From Aqueducts to Asset Management: Navigating to a Water Career

Just a few short years ago, I made the decision to change career paths—little did I know where that road would take me. My name is Emily Parker and I work as the Assets Coordinator for the Town of Marana Water Department. You may be asking yourself…what exactly is an Assets Coordinator? It’s a question I get asked rather often and one that I struggle answering at times to be quite honest; let me give it a go, but first let me provide some background. 

Being new to the water industry and being new to working in local government has been such an eye-opening experience. My background is a bit all over the place. I tend to think of myself a Jane of all trades, master of none. I initially went to school to study performance theatre—a couple years in, I took some cultural anthropology classes and became deeply interested in understanding how the past has influenced the present and in turn, how the present impacts the future. I decided to change my major to Comparative Cultural Studies. Again, you may be asking yourself…what exactly does that entail? In a nutshell, my degree focused on humanities and understanding what drives culture, how people create meaning in their lives as it relates to that culture. Long story short, I graduated and ended up going back to school again to study business, which then led me to work in education and eventually retail. Because my background is a bit varied, ironically, I stumbled in searching for my own meaning. I had spent so much time studying how other cultures search for meaning that I had neglected finding my own. 

I spent 4 years on that path while working in education and retail before taking a job as an intern for the Town of Marana. The job entailed collecting the Town’s assets for the Public Works department. I had no clue what to expect but I tend to be technologically inclined so after a few months, I moved to work in the Town Manager’s Office and was tasked to implement asset management in Water and Parks and Recreation. I did that for 9 months or so before I was asked to choose which department I’d like to work exclusively for; a decision I did not take lightly by any means. I would be lying if I said I didn’t consider the possibility of working for Parks and Recreation simply just to live out my Leslie Knope fantasy. A geek to the core, I began thinking about the cultural significance of each department. On one hand, parks provide so much joy and interconnectivity to the community, but the necessity of water reeled me in. I thought about the ancient civilizations I studied and how water itself can make or break a community. I thought of The Maya civilization and how a significant aspect of their disappearance is thought to be from drought. They had built innovative reservoirs, but the lack of water played quite a role in their downfall. I thought of the ancient city of Pompeii which had high levels of fluoride in their water. This allowed citizens the luxury of excellent dental hygiene as well as extremely fertile lands for their crops—a selling point that drew many to settle in the ancient city. Unfortunately, what they may not have known is that the fertile land was the result of an element called fluorine which naturally occurred in volcano ash. The promise of harvestable land and an intricate water distribution system put Pompeii on the map until, well, you know…

Water is a critical resource in civilizations past and present and I couldn’t help but want to get my feet wet (pun intended) and learn more about the water industry of today. The work I perform on a daily basis is a far cry from the ancient Roman aqueducts that I studied in college, but I’d like to think that the diverse background I have suits me well for my job. My main responsibility is implementing and maintaining our asset management program for Water—this includes everything from mapping out infrastructure, generating preventative maintenance schedules, capturing all work performed in the field digitally, training staff to use new apps and technology, creating maps…essentially anything technological will make its way to my desk. In a nutshell, it’s digital cartography meets data science and analytical work management. Working in education has been invaluable when training staff. It’s always important to understand that not everyone learns in the same way and it’s been a wonderful experience being out in the field with our crews and seeing how we can leverage technology to our advantage. Understanding what motivates people, what their meaning is, and their “why” is very important especially in the age of technology. There is such a human element to technology that often gets overlooked. Sure, we are living in the age of autonomous cars and social media but at the core, technology is a thread that links us all together.  

As someone new to water, I am fascinated with learning the different aspects of the industry. To be honest, I never knew how much work it took for me to simply turn on my faucet and have water! But now, I work with all of our divisions of water and am seeing first hand how hard our crews work to provide water to our community. It’s been an eye-opening experience to say the least and one that I wouldn’t trade for the world. I am amazed by the work our field staff performs and being able to capture that work in a digitized manner makes it even more exciting to me! I never envisioned myself working in water, or local government for that matter, but I am continually pleasantly surprised with how rewarding and exciting this industry is to work in. 

Water is so diverse and fluid (literally and figuratively) and it leaves room for people from all walks of life and backgrounds. Working in this industry allows me to utilize all of the unique skill sets I’ve picked up over the years. Studying theatre has allowed me to put myself in someone else’s shoes while cultural studies allowed me to understand the why that motivates people. Studying business gave me the advantage of having a broader understanding of the financial aspect of asset management, and working in retail and education granted me patience and understanding. Water is all of these things and so much more—it’s providing a service to our community and the sense of pride that comes with that. Water connects us all and it’s been especially beautiful to me to see how the past has influenced the present. The ancient Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, The Maya—we’ve taken aspects of their innovations in water and implemented them thousands of years later while leveraging new technology to create our own meaning in the here and now, and in doing so, we learn from the past to ensure future generations will be able to do the same.