April 28-May 2, 2025 will be the very first DC Climate Week - an initiative led by ClimateTech Investors and Startup Founders (some of whom have participated in WaterCitizen's WaterPitch! Water Startup Matching Extravaganza events).

WaterTech receives less than 3% of ClimateTech investments, which is reflected in the DC Climate Week program which essentiallly leaves Water out of the discussions on 3 critical days of this event:

Technology & Innovations (Day 1: Mon 4/28)
Policy & Advocacy (Day 2: Tue 4/29)
Finance & Economics and Jobs (Day 3: Wed 4/30)

Upon review of this program, we asked ourselves ...

Where's Water???

NOTE: There are a few other "Water" speakers included in the official DCCW HUB programs, but these are confined to Day 4: Nature (oceans, icecaps and aquatic ecosystems) and the very last day of the week, Day 5, which is the "Kitchen Sink" Day (a hodgepodge of programs on Mobility, Urban Development ... and, oh yeah, Water)

This Session will feature Speaker Panels, Lightning Sessions/Pitches from Water Entrepreneurs and Innovators, and Facilitated Audience Discussion on technologies addressing water and wastewater utilities as well as the many Industrial water needs for Energy, Manufacturing, Agriculture and other uses, and efforts to avoid, minimize and mitigate impacts on water from these activities.

We will also explore the challenges facing Investors and Startup Founders, what the barriers are to investment in Water Tech, and how to overvcome those barriers.

PRESENTERS:

Kimberly Nelson, True Elements
(Former USEPA Chief Inforamtion Officer)
Gregory Holliday, World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Patrick Ho, Forager Station
Susan Springsteen, H2O Connected
Ameet Chaudhury, Anura Innovation
Jane Pratt, Fisher H2O
Michael O'Brien Siol VC/MOB Government Relations

Water Utilities and Agencies often rely on funding, financing and project permitting and approvals by Federal, State, and Local Governments and Board Members. During times when political climates are changing, the language used to talk about water projects and programs often change to connect with specific audiences while ensuring we fulfill the mission.

This Session will feature Speaker Panels, Lightning Sessions/Pitches from Water Entrepreneurs and Innovators, and Facilitated Audience Discussion on how Water Professionals and Entrepreneurs can address the needs to protect water quality, provide clean safe and reliable water supplies, and increase resilience of water infrastructure in the face of changing weather patterns, more extreme weather events and water-related disasters, while also dealing with changing political climates.

PRESENTERS:

Josh Johnson, LSI
(Former Committee Staff, Senate Energy & Natural Resources)
Kimberly Nelson, True Elements
(Former USEPA Chief Information Officer)
Jessica Evans, Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA)
Sharon Homer-Drummond, PhD, AAAS Fellow
Linda Toth, Arup
Kobe Nagar, 1Watermark
Michael O'Brien Siol VC/MOB Government Relations

This Session will feature Speaker Panels, Lightning Sessions/Pitches from Water Entrepreneurs and Innovators, and Facilitated Audience Discussion on how City and Regional Planners take an integrated approach to management of water and other resources while also integrating economic development - including changing uses of water such as the addition of new industries (e.g. data center cooling water needs and water for nuclear power plants planned to provide energy to data centers).

We'll discuss the role of Water Utilites as "Anchor Institutions" critical for Jobs and Economic Development, and about Green Buildings and Water in the Home.

PRESENTERS:

Jennifer Morrissey Esq, Dentons, Smart Cities and Connected Communites Think Tank
Kimberly Nelson, True Elements
(Former USEPA Chief Information Officer)
Michele Heyward EIT, PositiveHire
Jordan Taylor, SynergyGrid
Susan Springsteen, H2O Connected

About WaterCitizen.Org, Founder DrCat Shrier, and Our WaterPreneurSHIP Initiative Programs and Events

WaterCitizen.Org was founded in 2012 by DrCat Shrier to creates virtual and in-person convenings and programs on water designed to educate, engage, and enroll!

DrCat has developed these programs and events with insights and connections gained through her 30+ years of experience working in Water Planning and Policy - often organizing and facilitating "convenings" of water experts, policy and business leaders, and other stakeholders around sensitive water issues. She has served on a National Academy of Sciences Study Committee and Federal Advisory Committee on Water Information (ACWI) Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable (SWRR), and was the only non-federal employee included in the Federal Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Committee on Freshwater.

Like many of the WaterPreneurs we work with, DrCat began her education and experience in WaterPreneurSHIP after a mid-career interruption. In her case, she had worked her way up to being the first woman engineer eligible to be considered for an Associate position in a global environmental consulting firm - while working in an office where some of the male principals and associates openly opposed the inclusion of women among their ranks.

Moving back to Washington, DC, where her career bean, DrCat "hung her shingle" for her own water planning and policy consultancy. Among her many clients, she worked under contract with the University of the District of Columbia (DC's only public university and land grant school) for 3 years on the reinstatement of the DC Water Institute at UDC and the organization and facilitation of outreach programs such as the semester-long weekly DC Area Water Issues Program - bringing together top water leaders from throughout the DMV.

She began learning the BUSINESS SIDE of WaterPrenuerSHIP such as how to produce and deliver Pitchdecks and Business Plans through organizations such as Springboard Enterprises, Mentor Capital Network, the Angel Venture Forum, then completing a Graduate Certificate in Multimedia Journalism at UMD while studying Multimedia Entrepreneurship and working with the UMD Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship.

She also worked with many of the top leaders in the rapidly growing coaching/transformation knowledge-based business arena to learn both in-person and virtual program development, marketing and enrollment, and delivery methods - moving to California where many of these virtual coaching and education business leaders were based - and completed the Hera Labs Accelerator Program.

In addition to her extensive experience organizing and facilitating Water Planning, Collaborative Resource Management, and Policy Meetings, she is a Certified Transformational Workshop Facilitator, Transformational Coach and Transformational Mastermind Facilitator.

She has brought this unique combination of more than 3 decades of Water Experience with her Transformational Coaching and Facilitation Skills (focusing on Virtual programs and events) to the development of programs for Water Professionals and Entrepreneurs such as:

The Virtual Water Entrepreneurship Lab;
Water Innovation Nation Celebration Virtual Summit;
League of Extraordinary Women Of Water Mastermind Mentorship Membership
WaterPreneurSHIP Elevation Leaders Lab (The W.E.L.L.) Mastermind Mentorship Membership
Keys to Water in Congress for WaterPreneurSHIP (KWIC-E)

The Water-Climate Nexus

April 28-May 30, 2025 | Washington, DC

About DC Climate Week and WaterCitizen Events

The Water-Climate Nexus

3-Part Event Series

Water and Climate Innovation and Technology For Water & Industrial Sectors

Water, Policy, and Communications on Resiliency and Sustainability During Changing Climates

Water and Innovations in Sustainable Cities, Green Buildings & Economic Development

About WaterCitizen.Org, Founder DrCat Shrier, and Our WaterPreneurSHIP Initiative Programs and Events