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Kaitlin Mattos, a PhD student in environmental engineering and the Engineering for Developing Communities program at the University of Colorado Boulder, recently . 

The $5,000 scholarship is awarded to a graduate student to aid their professional development within the water industry. 

Mattos earned her undergraduate degree in environmental studies in 2009 from Washington University in St. Louis and worked for six years in natural resources management and environmental planning in the Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the western Pacific. She received her master’s degree in environmental engineering in 2017 after working with the University of Alaska Anchorage team studying water resources and reuse in rural Alaska. 

In 2016, she received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Program Fellowship and has used the opportunity to support continued fieldwork in rural Alaska researching public health and environmental issues. Her PhD work focuses on researching and re-engineering household water and wastewater treatment systems for unserved communities in rural Alaska – including social, technical and environmental considerations – alongside the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s Division of Environmental Health and Engineering. Mattos currently resides in Anchorage and frequently travels to communities for her work.

After completing her doctoral degree, Mattos plans to continue working on environmental and public health protection in underserved communities.

“I am really honored to be recognized by American Water and by AWWA for my research and am grateful for the financial support. The funding will allow me to continue to compensate community volunteers who assist with my research in rural Alaska and to travel to a few conferences to present the results of my research,” Mattos said. 

American Water is the largest and most geographically diverse U.S. publicly traded water and wastewater utility company. It services clean, safe, and affordable water resources to more than 14 million people in 46 states. Mattos was selected for this scholarship over the other 88 applicants due to her academia, character and dedication to the advancement of science in the field of drinking water. Congratulations to Kaitlin Mattos on the AWWA Scholarship.