants to solve a problem. Everyone wants to feel invested, that they've helped and done good work. We have a multitude of problems daily in our water sector that are just itching to be solved, and we need more people in it, and trying to help them see that water and water careers are kind of cool.
It's cool in the realm that I mentioned, everybody needs water. So, wouldn't you like to be a part of what everybody needs every day in order to produce the business and the products that they're running in?
That's so connected, and it's an international language of water that resonates on every continent that this earth has. Being that connector is really important. Being a mentor and continually giving back. I had people engage with me when I was young and really appreciative over their advice and journey and dialogue over time, and I want to do similar to that.
It's not only showing them the careers and pathways of water, but then once they're in water, mentorship is important too. AWWA has been involved with our young professionals and our mentoring, I’ve been involved with that, which has been great because it gives you different perspectives of where people are thinking or how they're thinking.
And giving them little nuggets of wisdom that they hope you don't have to learn it by doing over a couple decades of work. You're given the cliff notes early on. So, they're charged with embedding that into their own landscape and pathway, but that's what you hope they take from you.
And it's been very humbling to hear back from many people that being present, being available, being able to ask questions in a safer space. There's so much out there now that people are fearful of, it's nice to have a door to come and open and talk to somebody that can give you the wisdom of their career. So, that's my giveback, and that's my North Star that I want people to know that I've been doing this, but I also hope everybody else takes the opportunity to give back too.
Mahesh Lunani (31:21):
No, excellent. So, you want to inspire people saying, “You will be part of an industry that is required in every day’s people's lives and every day’s business lives. You are part of the supply chain for that particular thing.”
Mahesh Lunani (31:37):
I want to talk about crisis. What is the biggest crisis you managed in your professional career, and how did you go about managing it?
Heather Collins (31:46):
I think about that from the time that I worked as a public health regulator in the state of California. The engineers and the regulators are managing and overseeing the permitting, inspection, enforcement, monitoring of all the water systems in the state, and in Southern California, you look to use the best source of supply available as a water agency.
And you're starting to see in the ‘90s, in the turn of the century here, there was a lot of different groundwater contamination, a lot of competing manufacturing, overlaying different groundwater aquifers, the different business practices. We found MTBE and perchlorate in groundwater.
So, let's take these constituents that were emerging at the time because they were not things that we found normally in water. We found them, and they were discovered through different interactivity through analytical labs that both the petroleum and the water industry has used, and they marked these constituents’ peaks going, “Okay, we've got some issues.”
So, at the time, really working with a multitude of cross-functional water sector stakeholders, everybody from EPA, to The Department of Toxic Substances Control, to CalEPA offices of the Water Boards, the water agencies, the lawyers, the technologists, the manufacturers, we had to not only (as public health regulators) help them work through process technology development to find solutions to remove these constituents from the water supply, but then also figure out ways that we could restore the aquifers for beneficial use for the water systems.
And that took a process and a number of years where I worked through a number of federal military research arms and development of different company process engineering to figure out, okay, what were we working with? How do you then establish a monitoring and oversight program to ensure public health quality, and work through new regulatory standard development as well?
So, I think all of those things culminated together. They were new at the time, they were emerging, things that we hadn't been through before, and now, you see the development of other things coming up with forever chemicals and so forth.
I feel proud of the work that I spent over a decade working on with the California Drinking Water Program and all of our federal and state entities, along with the manufacturers who were developing the new process technology, everybody involved. It was the basis of proving out that we can engineer solutions for beneficial health protection.
Having an engineered, science-based solution actually helped expand the availability of water supply for the municipalities and the agencies. It allowed people to not have to go into ultra-conservative allocations.
It's been a benefit to build towards our one-water hydrological cycle, where other aspects of water that are on this earth (like reuse) come into the fold and can be a valuable resource for supply in the future. So, I think it's really helped build towards all of that. So, I do look at that as a real telling time for me and one that I'm proud of that I've worked through.
Mahesh Lunani (35:36):
Well, it toughens you, crisis as you can imagine. As a tech CEO, I must ask this, what does technology mean and AI mean for you, and where do you see great application areas?
Heather Collins (35:51):
Innovation is always constantly essential. There's great ways of doing things. I do think in the technological world that we're in, it's great that we have such advancements and such convenience, where we have a lot of analyzers and things that are rolled up into giving us dashboards and automation.
But we also can't forget the manual of how we got here because you always have to plan for the unexpected. And I always go there with contingencies. Like I said, we're always five questions or five layers deep on the next strategy.
I do think it's amazing when we talked about the different compounding of contamination or constituents or things that we have impeded our supplies with, but we're looking to and enable to use advanced technologies, such as advanced oxidation and membranes, to help treat our different water streams and industrial supply streams and so forth to ensure that we can minimize impacts to receiving waters or other things because we have to implement that to make sure that we're sustainable with water supplies in the future.
So, I think it's definitely interesting in the power of AI to compute and give us different scenarios to manage energy and our water quality parameters and dashboards. It doesn't mean that you're replacing the human out of it, but to have the additional tools to help inform our decision-making and help work into our strategic modeling or our operational strategies, absolutely.
It is incredible, it's powerful, it's where we're going. The predictive analytics and tools, absolutely great. But they have to be done with the understanding of knowing how it got there too. We can't be completely away from those basics. And if for some reason, it were to go down for a time being, you still have to be able to operate in a manual way to understand and make sure that your bottom line of delivery for your customers is still there.
Mahesh Lunani (38:07):
Yeah, you want a fail-safe approach.
Heather Collins (38:10):
So, it adds to our resiliency and efficiency overall, hands down.
Mahesh Lunani (38:15):
No, absolutely. And I was speaking last week at a conference of utility executives, and one of the things I talked about is how AI is actually an upskilling tool for the low to mid performers to make them high performers. And that's a great thing. Who doesn't want to be … not everybody can be a high performer, but this tool can actually make one, and that's great for everybody.
Last question: what do you want your legacy to be?
Heather Collins (38:49):
Oh gosh. I really want to be remembered as (I'm still active in the industry, I'm not going away) (chuckles) an approachable leader that leads with kindness, heart, and purpose. That's really what I'm all about.
Being able to unite us cross-sector-wise. That would be great to be able to leave behind a stronger, more connected AWWA and a community that really believes in the power that water can help drive our sustainability and trust. Because if we can build that trust, we can build anything. We are all really good, passionate people in what we do.
And that to me, if we can notch up those trust points in the surveys and get the connectivity where we're communicating cross-sector, that's enough for me to say, “Okay, I've done my step in the pathway in continuing onward. Since AWWA has been around since 1881, it'll persevere on that front, and we've left it better than we started.”
Mahesh Lunani (40:03):
Excellent. I want to tell you (because that last question shouldn't be misunderstood), the water found you, but I don't think that water is ready to leave you.
Heather Collins (40:11):
No (laughs).
Mahesh Lunani (40:12):
So, it is going to be with you for as long as you want it to be. But listen, I want to sum this conversation because it’s fantastic. You got into this industry, even though you are fascinated by another industry. AWWA found you, you run very complex operations that require real agile operational planning strategies. Something by itself could be a great learning experience for every utility leader out there in the country and in the world.
But in putting your AWWA hat on, clearly, you have a North Star what you want to do for public trust. You have won a massive white space for the industry that you're attacking, which is the cross-sector collaboration, especially those that are water-consuming heavy industries. And I'm fascinated by what would unfold in that space.
And you're truly trying to inspire the next generation and mentor them, your belief in practical innovation by keeping human in the loop as a way to ensure we are not totally consumed by tech, but we still actively use tech for the benefits. I think all of these are amazing points of conversations. I enjoyed listening to you. I learned quite a bit, I hope the audience too.
Thanks for joining, Heather.
Heather Collins (41:35):
Thank you so much. I really appreciate your time and welcome any questions and connections by other sectors or the listeners. Feel free to look me up and send me a message.
[Music playing]
Voiceover (41:47):
Join host and Aquasight founder and CEO, Mahesh Lunani, for another episode of 21st Century Water, produced by JAG in Detroit Podcasts.