Invite a water professional into your classroom! Let your students hear from someone who plays a role in keeping the water in our community safe and clean. This list includes local government employees representing a wide variety of career opportunities in the world of water.
Middle and high school teachers in Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley School Districts can email KICP Coordinator Cristina Ramirez at [email protected] to get contact information for the person or people you are interested in inviting to your classroom.
Allison Wheeler is the Wastewater Surveillance Unit Manager at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. She oversees the state program that works with wastewater utilities and local public health agencies to collect and analyze wastewater samples to assess trends of disease within a community. This is an anonymous, cost-effective method that can help allocate resources to communities when we see increasing disease trends.
Andrew Albright is a Water Quality Specialist at the City of Longmont’s Water Quality Laboratory. He oversees the city’s drinking water, wastewater, creek, and reservoir sampling programs. This role requires an intimate knowledge of applicable regulations and sampling protocols to ensure that the water samples collected and analyzed provide accurate data. The work Andrew does is instrumental in protecting public health and the environment.
Annita McCormick is the Environmental Compliance Manager for the City of Louisville. She oversees the Environmental Compliance program, which is responsible for protecting water quality and works with industries, businesses, residents, and municipal operations to reduce pollutants entering the city’s drinking water and waterways. Annita assists with achieving safe drinking water, properly treated wastewater, and pollution-free stormwater by managing and maintaining regulatory compliance in several areas within the program.
Carl Job is a Water Quality Specialist at Boulder County Public Health. He is responsible for managing water quality programs that protect public health. This work includes overseeing drinking water and wastewater systems, responding to waterborne illnesses, and monitoring recreational water sources.
Christine Katz is a Civil Engineer for Public Works and Utilities at the Town of Superior. She organizes and manages road and stormwater maintenance and capital improvement projects for the town. This includes identifying projects that need to be completed, finding funding for them, and procuring and managing design teams and contractors throughout a project. Christine is also the floodplain manager and responsible for the town’s stormwater program. In these roles she ensures the town stays in compliance with FEMA’s floodplain management program and Colorado’s stormwater permit requirements.
Cristina Ramirez is the Keep it Clean Partnership (KICP) Coordinator. KICP is a collaborative program made up of Boulder County, the cities of Boulder, Lafayette, Longmont, and Louisville, and the town of Superior. Cristina supports these communities with their stormwater programs by coordinating professional trainings and doing education and outreach. She spends most of her time creating educational materials and talking to residents, businesses, and schools about how we can protect water quality in our watershed by preventing stormwater pollution.
Darren Beck is the Parks and Open Space Water Program Supervisor for Boulder County. Darren manages Boulder County’s water resources and water rights. He coordinates with the State, ditch companies, and other agencies to oversee that the county’s water rights are available to county tenant farmers and for environmental stream flows. Darren’s team works with attorneys and water resources engineers to develop new water rights and defend the county’s water rights in water court.
Greg Venette is the Utilities Superintendent at the City of Louisville. He oversees the operation, maintenance, and management of the city’s drinking water and wastewater treatment plants.
Hope Bartlett is a Water Conservation Specialist with the City of Longmont. She manages and implements the indoor and outdoor water conservation programs for Longmont community members, including both programs for homes and businesses. Hope works collaboratively across departments in the city—such as Planning, Sustainability, and Natural Resources—to align water efficiency with broader sustainability, equity, and land-use goals. Her role includes coordinating data collection, efficiency measurements, and interacting with the state for annual reporting and collaboration, while also leading community education efforts and partnerships with other local water and sustainability organizations. She supports funding initiatives, such as local, state and federal grants, presents to City Council and advisory boards, and continuously researches best practices to help Longmont address water conservation in a climate-resilient and community-centered way.
Natalie Teaze is a Stormwater Quality Technician at the City of Boulder. Natalie helps keep the stormwater system in Boulder free of pollution. She does this by inspecting and maintaining green infrastructure throughout the city, helping monitor Boulder Creek for bacteria and other pollutants, making sure city construction projects are not polluting, and enforcing city code on illicit discharges to the stormwater system.
Sarah Studebaker is a Senior GIS Analyst at the City of Boulder. Sarah supports water utilities by maintaining and improvement the systems that drive operations, engineering, and planning. She specializes in providing spatial analyses, automating data workflows, and incorporating field data collection into the city’s systems to improve infrastructure management and decision-making. Sarah’s work ensures accurate, accessible data for storm, sewer, and water distribution systems.
Sharla Benjamin is an Engineer and Stream Restoration Project Manager at Boulder County. Sharla leads teams to design and construct large stream and watershed restoration or cleanup projects. Some of the projects she has worked on include: watershed and stream habitat recovery following the 2013 flood, watershed and stream channel recovery from the Calwood fire, post-flood stream restoration that included native fish passage and riparian corridor enhancements for the Preble’s Meadow Jumping Mouse, and finding solutions for treatment of ongoing water contamination associated with legacy hard rock mining that occurred near Nederland, CO.
Stacy is a Water Quality and Environmental Compliance Coordinator with the City of Longmont. Stacy serves as a subject matter expert on a few different water-related regulations and laws. Longmont has a lot of different projects going on around the city, from trail building to housing developments to utility line repairs. She ensures that all this work is done in a way that protects our local waterways and meets the requirements of important water quality regulations. Kayaking (especially on salt water) is her favorite way to spend time outdoors – she prefers the ocean to the mountains!
Taylor McCauley is a Project Manager and Civil Engineer. Taylor manages projects for the City of Louisville’s water and wastewater treatment plants to ensure they are running effectively and kept up to date with treatment requirements. She also manages the city’s Internal Decarbonization project, which has the goal of reducing carbon emissions and prioritizing clean energy sources throughout city buildings, fleet, equipment, and operations. Though not water related, sustainability is all connected in terms of water and energy.
Trevor DePew is the Water Treatment Supervisor for the City of Louisville Water Treatment Department. Trevor leads operations that ensure safe, clean drinking water for the community. He uses his background in biological and environmental science to optimize treatment processes and promote sustainability. Trevor’s role focuses on building a strong, skilled team, while fostering individual career growth; all with the shared goal of protecting public health through innovative and effective water management.
Tyler Dell is the Stormwater Program Manager for the City of Longmont. He leads a team focused on protecting local water quality from stormwater pollution. This role involves overseeing drainage systems, ensuring compliance with environmental regulations, and implementing strategies to prevent pollution from entering rivers and streams. He is also responsible for guiding the design and maintenance of stormwater infrastructure and working with developers to meet water-related standards. Tyler plays a key role in safeguarding the community’s water resources through engineering, policy, and education.