“Wastewater Treatment as if People Mattered!”
Date: Thursday, October 27, 2022
Time: 4:30 P.M. EST
Location: University Center Room 303
Stream Online: https://lehigh.zoom.us/j/99789665677
Dr. Lilia A. Abron, P.E., BCEE, NAE
CEO/President and Founder of PEER Consultants, P.C.
Washington, D.C.
Abstract
"Access to clean, reliable running water and safe sanitation are baseline conditions for health, prosperity, and well-being.” The CDC and the US Water Alliance recognize the local/U.S. and global challenges that many countries face to provide these basic needs to their populations (especially communities of color and lower-income individuals), leaving people at risk for water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)-related diseases. More than two million Americans lack access to running water, indoor plumbing, or wastewater services. Better water access would allow vulnerable communities to thrive.” (US Water Alliance, “Closing the Water Access Gap in the United States”, 2019.) Could it be that one is so focused on the technologies for the delivery of these basic services that the needs, desires, and resources of the beneficiaries (the people) are overlooked? New technologies and business models are available that are enabling the shift from sanitation as waste management to a delivery system called “The Sanitation Economy” – i.e., sanitation solutions for climate change, water & food security, health sector, enabling female health and empowerment, smart city infrastructure, food, consumer goods, and other waste sectors. (Water Research Commission, Toilet Board Coalition, RSA, 2020). This talk focuses on delivering a ‘sanitation economy’ because People Do Matter.
About Dr. Lilia A. Abron
Dr. Lilia A. Abron, P.E., BCEE, NAE is the CEO/President and Founder of PEER Consultants, P.C. (PEER). She is the first African-American woman in the nation to earn a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and the first African-American to start an engineering consulting firm focused on environmental issues and concerns relating to the physical and human environments. To help advance the condition of the impoverished sector worldwide using sustainability measures, Lilia also founded PEER Africa Western Cape, CC in 1995. Dr. Abron holds a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Lemoyne College in Memphis, TN, with Distinction; an M.S. degree in Environmental and Sanitary Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis; and, in 1972, Dr. Abron obtained her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Iowa. Professionally, she has been bestowed the highest honors from many professional organizations – Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), election to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Fellow, to name a few. As of January 2021, she became President of The American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES). She is the mother of three males, and has six grandchildren, only one of which is a female.
For further inquiries, please contact:
Beth Yen
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
(610) 758-3566
bsy296@lehigh.edu