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UNM part of EPA investment to enhance water workforce

August 5, 2024 - by Kim Delker

photo: Anjali Mulchandani
Anjali Mulchandani

Researchers at The University of New Mexico are leading a project funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that will help introduce undergraduates around the country to careers in the water industry.

Anjali Mulchandani, an assistant professor in the Gerald May Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, is leading a project called “Educating the Future Workforce on Adapting Water Infrastructure to Climate Change Impacts on the Natural Environment.”

She is the principal investigator of the project, working with co-principal investigator Heather Himmelberger, director of the UNM’s Southwest Environmental Finance Center, which is one of 13 workforce development organizations that is part of a $20 million investment in funding from the EPA under the Innovative Water Workforce Development Grant Program. The purpose of the program is to support expanding career opportunities in the drinking water and wastewater utility sector.

Mulchandani said the project is a collaboration between four other universities around the country: Wichita State University, Syracuse University, Arizona State University and Morgan State University in Maryland.

“The idea is to increase and diversify our water workforce and prepare them to address climate change impacts to our natural and built environment,” she said. “Women and people of color are underrepresented in the water workforce. This project’s inclusion of three minority-serving institutions will provide us the opportunity to expose a diverse body of students to career options in the water industry and give them professional development and science communication training to set them up for success in their future career.”

For the past few years, Mulchandani has been organizing the Water Science Communication Fellowship program, which pairs undergraduate students with faculty and other students across campus to work together to create a creative communication project around water science that would be used to explain the research to general audience. She sees this EPA project as an expansion of this program, which is designed to encourage undergraduate research.

“It will be open to undergraduates from any major who are interested in learning about water infrastructure careers,” she said. “Our Water Science Communication Fellowship that this project was modeled on had participants from civil, chemical and mechanical engineering, construction management, computer science, environmental science, biology, physics, math, geography, economics, political science, speech and hearing, medical lab science, sociology, international studies, and even German!”

She said students in the program will learn about the impact of climate change on water resources and infrastructure.

“A lot of the water infrastructure in this country is over 60 years old and must be repaired or upgraded to take into consideration the issues surrounding climate change,” she said. “We want to teach our students 21st century infrastructure and design with resilience and sustainability in mind.”

She said that the universities chosen are diverse in more than one way. They encompass five different EPA regions and five different climates, which will introduce students to a whole new understanding of water.

“We in the Southwest know and manage water in a different way than, say, Syracuse, New York,” Mulchandani said. “In desert communities like New Mexico and Arizona, ‘green’ spaces and infrastructure have a desert color palette with shades of green and brown and can be seen as a reflection of our natural landscape and just as beautiful.”

Cohort students in the program, who will be mentored by graduate students and faculty, will do a water communication project on topics such as water-related careers or the effects of climate change on water infrastructure. They also will participate in field trips, job shadowing, meetings, guest lectures, and will be connected to community partners, working to develop solutions to regional needs and challenges such as water resources, policy and economics. And they will have many opportunities to interact and examine water-related issues at other universities in the cohort.

Mulchandani, who also works with the UNM Center for Water and the Environment, said that one unique aspect of this project is that it includes three institutions that are minority-serving and/or Hispanic-serving institutions (UNM, Morgan State and Arizona State) as well as five different EPA regions, with all of which have various water needs. Along with UNM, two of the institutions (Wichita State and Syracuse), also are home to environmental finance centers, which support underserved communities with technical assistance to identify sustainable infrastructure solutions.

Mulchandani said that working with Himmelberger, who has a long and successful record of writing proposals for EPA projects and receiving large grants, was key to her success. Last year, the EPA awarded $4 million to the Southwest Environmental Finance Center, celebrated in a ceremony at UNM attended by congressional members.

“She mentored me through the whole grant-writing process. I felt like I learned so much from her, and it led to this being successful,” Mulchandani said.

Himmelberger said she was happy to offer her expertise to her colleague and hopes that this is the start of more collaboration.

“I’m super excited to see what we can accomplish together,” she said. “I also look forward to more partnering opportunities between the Center for Water and the Environment, the Gerald May Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, and the Southwest Environmental Finance Center.”

The project begins Oct. 1, 2024, and concludes Sept. 30, 2027. The multi-university project team lead by UNM will receive about $600,000. It is being funded as part of an EPA project area for educational programs designed for elementary, secondary and higher education students.

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