In partnership with the Water Center at Penn, our Water Affordability Community of Practice (COP) spotlights best practices on challenges and solutions related to water affordability, providing ample time for questions and informal discussion among peers. We invite local utility and city leaders that are striving to provide access to safe and affordable drinking and waste water to attend. Learn more about our water affordability program here.
Water Affordability Community of Practice
Featuring Kishia Powell
Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice President, DC Water
Thursday, February 18, 2-3pm EST/1-2pm CST
In partnership with: 
We’re honored to have Kishia Powell join us in February to share what she’s learned about affordability serving in her many leadership roles.
Kishia L. Powell joined DC Water in May 2020 and serves as the Authority’s Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President, overseeing all operating departments, as well as the Customer Service and Administration clusters. Ms. Powell comes to DC Water from her previous role as Commissioner of the City of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management, where she had served since June 2016. As Atlanta’s Watershed Management Commissioner, she was responsible for oversight of $644M in annual operating expenditures and a five-year capital improvement plan of $1.26B including the Water Supply Program to secure Atlanta’s water future, which reached a significant milestone in April 2020 when water from the Chattahoochee River started filling the quarry. As part of her tenure she worked to set the strategic direction of Watershed Management with a focus on financial resilience, improving service delivery, infrastructure investment, and workforce development including a partnership with the City of Atlanta’s Department of Corrections to reduce recidivism by hiring prerelease non-violent offenders as Watershed Trainees. Prior to joining the City of Atlanta, COO Powell served as the Public Works Director for the City of Jackson, Mississippi and the Bureau Head of Water and Wastewater for the City of Baltimore.