Brent Tippey: Building connections for what comes next

When Brent Tippey talks about the American Water Works Association, he doesn’t start with programs — he starts with people.

“The relationships you build here stay with you; they are durable,” Tippey said when he accepted the gavel as AWWA’s 145th president in June. “That sense of connection — it really does feel like a family — is something I want more members to experience.”

He credits AWWA for his career trajectory, and he hopes his year as president opens the doors and forges the types of relationships that he has come to appreciate through the AWWA community.

About 20 years ago, a colleague facing serious health challenges asked Tippey to step into a volunteer leadership role on the Manufacturers/Associates Council for the Kentucky-Tennessee Section. That “yes” marked a turning point.

“That’s what took me from being affiliated with AWWA to being involved with AWWA,” he said. “And it turned out to be transformational for me — personally and professionally.”

From there, Tippey became more engaged, serving in leadership roles throughout the Kentucky-Tennessee Section and eventually at the association level, including chairing the Water Treatment Facilities Design and Construction Committee.

Looking back, he credits that early opportunity — and the relationships that followed — with reshaping his career.

“My trajectory is exponentially different than if I had just stayed on the sidelines,” he said.

It’s a lesson that now informs one of his central priorities as president: helping more members make that same leap from participation to engagement. He says that starts with reinforcing what he sees as AWWA’s defining strength — its sense of community. Having visited sections across North America, he sees that dynamic repeated throughout the association.

“All of the sections have that family atmosphere,” he said. “It’s easy to recognize.”

As president, he wants to build on that foundation by strengthening connections across sections, creating clearer pathways for new members, and ensuring more people feel a sense of belonging early in their AWWA experience.

At the same time, Tippey said he is looking toward how AWWA can evolve to better serve its members in a rapidly changing environment. In a crowded field of associations, he said, demonstrating value and relevance is critical.

His focus is on improving how members access information, connect with one another, and apply the association’s vast resources.

“The issues are different today than they were 145 years ago, but the need for advancement is still there,” he said. “We need committed people who are ready to use their talents to solve what comes next.”

That includes addressing emerging challenges, while continuing long-term initiatives like Water 2050 and advancing the value of water. As a top executive at HDR overseeing drinking water projects along the East Coast of the United States, he understands the evolving challenges of providing safe and clean drinking water.

His understanding of water’s importance, though, began at an early age. Raised in Kentucky’s farm country in a family business building water tanks for communities, he said he quickly grew to appreciate how much relies on a resilient water supply.

“When you’re a farmer, it doesn’t take you long to understand the value of water,” he said.

Watching his father build a business from the ground up — through both challenges and successes — left a lasting impression, too. It shapes how Tippey views his own work.

“I’ve worked for communities with 600 people and communities with 4 million people,” he said. “Some of the most challenging work you’ll ever do is at the smallest scale, where resources are limited. But there’s a lot of satisfaction on both ends of that spectrum.”

Throughout it all, Tippey continues to return to a simple but powerful idea: Progress in the water sector ultimately depends on people and their willingness to engage.

“The reward is in the risk,” he said during his gavel acceptance. “You don’t always know where saying ‘yes’ will lead. But I believe big things are coming.”