ANGELITA FASNACHT—PRINCIPAL PRODUCT manager for American Water—has given her life to water. At one time, she almost lost her life for it. Fasnacht developed a fascination for solving water problems when, during her childhood in Columbia, she had to fetch water to bring back to her home, where its availability was intermittent. “I got used to it, but thought there had to be a better option,” she says. After earning a civil engineering degree with a concentration in hydraulics from the Universidad de Los Andes, Fasnacht started working as the head of the water company in the Departmento del Huila, Colombia, in 1998, serving rural and semi-urban areas. Under her leadership, some 200 projects were completed, giving 50,000 people safe, clean, and affordable water and sanitation. Her efforts were viewed as a threat to the stronghold of a local terrorist organization. Although it had been difficult for her parents to witness the threats against her, when Fasnacht asked her father for guidance, he told her to “always do what is right despite the consequences.”
Fasnacht continued her efforts. In 2000, the terrorist group kidnapped her amidst gunfire, holding her for 32 days. After her release, she was warned to leave the country, so she came to the US, where she has made a significant mark on the industry. Fasnacht was recently named the winner of the 2018 National Association of Water Companies Living Water Award, given to water industry professionals who personify “living water” through their commitment to quality service. She serves as a Global Water Alliance board member. Fasnacht also has received the Water for People’s Kenneth J. Miller Founders’ Award for outstanding volunteer service. She is a member of Engineers Without Borders. Fasnacht takes her four children—ages 5 to 13—on her global missions to help with water projects to expose them to the reality that not everyone has access to clean, safe, and affordable water. Fasnacht demonstrates “incredible energy, determination, innovation, and leadership in all that she does,” says Ben Stanford, American Water’s senior director of water intelligence, adding that she possesses an ability to connect with people across disciplines and cultures to empathize with their needs for innovations that will significantly improve the water community. As a civil engineer and Ph.D. candidate, Fasnacht is working on an intelligent decision-making tool to preserve and predict surface water quality.
What She Does Day to Day
Fasnacht leads a team of scientists whose focus is to develop research for drinking water and wastewater products. She also is an adjunct professor at Thomas Jefferson University and Drexel University and a lecturer at University of Pennsylvania. Fasnacht views that and her team leadership at American Water as an opportunity to pass on her experience to the next generation of water professionals.
What Led Her to This Line of Work
Fasnacht grew up hearing stories of how her father lived in the mountains with no access to electricity and scarcity of water. That and her own childhood experiences fueled her desire to make a difference in providing better water access for all. Until recently, Fasnacht’s career focused on the water industry’s hardware systems. Her current work focuses on software. She views herself as a bridge between the two. “I realized in the last couple of years that everything you see generates data,” she says. “What we engineers do in the planning for the next design or conditioning in our treatment processes is to see the data, understand the data, and make our own conclusions. New intelligent software will take that to the next level.”
What She Likes Best About Her Job
“My role is to make a big change in traditional water and wastewater development,” says Fasnacht. “I’m excited to see what is to come from here. Every day I’m happy because I feel we’re getting closer and closer to what we can build.”
Her Biggest Challenge
Fasnacht says her biggest challenge also is an opportunity to lead different industry professionals—environmental scientists, engineers, and operators—to operate together rather than in isolation. Collaboration “is an opportunity for learning and expanding our products and our developments to the real things that are going to be helpful for humanity,” she says.
