Title: Water is Life: Alissa Diminich, ‘08, ‘09

[00:00:06,280] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Welcome to the Engineering Career Conversations. I'm Christa Downey, Director of the Engineering Career Center at Cornell University. 

[00:00:14,240] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: And I'm Traci Nathans-Kelly, Director of the Engineering Communications Program. We are excited to bring you this forum where we will host lively conversations that we hope will inspire you. 

[00:00:28,230] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Today, we're joined by Alissa Diminich. Alissa is a principal engineer at Inflo Design Group, primarily working on drinking water and wastewater projects. She has her bachelors and masters, both from Cornell, in civil and environmental engineering. While at Cornell, she was a member of the AguaClara project team and as an alumnus, has served on the board of the nonprofit AguaClara Reach, which works to advance the design and innovation of community scale gravity powered water treatment technologies. Hello, Alissa, how are you? 

[00:01:02,829] ALISSA DIMINICH: I'm good, thanks. How are you? 

[00:01:04,550] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Good. It's great to have you here today. 

[00:01:07,189] ALISSA DIMINICH: Thank you. I'm happy to be here. 

[00:01:09,470] CHRISTA DOWNEY: So our first question is pretty basic. We want you to tell us about your current work. What are you working on? What are you excited about? 

[00:01:16,824] ALISSA DIMINICH:Sure. So I'm currently, I'm a civil engineer. I work primarily in water and wastewater design. And so right now I'm doing a lot of drinking water work and that can be really varied. So I'm in the middle Tennessee area, right near Nashville, and this area is experiencing so much population growth that infrastructure is just like pushing hard to keep up. So for a lot of water utilities in this region, what that means  a lot of planning that needs to happen and they have significant work to do to just keep up with the growing demands. And so in my role, I'm not only helping with specific designs for treatment, for water distribution, but also just helping them think through, okay, what do we need and how do we get there? And so it's a lot of that planning and looking at an overall program for growing their system. And not just, oh, we need one of these. We need a new pump station. We need this at the treatment plant. It's what do we need? We know we need more, but how do we get there? 

[00:02:26,299] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Well, I've worked with a lot of water engineers and water engineering adjacent fields, a lot of professionals over the years. And so what they tell me is no two days are ever the same. And so we were wondering, what does your day look like? You know, do you have an average pattern or something? 

[00:02:44,749] ALISSA DIMINICH: I think what you're saying is absolutely the way it goes because it really depends on where you are in a certain project process. So right now I could say, I think of it as pretty fortunate to be spending a lot of time with one of our clients. Helping them with a lot of work that they're doing at their treatment plant. So that's neat because I can stay so focused with them. And sometimes that some days I work from home, so sometimes I'm at home working on some designs for them, or talking to various manufacturers about new equipment they need. But then I also spend a day a week down at the water treatment plant and just talk to them about what's going on, what's working well, where they've had problems, give them some updates for the things that I have been designing for them. And really just try to get that feedback, say, hey, you guys are the ones who are here every single day running this plant. How is that going? What can we do better? What can we provide in this next set of designs that will make your lives easier? Because it's hard. I mean, they have so much responsibility that we kind of all take for granted. Even as an engineer who helps design these systems. When I'm home I turn on the faucet. I expected to be water, and I expect it to be safe. And I know more of the background that goes into that, obviously, but they're the folks who are actually out there every day making sure it happens. And that's a lot of pressure. I look at how can I best help them so it's not quite so much pressure. So it's a little bit ss stressful and they know they have systems that are reliable and that function well for them. So, so that's a lot of what it's like for me right now, but it just changes so much depending on what you're doing. And if you have a lot of different projects at one time, which is much more common, you're kind of bouncing back and forth between those different needs and having to prioritize things in that way. I have also spent a lot of time on site for construction projects, so I was a resident engineer during our recent construction project where I was on site of the water treatment plant for about a year and a half. And that was so exciting to see things that I've designed get built and make sure that they were built right. And we worked with a great contractor, so it, it simplified things a lot, but that was just a really good experience because it brings so much more into the design thinking through. Okay, I've seen how this actually gets built. I've seen how it goes when the operators have to use it the first time around. How can we make this better the next time we design it? 

[00:05:27,630] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: A lot of the water engineering experts that I've worked with in the past talk about a sense of responsibility because water is life. It is what it comes down to. I've had some particularly poignant interactions with water engineers that work with folks, with indigenous populations, for example, because their construct around water is much different, right? There's spirituality. The water is life for all of us, right? We're not going to go much without it. But your note here about, I expect to turn on the faucet and I expect it to be safe. Can you talk about your experience or the framework that you're working with, what you bring regarding those kinds of notions to your work? 

[00:06:18,479 ] ALISSA DIMINICH: I mean, I think that there's probably several ways that question can be interpreted. So let me know if I'm kind of in line with what you're trying to ask. But we're so privileged, right? Like I look at my life and everything that's around. I think, like I'm so fortunate. And so when I phrase that, I turn on my faucet and I expect water to come out and that it's safe. That's from a very specific point of view that knowing what we are capable in my physical location in middle Tennessee, there's no reason that the population here shouldn't have access to clean, safe drinking water. I think that should carry through globally. I don't think that effort is always seen through ever. I think there are lots of places that are not as fortunate and just have historically, because of everything that's happened in our world, don't have that. They should. Everyone should have access to safe drinking water. And we don't as a collective. I think from my perspective was my current job, I'm working in this region and trying to make sure that we are helping our clients, the water utilities that we're working with, to continue to provide that in this region. And then for me personally, and I'm sure there are lots of water professionals who may have different ways they pursue that kind of goal outside of the local setting. Like for me personally, I think it's important to continue to share expertise in other settings as well. Whether that's just having conversations with your neighbors about infrastructure because that's what I know about. And making sure that people are just generally more aware of where things are coming from so we don't take it too much for granted. Or doing things like being involved in nonprofits that work in other areas of the world, or even in the US, actually, that are less fortunate to have that resource. It's easy to say international and ignore that there are absolutely areas in the US that have some issues with say, drinking water. So I think, you know, I have some conversation, but I've worked with a nonprofit AguaClara Reach, which actually was born out of a design team at Cornell. The Agua Clara design team and has continued on. There is still the student team, but there's a nonprofit, AguaClara Reach, and for me that work is really important because it's sharing drinking water treatment technology that fits in a lot of areas where other technology doesn't. It's very specific, there are places it won't work well or it's just not the right fit. But there are places that it's exactly what's needed. To me, that's been really important work because it's all open source. There's been a ton of technology advancements that have come through AguaClara Reach that are all out there. Anyone can access them at any point. That still can be a challenge, right? Because you still need your like access to internet. If you speak English, right? If you're in another language, you know that could be a barrier. So AguaClara Reach has volunteers and staff who can help with those designs as well and who work with local partners to make sure that these things are progressing well and that they're lending that expertise. To me, that's a way of not only doing my job that I like and that's my job here, but thinking about the bigger picture. And thinking globally, what am I doing to help improve things? 

[00:10:15,750] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Thank you. That was beautiful, perfect. So you have some really wonderful perspectives when it comes to what is challenging at work and how to overcome it. And it even touches upon imposture syndrome. So can you walk us through some of those ideas that you have? 

[00:10:32,849] ALISSA DIMINICH: My take on things tends to be that once I've gotten through the challenge, looking back on it, I'm like, that wasn't so bad. Because I made it, right? Like I figured it out. I worked through it with whatever support I had to do that. So I sometimes struggle with that. Looking back and saying, well, what was the hard part in this? I think for me personally, early on in my career, I felt a lot of imposture syndrome. And I know you guys have had folks on the podcast talk about that a lot. And that was really hard for me just feeling like there were things I was supposed to know and didn't know. And then being afraid that people would realize I didn't know the things they thought I supposed to know, and I don't know when it clicked. But at some point I realized that it's such a joy to not know things. I find it so exciting to learn new things. When I now interact with new folks in this field and working with someone and think, man, this person is so smart, they know their stuff, they're an expert in this area. I get so excited to ask them questions. I'm just like, I have a million things I want to know. I'm going to ask you about this thing, you seem to know a lot about that. I've never heard of it before, can you tell me? And so at some point, there was definitely a shift from being afraid of asking the questions and admitting that you didn't know that thing. To being so excited to meet people who had knowledge that I could learn from. And I wish I had figured that out sooner and I'm not sure what it took to get to that point, but I try to tell that to a lot of the younger engineers I work with is like ask all the questions. There's never a better time to learn. Wherever you are, it's just so exciting you can learn so many things. So if I'm explaining something and not doing a good job or I explain something and you get it. But now you have a question about something else, keep asking. And same thing goes for other folks you work with. Like if you don't know something and someone expects you to, they're going to figure it out, all right? So you might as well ask the questions because there's no problem with that. So I just look at that and I wish I had figured that out earlier, but then at the same time, I'm so glad that I've come to that conclusion now. And I think in my opinion, I feel like that gets a lot of respect from people because they know that you're not pretending to be an expert at something. You're not pretending you don't know something. If I tell someone something with confidence, they listen. I know this is how this thing works. Here's what I've seen in my experience. Here's the knowledge I gained in the course of my my almost 15 years now since I graduated. They know they can believe me because I'm more than happy to admit when I don't know something. And I think that helps so many of the conversations that I have in my professional experience, but also in my personal experiences. So yeah, I think I just struggled with a impostor syndrome and with some confidence early on. And then like I said, just at some point, that all sort of clicked over. And I feel like a lot of my coworkers would probably tell you guys, I just talk a lot and have a lot of confidence in what I'm saying and I ask a lot of questions. But I think it's just a switch in how you choose to perceive the situation. 

[00:14:09,805] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: When we were preparing for this interview, one of the elements that you wanted to talk about in particular was how you see your life and work now through the lens of motherhood. And can you talk us through what you meant by that? 

[00:14:22,709] ALISSA DIMINICH: Yeah, absolutely. So I have currently two children. I've got a son and a daughter, so almost three, almost one. And so I'm just in the thick of that early childhood motherhood experience. And I think when I was younger and I looked forward in my life and imagined being a mother, at some point, I had a lot of fears about how that would impact my career and how that I may be seen, or what that time and effort and commitment would look like. And I have just found that it's one of the most challenging experiences in my life, being a mother. But it makes me care a lot more about the work I'm doing as well. And it makes me care a lot more about the, the way my life fits together, meaning that work life balance. But also the type of people I work with and for. So I'm really fortunate to be an employee of a small business here in middle Tennessee, Inflo Design Group, and my boss is just fantastic. We have a very, very flexible set up. I often think, and I know I've said this, I said this after I had my first son and came back from maternity leave. And I'm sure I've said it since I'm my daughter. I don't know how I would balance my life. If I had to have a more typical, like corporate life in an office, it wouldn't work. If something would have given. And when it comes to my family or my job, it would have been my job. Like I would have left a place that had too much of that, not enough flexibility. Let me say it that way. So we are just set up to really support people in their balance. And so I look at that and I was so fortunate to be really flexible with what I planned for my maternity leave, how I planned my return, how I've worked since coming back. I mean, my daughter's almost a year, so I haven't had a full year back yet. And I'm still kind of ramping up because life is tough, kids are tough. And they get sick a lot. So I look at that and I think back and I had all these fears and I'm at this place where I think I'm just so fortunate. And so much of that is because I've been able to work at a company that is set up to support people. So then it creates a really stark contrast, seeing places that aren't and seeing peers and friends trying to navigate some of those challenges. And just thinking like, gosh, folks running companies have got to do a better job at supporting our people. That has to be such a big priority because otherwise everyone struggles, right? Like how are we doing our best? How are we, in my field, with water, how are we designing things and supporting the water industry and making sure that we have this resource that we're taking care of and providing to people when people are struggling. It's been so interesting to me to go through this experience and get that major perspective shift, just thinking through more of how I interact with people and, and be kind to people. I mean, like, that seems so obvious, right? That like you just everyone's got things they're doing, everyone's got their life, everyone's got challenges that you may or may not know about. And people are trying their best. And so I think I've just had a lot of perspective shifts in the last couple of years where I maybe give people the benefit of the doubt a bit more. 

[00:18:22,539] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: I think that's a common thing after the pandemic, right? 

[00:18:26,039] ALISSA DIMINICH: I hope that people find positives there. Right. 

[00:18:32,379] CHRISTA DOWNEY: So, what you're talking about with work and motherhood and the flexibility is about equity in the workplace here. And you've talked about equity with water and the sustainability of it. Can you talk more just about this intersection of equity, health, and stability with the work you do? And then also who else you're collaborating with beyond your particular organization to reach this broader vision. 

[00:19:11,835] ALISSA DIMINICH: Yeah, so that's such a broad question and I want to try to answer some of it without pretending that I figured out all of the secrets of the world. But I think I try to look at things from a day to day perspective and then from a bigger goals perspective and try to handle those separately because they are very separate. I look at day to day and I'm trying to do the best for the water utilities that I work with so that they can do their job the best they can. Some of that is very technical and trying to give them the best technical answers we can. The best options for water treatment, for water distribution. But sometimes it's just talking to people. Like, what are the challenges you are facing as an individual human that I'm sitting face to face with? Because we're all different, right? And so working with so many different water groups, they may be facing similar technological challenges. But that doesn't mean we're going to give them the same technological solution. Because the people who are using them are different. And the strengths and weaknesses of one group of people working together can be totally different than the strengths and weaknesses of another group. That piece, that human element, which seems so obvious to say it now, but we miss that sometimes. You think about, okay, here's your challenge, your technical challenge, here's how you solve that. It's like, well, sure, but there's five different ways to solve that. Which one is going to work for this person best? Or this organization that has a specific culture best? I think about that a lot when we're working with our client. I also think that, and I've alluded to this a little bit, but who we work for and the organizations we choose to be part of carries a lot of weight. And I say that knowing I'm very privileged to say that is a choice, right, because we don't always have as much choice in our jobs. How we provide like for our lives, for our families as maybe I wish everyone did, but I've been so fortunate to work for the company I do. In addition to just the fact that we take care of our people. Inflo Design Group has existed since 2015. In that time, we've donated more than $1 million to various charitable organizations. We're a small company, now we're at 17 people. That's a lot of money to provide to various organizations that are doing real good in the world. We tend to focus on water related groups because that's something we know we all care about. But we also look at local organizations for middle Tennessee and things that we can do there. So when there's, you know, natural disasters or things like that, we're helping to support the community. So for me, knowing that I'm putting my time into a job that's directly impacting water, I'm helping to create profit for a company that is then putting that back out into the world in a way that I also support. That are organizations that I think are doing good work. And then I keep going kind of bigger and bigger. Stepping that up then, personally being involved volunteering for different organizations. Like I was mentioning AguaClara Reach earlier, nonprofit that's just doing great work to spread water treatment technology and knowledge there. And then that's helping other communities around the world. So there's sort of all these different places that can fit together. And I don't expect everyone to be doing all of those at once because that's too much of an ask. There's got to be a balance. But I think it's something that we can be purposeful with in our lives. And that's something I try to, I try to circle back to when I'm not totally overwhelmed with all the other million things that are going on. But when I stop and think about it, I want to see kind of those various levels relating to how we can leave things better than you found them. That sort of perspective is important to me. It doesn't have to be totally fixed. You know, I'm not looking to say, oh, I've solved all the world's problems today, but did I do something that left it better than I found it? And I think that's a good perspective to kind of keep making those incremental steps forward. 

[00:24:07,930] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Thank you so much for that. 

[00:24:10,549] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Alissa, what do you wish you knew as a sophomore? 

[00:24:14,069] ALISSA DIMINICH: I wish I wasn't just looking at the checklist. I need to get through to graduate. I think I was very much, you know, you go through high school, you're in high school and you're looking to go like a good college or university. You have your checklist, you're trying to get your good grades, have your extra curriculars be involved in various things, and then you get to college and it's okay, what's my major going to be? What are the requirements for that major? Who do I need to talk to to figure out which class I should take? How do I do well in that class? Not so much, if I could go back thinking about being at Cornell, not having to work a full time job beyond being a student, there's so many cool things, right? Like there's so many things I could just learn for fun. And granted, that may not always exactly line up with getting the best grades. Just give it a little balance. Like I've got to learn the things you need for class, but just being able to kind of sit in that there's so much knowledge, right? So much knowledge around you. And I know I was talking about kind of facing things with that sense of like awe and curiosity. I wish I had embraced that more. I think I was excited to learn the things I was learning in class. And then I definitely had some courses I loved, that I really dove into. But I kind of wish I had that energy for all of it instead of just a couple of key places. Maybe that's asking too much. Like maybe that's just the balance you strike. But I wish I had more of that perspective early on. 

[00:25:56,674] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Well, you did both your Bachelor's and your Master's here, and you just mentioned you had some classes that really stood out. What were those? 

[00:26:03,970] ALISSA DIMINICH: I mean, I loved my water treatment classes. I took an intro to engineering course that was about water treatment. And we had little bench scale treatment systems that were, you know, little, maybe like foot by foot boxes, cubes. That we had a little mini water treatment system with, then we got to play around it. And it was sort of a first introduction to some lab work. And collecting data and what sort of instruments and all that. But it was also just that hands on, like, we're starting with this muddy water we made. Look at what's coming out clear. And I loved that class and it, I don't think I've actively thought about this, but it has shaped my entire life. Because I went into Cornell and I think in my application I said, I want to do applied physics. I liked math and physics in high school. I did not understand what applied physics was at Cornell. I started to find out and thought that was not necessarily what I was expecting. Knew I liked engineering but didn't really have a next path and then I took that intro course. And this is still what I'm doing today. So that set my whole trajectory. I've got to thank Monroe Weber-Shirk for that. Because, I mean, I know a lot of folks who can say that he's changed the course of their life, but I'm one of them. And we're still in touch. He's fantastic. But he taught that course when I took it and I was like, this is it. This is the thing I want to do. So I loved all the classes that he taught. I took some really great wastewater classes as part of my Master's that I thought were just fascinating and were very helpful to me when I started working. Those were some of the ones that I pulled really specific, detailed, practical knowledge. Not so much all the theoretical, which is still valuable, but as a new graduate right out of school, like I'm not being given theoretical design work. In engineering it's like do this calculation. I think once I got into more of the specific courses, the ones that I was taking as I was, you know, a senior when I was doing my Masters. Those are the ones that I just really kind of dug into. Stuff I could kind of put my hands on, that's how I learn. I need to understand in a literal physical sense how things work, and that's where that piece started to come into play for me. 

[00:28:47,660] CHRISTA DOWNEY: I think that many of the students who took that water treatment class will probably feel the same way. That's exciting. I can't wait to show this episode. 

[00:29:00,280] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Yeah. I love all the praise for Monroe. I mean, we could do a whole show just on Monroe. But I mean, even I, so he was two floors down for me, we have the same office two floors down. I just marched in like, Monroe, tell me how I can be involved. Just his work has changed so many people. So it's really great. I just wanted to amplify that for you here and beyond. 

[00:29:23,560] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Yes, absolutely. Globally. Alright, let's go into our fun round. What's one place you go for information to stay current in your work? 

[00:29:33,820] ALISSA DIMINICH: So I'm going to give you two, even though I asked for one. But I think for water and wastewater, looking at American Waterworks Association, AWWA, and then Water Environment Federation, WEF. Both of those just at their national level, but then usually their state organizations and being involved in those, either just as someone who's like accepting that knowledge or someone who's actively involved in, say, the board or, you know, taking on various committees. I think those are organizations that are just great to be involved in and are really good at sharing information for new advancements and things that are going on in the field currently. 

[00:30:14,879] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: So if you weren't doing waterworks, what do you think you might be doing? You said you thought about applied physics but it wasn't quite what you imagined? 

[00:30:24,860] ALISSA DIMINICH: Yeah. Yeah. I think, given things that I now in life realize I enjoy, I'd be doing something environment related. I have gotten really into gardening lately and like  native plants - native, non-invasive. And how for at least my house and my yard, how I want that to support my region and the world around me. I think landscape architecture is really cool and I think that organizations who do that kind of work from that native and non invasive perspective is just fascinating. Like there's so much cool knowledge out there about plants and our regions and how they've changed over time because of the human impact and what we can do to support those. I mean, everything changes, right? Like we've just got the, the new growth zones from USDA. Everything's getting warmer, but like how we can continue to support our environment and the native species and stuff like that. I think I'd go into something like that. It's fascinating to me. If I had just tons of extra time on my hands, I'd probably do something like that anyway. So it's sort of just a pet project for my own yard at this point. 

[00:31:48,539] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Some day. Some day, yeah. And then we'd like to end up with what do you like to do? You mentioned gardening to relax or re energize yourself before you or concurrently to going into work? 

[00:32:00,400] ALISSA DIMINICH: So it's absolutely that I when I'm overwhelmed or stressed out, I'm outside. I have my garden, like my vegetable garden, but then I have my plants. Then I'm constantly trying to find new things to plant and plant trees and reconfigure the yard so I have more space to continue planting things, of finding that balance. I've got to get outside even if that's not what I'm doing. Even if I'm just, you know, the kids get home from daycare and we're outside playing for a little while before dinner. That is so good for not only like physical health, but for me, for my mental health. Like I need the sun, sunshine, and the fresh air. And inevitably, my hands are going to be in the dirt doing something that's probably good for me. But even on the days that that doesn't happen, just having that time outside is huge. 

[00:32:53,460] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Thank you so much for sharing, and I look forward to sharing this with others. 

[00:32:59,059] ALISSA DIMINICH: Absolutely. It's been great. It's been really fun talking to you guys. 

[00:33:04,670] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Thank you for listening. If you are enjoying these conversations, please follow, rate and review on your favorite platform. Join us for the next episode, where we will be celebrating excellence and innovation among engineers whose impact contributes to a healthier, more equitable, and more sustainable world.