Kris Donaldson, Clean Water Public Advocate for the State of Michigan, will guide SI 501: Contextual Inquiry and Consulting Foundations students through key issues concerning drinking water for Great Lakes region residents. This talk will engage the information perspectives related to contaminants, affordability, infrastructure, and conservation, highlighting data collection, system design, and information access-related challenges and endeavors. This talk is open to UM community members.

Speaker: Kris Donaldson serves as the public advocate in the Office of Clean Water Public Advocate (OCWPA) within the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). Her office ensures the public can report drinking water concerns through the statewide concerns reporting system. Kris joined state government as a drinking water engineer, regulating Wayne County community water supplies in accordance with the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act. She went on to supervise drinking water staff regulating more than 200 community water supplies in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and St. Clair counties. She previously worked in the private sector as an environmental engineer for an environmental consulting firm. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in environmental engineering from Michigan Technological University and is a licensed professional engineer in Michigan.

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