From Intern to Supervisor

Meet Caroline Blackwell

Caroline Blackwell was in her junior year at Hollins University when her Microbial Ecology class came on a tour of the Water Pollution Control Plant. This experience was inspiring for her and opened the door for the start of her career here at the Water Authority.

In May 2022, Caroline started as an intern at Spring Hollow to help manage the lead and copper compliance sampling that was taking place last summer. During her internship, she was able to job shadow the laboratory analysts to gain a hands-on understanding of what their day-to-day responsibilities include. She moved to Wastewater at the end of the lead and copper project, where she worked closely with Lisa Workman on paperwork and compliance

Caroline graduated in December 2022 with a B S in Biology and a B A in Environmental Studies She always had plans to stay local, and when the opportunity came for her to apply for the open lab supervisor position, she took the chance She said, "From the interview to my first day, I have had the best team to help me transition and be the best leader I can be "

Our internships are great opportunities for young people to explore careers at the Water Authority. "Working as an intern gave me real-life experience with skills I had learned throughout my college career," Caroline explained. "Networking, project management, and data organization are all things I used during my internship that helped me prepare for my career." We look forward to watching Caroline grow in her field and as a leader here at the Water Authority.

In the Field with Our GIS Team

Our GIS Technician Team plays an essential role in the Water Authority. They are the key to keeping accurate records, surveying, locating and identifying our assets throughout our water and wastewater systems. This data is then used to populate our GIS data maps When surveying assets such as manholes, they look at the GPS location, depth and directional flow of the service line Sometimes they need to use special tools, such as metal detectors, to find manholes that are buried underground

Megan Cupka, GIS Tech II, joined the Authority last year and has become a critical member of the GIS team Her role balances work in both the field and in the office to verify the Authority's assets and update our mapping systems She shared, "I really enjoy the people I get to work with and how varied the work is in this job. It's been a really great learning opportunity, and I'm gaining a lot of new skills."

Not only does this work help the Authority know where our assets are located, but it is an essential part of the design process for any new project Sonya Fox, GIS Tech III, has been with the Authority for 15 years, and spends most of her days in the field Sonya shared, "When our engineers are designing a project, they send us out to take inventory of all of the assets that they need They will design the project around the elevation and locations of assets that we have found. This also helps them know where fences and property lines are."

Thank you to these hard working women and the whole GIS Tech team to keeping such meticulous records of our assets across the Water Authority!