A series of water crises affected public health, operability of critical care facilities, and caused millions of dollars of economic loss. I shaped a new narrative for the Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA), community engagement, and policy communications to restore public trust.

 

I facilitated stakeholder dialogues with government, health and land management agencies; landowners; academia; businesses; and customers to understand collective public health, safety, and sustainability priorities. With this data, OWASA developed more responsive policy and operational changes for reliable water provisioning to communities.

 

I transformed OWASA’s brand and channels, injecting optimism and employee voices to humanize the organization. I created a new narrative for OWASA: “Investing in water infrastructure is investing in your community,” and launched programs and partnerships to increase transparency into OWASA’s operations and decision making.

 

Customers and partners have expressed appreciation for the organization’s work and improved information sharing. At a fundamental level, public trust in OWASA is being restored.