Is it possible to make your voice heard around important issues of our day, like healthcare, water resource management and climate resiliency? Our guest, Susan Leal, has done just that in both the public and private sectors. 

She's worked as a lawyer for the US House Energy and Commerce Committee, been an elected official, and been a founding leader in a successful health care startup. She then became an expert in water management and now consults on water and waste water issues related to climate change, resiliency and sustainability. Her career has been curvy!  

In our conversation, Susan connects the dots between the many curvy moves she’s made. She also shares how she moved into areas that were completely new to her. Her story is interesting, inspiring and a great example of the positive impact one person can make on the world. 

Meet the Guest
Susan Leal, Principal & Founder, Urban Water Works, is a water utility expert and author specializing in identifying realistic and creative solutions to the water-related challenges.

Currently, she is Principal and founder of Urban Water Works a consultancy firm that advises public and private sector clients on water and waste water issues related to climate change, resiliency and sustainability. She also is an Associate with Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. In that appointment, she is concluding an innovative water conservation project in the Middle East. She recently concluded three years as the Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President for Water, the Americas at AECOM.

Previously, she was a two-year Senior Fellow at Harvard University. As part of her fellowship, she co-authored Running Out of Water, a proactive book focused on solutions to our looming water crisis. She is currently under contract with Harvard University Press for another water related book. The focus of the upcoming book will on the food, water and climate change nexus: how to feed 9.5 billion people by 2050. She is a member of the advisory board of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley, where she also received her BA and JD.

As former General Manager of San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission, Susan led the charge for a dramatic upgrade of the Bay Area’s water system and outdated wastewater system. She previously served two terms as the elected Treasurer of the City and County of San Francisco and as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

As a recognized thought leader on water issues, Leal speaks regularly at water, sustainability, investment and infrastructure conferences. She is interviewed and mentioned in print and online articles including Bloomberg News, the New York Times, Boston Globe, Foreign Affairs, San Francisco Chronicle, Harvard Gazette and Wall Street Journal.

Links
Follow this link to find Susan’s book on Amazon. You can probably find it at Barnes & Noble or your local library, too.

• Running Out of Water: The Looming Crisis and Solutions to Conserve Our Most Precious Resource