AWWA Board selects officers, Cheryl Porter next president-elect

Cheryl Porter, a 17-year member of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and chief operating officer of water and field services at Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) in Detroit, is the Association’s next president-elect. She is the first Afro-American person and woman of color to hold that position at AWWA.

A member of the AWWA Finance committee and a past AWWA vice president, Porter has been with GLWA since 2016 and is active with the Michigan Section. She has a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Michigan, a Juris Doctor from the University of Detroit Law School, and an MBA from Madonna University.

Porter is one of seven new officers elected by AWWA’s Board of Directors during its annual winter meeting Jan. 14 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She and four newly-elected vice presidents and two directors-at-large will begin their terms in June after AWWA’s Annual Conference & Exposition (ACE23) in Toronto. 

Joe Jacangelo, AWWA’s current president, has worked with Porter on the AWWA Board. “Cheryl brings to AWWA a wide range of experience, having superlative knowledge and skills from a technical, managerial, and business perspective,” he said. “Her foresight and vision will be instrumental in guiding our Association’s Water 2050 initiative and assuring success in meeting future water community challenges.” 

Porter’s term will follow that of current President-Elect Pat Kerr, chair, president and CEO of Baton Rouge Water Works Co. in Louisiana.  

“I am honored to have been selected as AWWA’s incoming president-elect,” Porter said. “When people see me and look at my career path, I might not be what one would traditionally expect as the president-elect of a national organization, but my non-traditional story began with a drop of water under a microscope in a Detroit Public High School and has spanned nearly three decades to bring me to this barrier-breaking moment in the water sector.

“The focus of my leadership tenure at AWWA will center around three words that I believe exemplify what I have to offer the organization and its members — community (protecting public health, safety and the environment), care (supporting my water sector colleagues through the myriad of challenges we all face), and commitment (collaborating to make a difference through innovation and advancement),” she added. “I look forward to what we will continue to accomplish and to furthering important initiatives such as Water 2050, which I believe will help us build a better world through better water.”

The four vice presidents elected by the AWWA Board are:

• Marcus Firman – AWWA member since 2008, member of the Ontario Section and advisor on water and wastewater for the District of Muskoka in Ontario 
• Mary Gugliuzza – AWWA member since 1997, member of the Texas Section and media relations and communications coordinator for the City of Fort Worth
• Christine Spitzley – AWWA member since 1994, member of the Michigan Section and principal at OHM Advisors
• Brent Tippey – AWWA member since 1998, member of the Kentucky/Tennessee Section and vice president/water program delivery manager, East Region, HDR Engineering

The Board also selected Amy Stoffer as director-at-large and Jeff Zdrojewski as director-at-large representing service providers. Stoffer, a member of AWWA and the Kentucky/Tennessee Section since 1989, has served as vice president of engineering, production, and water quality for the Northern Kentucky Water District since joining the organization in 2016. Zdrojewski, a member of AWWA and the New York Section since 1986, is business development director for Pure Technologies, a Xylem Brand, where he has worked since 2016. He is a former chair of the Manufacturers/Associates Council.