MEET OUR TEAM

Shane is the President of Trussell Technologies, Inc. with more than 25 years of experience, a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley studying membrane bioreactors, an M.S. from UCLA and his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from UC Riverside. Shane has authored more than 60 publications and is a registered professional engineer in California. Shane is a passionate about finding elegant and simple solutions to the complex challenges facing utilities with climate change threatening our water quality and supply. Shane has been involved in the planning, design, permitting, operation and optimization of indirect and direct potable reuse projects. He has also served as the Principal Investigator on research projects that developed critical information to fill important data gaps that supported the development of potable reuse regulations (both surface water and direct) in California.

Dr. Trussell is known, worldwide, as an authority in water treatment, his career characterized by application of fundamental science to improve water technology. He has advised the Cities throughout the United States and on every continent overseas, working on dozens of treatment plants, from less than one mgd to more than 900 mgd. Dr. Trussell is often called upon to help utilities manage projects where public health and the support of regulatory authorities is critical. Since founding Trussell Technologies at the turn of our new century, Trussell has shifted the focus of his work to developing new sources of water for the southwest, particularly through potable reuse. Dr. Trussell still serves as a technical advisor and the QAQC lead for several projects. In recent decades, his most satisfying professional work has been with the Water Reuse Association. Over his career Dr. Trussell has been honored by the profession several times, including: membership the National Academy of Engineering, the AMWA D. R. Boyd Award, the AAEE Kapp Lecture, the AEESP F. G. Pohland Medal, the AWWA A.P. Black Award, the CA-NV AWWA G. F. Fuller award, the IWA Global Water Award, the NWRI Clark Prize, the ASCE/EWRI Simon Freese Award and the CA WateReuse President’s Award.

Céline C. Trussell has a B.S. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from the French Engineering school E.S.T.P (Ecole Spéciale des Travaux Publics) in Paris, an M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from U.C. Los Angeles and an MBA from the U.C. San Diego Rady School of Management. Ms. Trussell is a registered Civil Engineer in the State of California with 14 years of experience. Ms. Trussell has authored 10 publications. Her areas of focus are water treatment and design with a strong emphasis on membrane applications for desalination and water treatment. She has been involved in membrane treatment processes feasibility, pilot testing, detailed design and cost estimating. Ms. Trussell also has experience in conventional water treatment studies and designs. Ms. Trussell conducted extensive pilot studies of water treatment processes (conventional water treatment, ozone, DAF, Actiflo, MF/UF, RO, etc.).

Bryan Trussell has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and a M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Mr. Trussell is a registered Civil Engineer in the State of California with more than 24 years of work experience. Bryan worked for 9 years with the City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Sanitation, before joining Trussell in 2012. Since joining Trussell, Bryan has worked on process treatment and permitting of multiple reuse projects in California, including Los Angeles' Groundwater Recharge Program, IEUA’s Chino Basin Program, and Pure Water Las Virgenes-Triunfo. Bryan has led several research efforts, including bench and pilot testing of the first UV-Cl2 advanced oxidation process at Terminal Island, assessing pathogen removal through membrane bioreactors at Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and evaluating the benefits of Soil Aquifer Treatment for tertiary spreading applications.

Dr. Eileen Y. Idica is a Principal Engineer at Trussell Technologies with over 15 years of experience in civil and environmental engineering. Eileen’s recent experience has focused on supporting utilities in regulatory permit development, compliance, and reporting for the California Division of Drinking Water and Regional Water Quality Control Boards, particularly for potable reuse via surface water augmentation (under the new 2018 regulations) and groundwater replenishment (under the newer 2014 regulations). Eileen also frequently works in the owner’s advisor role to review and provide technical recommendations during the design process for traditional design bid build projects and alternative delivery methods (such as design build and progressive design build) for reuse facilities, and during the construction, startup and commissioning processes to ensure the procurement of reliable and efficient equipment and treatment systems, and to streamline regulatory compliance and reporting.

Dr. Pecson is the Director of Engineering leading Trussell’s Oakland office. He has 25+ years of experience in engineering and public health that allows him to address a variety of complex issues in the treatment of water, wastewater, and recycled water. Dr. Pecson is working on emerging topics including direct potable reuse (DPR), onsite reuse, and contaminated groundwaters. He specializes in the development of public health criteria for emerging applications, the evaluation and testing of technologies that meet these criteria, and the permitting and design of full-scale treatment systems for both drinking water and recycled water. Dr. Pecson works closely with California’s Division of Drinking Water and has helped negotiate several innovative reuse permits. He has also supported regulators in the development of reuse regulations—including for DPR and onsite reuse—as both a Principal Research Investigator and an Expert Panel member.Dr. Pecson has authored 30 peer-reviewed papers on topics ranging from pathogen and chemical control strategies to public health protection and risk assessment.

Aleksey (Aleks) N. Pisarenko has a B.S. in Chemistry from York College of PA and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Miami University. Aleks has over 13 years of experience in the water industry and is a certified Grade V Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator with over 9 years of experience with operation and maintenance of Advanced Water Treatment (AWT) processes. Aleks was the lead engineer for the design, construction management, start-up, and testing of the 1.6 MGD ozone/BAC pretreatment integration to the City for San Diego’s 1 MGD Pure Water Demonstration Facility and other projects at the facility to inform the design, permitting, and optimization of operation and maintenance of the future 30 MGD North City Pure Water Facility.For his Ph.D. work, Aleks was part of the team that investigated perchlorate ion formation in sodium hypochlorite and developed strategies to minimize potential contamination of drinking water. This work led to development of Hypochlorite Assessment Model, which can be used to predict sodium hypochlorite decomposition and formation of chlorate and perchlorate ions. During his postdoc experience at Southern Nevada Water Authority, Aleks was involved in several Water Research Foundation (WRF) projects such as 1648, 1667, and 1693 on the use of ozone in reuse as pretreatment to membrane systems, contaminant destruction and associated formation of oxidation byproducts such as Nitrosamines and Perfluoroalkyl Substances. More recently Aleks took active roles in recent WRF projects including 4765, 4832, 4991, 4954, and 5035, covering topics such as constituents of emerging concern, the use of ozone and BAC in potable reuse as a substitute to RO or as additional barriers for attenuation of chemical peaks and novel real-time event detection and response system. Aleks is a co-author of more than 27 peer-reviewed publications and over 60 technical presentations on diverse topics in potable water reuse and was Subject Matter Expert to CA-NV AWWA and CWEA Committee working on the development of AWT Operator Certification program.

Keel Robinson serves as a Principal Engineer and the Director of Business Development at Trussell. As a Principal Engineer, Keel has led our team on multiple potable reuse projects to deliver advanced water purification facilities including Pure Water Monterey (Monterey One Water), Pure Water Soquel (Soquel Creek Water District) and Pure Water Antelope Valley (Palmdale Water District). Keel also has been essential towards supporting the implementation of potable reuse treatment solutions with the City of Los Angeles at the Terminal Island, Donald C. Tillman, and Hyperion Water Reclamation Plants. Keel is the Principal Investigator for the Water Research Foundation’s Evaluation of CEC Removal by Ozone/BAF Treatment in Potable Reuse Applications and serves on the NWRI’s expert panel for One Water Nevada. As Director of Business Development, Keel helps our team develop relationships with key industry partners to deliver innovative and sustainable treatment solutions for our clients. Keel is a recognized process and regulatory expert in potable reuse with 27 years of experience as both an advanced water treatment technology supplier and as an engineering consultant. Keel has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Dr. Hokanson is an expert on physical and chemical processes applied to water treatment and potable reuse, with over 25 years of experience and more than 75 publications. He has developed engineering design tools for water treatment for the EPA & for wastewater reuse onboard the International Space Station for NASA. He has spent the last 15+ years at Trussell Technologies on projects involving physical and chemical treatment, drinking water treatment, ocean water desalination, and potable reuse. He is a Registered Civil Engineer in California, a licensed Professional Engineer in Michigan, and a Board Certified Environmental Engineer.

Emily Owens-Bennett is a Supervising Engineer with more than 17 years of water quality and process treatment project experience with Trussell. Ms. Owens-Bennett is Trussell’s Drinking Water Lead. She specializes in water quality assessment, evaluating treatment options and optimization through analytical testing, for projects spanning a wide range of applications. She has worked with many utilities to develop regulatory compliance and permitting documents, including Title 22 Engineering Reports, Monitoring and Reporting Plans, Operation Plans, action plans to address upcoming regulatory changes (e.g., Lead and Copper Rule Revisions lead service line inventory, Lead and Copper Rule Improvements) documentation to support permit amendments, Monitoring and Reporting Plans, and Operation Plans. Recent project experience has included planning-level design efforts for several potable water projects, as well as planning and compliance evaluations to support future direct potable reuse (DPR) projects. Ms. Owens-Bennett has an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Michigan Technological University. She is a registered Civil Engineer in the State of California.

Brett Faulkner has a B.S in Civil Engineering from University of Colorado, Boulder, and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from San Diego State University. Mr. Faulkner is a registered professional engineer in the state of California with over 12 years of professional experience. Mr. Faulkner operated the City of San Diego’s Pure Water Demonstration Facility (PWDF) as a certified Grade 3 wastewater operator. The PWDF has a production capacity of 1 MGD and includes ozone, biologically activated carbon filtration, membrane filtration, reverse osmosis, and UV advanced oxidation. Mr. Faulkner’s expertise is in water, wastewater, and advanced treatment with an emphasis on process design and optimization. He is skilled in wastewater treatment modeling and has utilized biological modeling to evaluate, optimize, and/or design treatment processes at more than 15 facilities ranging from 3 to 300 MGD. Mr. Faulkner currently provides routine operational support and as-needed engineering services to over 6 wastewater agencies in California resulting in improved effluent water quality and treatment reliability, reductions in operating cost, and the education and empowerment of operations staff. Mr. Faulkner is active in the CWEA and serves on the board of the San Diego chapter.

Luciana Pereyra has a B.S. in Food Engineering from Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Argentina and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University. Her doctoral research focused on the biomolecular characterization of the microbial communities responsible for the remediation of mining-influenced water. Dr. Pereyra also conducted postdoctoral research at Colorado State University and Lund University (Sweden) in the areas of biofuels from microalgae and industrial biotechnology, respectively. Luciana works on evolving topics including potable reuse and constituents of emerging concern in water and serves as one of Trussell’s UV treatment specialists. Her work on these areas includes treatment system design, bench-scale testing design and execution, data analysis and technical report development, project management, and regulatory support including interactions with the Division of Drinking Water and Regional Water Boards. In addition to her consulting role at Trussell, Luciana is the manager of Trussell’s San Diego laboratory, where she leads the implementation of cell-based bioassay methods for monitoring constituents of emerging concern in recycled water and also provides support for client projects. Luciana’s interests include potable reuse and biological processes in water and wastewater treatment.

Brie Post is a Principal Engineer at Trussell Technologies and is a registered Civil Engineer in the state of California with over eleven years of experience in the water industry. She received a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Montana State University and an M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley. Brie is Trussell’s lead for environmental discharge compliance, including the emerging challenge of disposing reverse osmosis concentrate and desalination brine. She also works on evolving topics like direct and indirect potable reuse, onsite reuse, contaminated groundwater, and algal bloom mitigation for surface water treatment. Ms. Post’s work on these topics includes treatment system design, planning-level studies, pilot testing design and execution, data analysis and technical report development, project management, and regulatory support including interactions with the Division of Drinking Water and Regional Water Boards. Ms. Post brings a positive, problem-solving attitude to face her clients’ complex engineering challenges, developing deliverables that exceed expectations and building lasting relationships beyond project completion.

Elise Chen has a B.S. and M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles and is a registered Civil Engineer in the State of California. Ms. Chen has more than 10 years experience working in the field operating and providing technical assistance on numerous pilots, demonstration, and full-scale Advanced Water Treatment (AWT) facilities in California. Ms. Chen leverages her operations experience to shape various aspects of potable reuse projects like AWT operator training, regulatory support, start-up and commissioning support, facility optimization studies, prequalification of membrane technologies, and control strategy optimization. In addition, she continues to work on research project to advance the water industry’s understanding of potable reuse. Her general interests include water and wastewater treatment, water reuse, and increasing water security for future generations.

Anya Kaufmann is a Senior Engineer and a registered Civil Engineer in the State of California. Ms. Kaufmann specializes in permitting, planning, and design of potable reuse projects in California. She has been instrumental in supporting the regulatory and permitting approach for the first two reservoir water augmentation projects in California: the Pure Water San Diego Program and the East County Advanced Water Purification Project. Recently, Ms. Kaufmann has used her potable reuse permitting experience to advance direct potable reuse (DPR) in California. She participated in one of the key research projects for the State Water Resources Control Board that helped them with ongoing DPR regulatory development. She has also worked with multiple clients to develop DPR project concepts in the absence of DPR regulations. To complement her permitting experience, Ms. Kaufmann has experience with process design for advanced treatment trains. Ms. Kaufmann uses her knowledge of process design and regulatory requirements to develop successful, implementable projects for her clients.

Ms. Teresa Venezia has a B.S and a M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University La Sapienza and a M.A. in Governance, Auditing and Control Systems from the University of Roma Tre, both in Rome, Italy. She has extensive experience in pilot testing for water reuse and reclamation applications, particularly testing the effect of ozone pretreatment of secondary effluent on MF fouling, the effect of ozone pretreatment on reverse osmosis (RO) membrane performances, implementation of ozone dose-control strategies, effect of ozone on NDMA formation and on EDCs (endocrine disruptor compounds) reduction. She has evaluated perchlorate removal from groundwater using ion exchange or biological processes.She has designed and tested a laboratory apparatus to perform ozone demand and decay tests, tested a laboratory instrument for the detection of explosive compounds; She has studied the contribution of atmospheric deposition of toxic contaminants to contamination of urban stormwater runoff; she has worked on waste recovery and recycling using the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) approach and sustainable technologies, and she has worked on a variety of water quality projects as well. Ms. Venezia’s experience includes project planning, project writing, laboratory work and field work.

Mitchel (Mitch) Bartolo has a B.S. in Environmental Engineering Science from the University of California at Berkeley and a M.S.E. in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. His master’s thesis work investigated the use of enhanced coagulation for the removal of naturally occurring fluoride and organic matter from drinking water sources. Throughout Mr. Bartolo’s professional career, he has contributed to several aspects of potable reuse projects around California including pathogen crediting, Regional Water Quality Control Board and Division of Drinking Water regulatory approval, pilot and demonstration facility testing, and advanced treatment process selection and design. His general interests include water reuse, water and wastewater treatment, and the realization of sustainable water resources in California. Mr. Bartolo is currently a registered Civil Engineer in the State of California and is based out of Trussell’s San Diego office.

Aviv Kolakovsky has a B.S. in Biotechnology from Mikhmoret School of Marine Sciences, Israel and a M.S. in Environmental Engineering from San Diego State University. His work experience at Trussell Tech includes operation and maintenance of various water reuse demonstration facilities and pilots; design, construction and testing of water treatment pilots for several research projects; project engineer on design and review teams of full scale and demonstration facilities for water reuse in California; tracking and interpreting water quality data to evaluate treatment train functionality, carrying out laboratory analyses for water quality parameters, and testing water quality by collecting samples. Aviv also has 8 years of experience with irrigation and water distribution projects in the Israeli agricultural sector.

Rodrigo Tackaert is a registered Civil Engineer in the State of California, a certified Grade III Wastewater Operator, and certified Grade V Advanced Water Treatment Operator, with six years of experience. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at San Diego and a M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering from the Technical University of Munich, Germany. Mr. Tackaert has been engaged in the design of multiple potable reuse projects as well as optimization of monitoring strategies, evaluation of treatment train performance, and execution of pilot testing for product pre-qualification. He has vast experience with membrane treatment processes, including MF and RO. Mr. Tackaert incorporates his operational expertise to provide clients with designs that serves the intended function while keeping the operator experience in mind.

Emily Holland is a registered Civil Engineer in the State of California and has a B.S in Environmental Engineering and an M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Since joining Trussell Technologies in 2022, Ms. Holland has worked on projects related to drinking water treatment, non-potable reuse, direct and indirect potable reuse, on-site reuse, and corrosion control and stabilization. Ms. Holland’s work on these topics includes treatment system design, pilot testing design and execution, UV validation testing, operational troubleshooting and optimization, data analysis and technical report development, and project management. Her recent project experience includes commissioning and operating a reverse osmosis and breakpoint chlorination pilot to improve recycled water quality at a wastewater reclamation plant. This work included data tracking, field confirmation testing, sample collection for laboratory testing, system and analyzer maintenance, data and laboratory report analysis to determine optimal operating conditions, and technical memorandum development summarizing results and providing recommendations.

Bryce McFerrin is a Senior Engineer at Trussell Technologies. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Tennessee Technological University and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Bryce has worked on projects in potable reuse, non-potable reuse, and wastewater with a focus on operations support, piloting, and process design. Bryce’s experience in the water industry includes a mixture of pilot-scale and full-scale testing on recycled water processes, data analysis and optimization of wastewater and recycled water processes, and onsite reuse process design. Prior to joining Trussell, he worked as a process engineer in the chemical manufacturing industry. With Trussell, Bryce draws from his operations support experience to provide clients with designs and optimization plans that meet project objectives while considering implications to operations and maintenance.

Jacob Newman joined Trussell Technologies, Inc. in 2020 and currently serves as the company’s Drinking Water Emerging Issues Specialist. Mr. Newman has worked on a myriad of projects spanning drinking water treatment, potable and non-potable reuse, and desalination. He has provided several California utilities with technical and regulatory support to validate alternative free chlorine disinfection credit for recycled water production, working closely with regulators to advance discussions on this important topic. Mr. Newman specializes in the planning, design, permitting, and operational troubleshooting of treatment facilities for the removal of drinking water contaminants including PFAS, hexavalent chromium, nitrate, and manganese. Mr. Newman is a registered Civil Engineer in the State of California. He has a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Davis, and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Nicholas Babcock is a licensed civil engineer and Grade V wastewater treatment plant operator in the state of California. He has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Northern Arizona University and a M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Mr. Babcock’s work experience includes design, operations and maintenance, and applied research on a variety of conventional and advanced wastewater treatment and water reuse processes including membrane bioreactor, ozone-biofiltration, membrane filtration, reverse osmosis, and UV advanced oxidation. He currently leads the operations team at the City of San Diego’s Central Area Small Scale Facility (CASSF).

Kaitlyn Chin has a B.S. and M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Michigan. While at U of M, she assisted two PhD students on investigating virus fate in water matrices and predictive modeling of virus inactivation by UV disinfection. Her previous research involved exploring methods and analysis of detecting SARS-CoV-2 in daily wastewater samples to predict trends using wastewater-based epidemiology. Her current work at Trussell Technologies involves water quality sampling and data collection, aiding in design projects, and the preparation of technical reports.

Estefania Escobar has a B.S. and M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Michigan. As part of her research work, she assisted in the construction and validation of a novel, low-cost IoT water quality sensor for household tap installation. During the large-scale deployment of these sensors in Ann Arbor, MI, she was responsible for monitoring and analyzing the drinking water quality data from the wireless sensor network and performing maintenance on the sensors. At Trussell Technologies, she assists in bench-scale testing for treatment process simulation, performs various laboratory analyses for water quality, and aids in the preparation of technical reports for water treatment and reuse projects.

Andrew Rudchenko has a B.S. in Environmental Engineering and an M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Prior to joining Trussell, he worked at the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, providing regulatory oversight on soil and groundwater remediation projects. At Trussell, Mr. Rudchenko supports full-scale and pilot-scale testing in the field, conducts laboratory analyses for water quality parameters, analyzes and interprets water quality data, and assists with the preparation of technical reports. His recent project experience includes executing functional testing of ozone dose control strategies and providing operational support for a 10 MGD ozone pilot plant at a wastewater reclamation facility and assisting with the construction and operation of a granular media filtration pilot plant to evaluate filtration rates up to 8 gpm/sf at a drinking water treatment facility. He has also conducted routine bench-scale tests evaluating the long-term formation and impact of chemical addition order on the formation of disinfection by-products including trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids.

David Aponte holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering from San Diego State University. His work focuses on wastewater and water treatment processes, combining consulting and laboratory experience to support process evaluation, optimization, and design. He has four years of consulting experience and six years of laboratory experience.His experience includes data analysis, laboratory testing, operational support, feasibility studies, and preparation of technical reports and operation plans. He plays an active role in managing Trussell’s San Diego laboratory and supports bench-scale and field testing efforts across multiple facilities. His project experience includes work at the San Luis Rey Wastewater Treatment Plant, Meadowlark Water Reclamation Facility, and the San Elijo Joint Powers Authority Water Reclamation Facility, among others.He also has experience with dynamic process modeling using GPS-X and applies biological modeling to support treatment system design and performance optimization. His work integrates field data, laboratory testing, and modeling to inform design decisions, operational improvements, and process modifications across multiple facilities.

Tim Dinh has a B.S. in Environmental Engineering and a M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. His work at Trussell spans a wide range of potable reuse projects involving process optimization research, pilot and demonstration scale operations, and regulatory documentation and compliance reporting. Mr. Dinh is the project manager for the CalVal initiative, an industry-wide collaboration to develop standardized guidance on well-established treatment technologies used in potable reuse treatment trains. His technical interests are centered around membrane technology, disinfection processes, and pathogen crediting frameworks.

Dr. Wen Cong is an environmental engineer specializing in water reuse and drinking water treatment. She holds a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Zhejiang University and both an M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where her research focused on water quality engineering and disinfection. Her doctoral research centered on virus inactivation in water systems, including Coxsackievirus, Human Adenovirus, and bacteriophage PR772. Her work investigated disinfection kinetics using chlorine and UV, evaluated inactivation mechanisms using molecular tools such as quantitative PCR, and explored viral sensor development for water quality monitoring. Since joining Trussell in 2022, Wen has contributed to a wide range of water reuse and drinking water projects, with a focus on advanced treatment evaluation and process optimization. Her experience includes design and execution of bench- and pilot-scale studies for DPR applications, MBR system evaluation, tracer testing, and development of disinfection and dechlorination strategies using free chlorine and monochloramine. She has also supported DBP evaluation, compliance monitoring planning, and desktop modeling for post-treatment processes, as well as projects related to emerging contaminants such as 1,2,3-TCP. Wen’s technical interests include water reuse, advanced water treatment technologies, applied engineering research, and microbial risk control.

Ben Christensen, P.E., holds a B.S. in Environmental Engineering and an M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. While at Cal Poly, Ben contributed to a bench-scale forward osmosis desalination study and an algae biofuel research project. Prior to returning for his master’s degree, he worked as a lab technician for a winery on California’s Central Coast.Ben’s graduate work stemmed from a project initiated during his internship at Trussell Technologies, that sought to develop a high-frequency data processing and control framework for ozone disinfection in a direct potable reuse application.Since joining Trussell full-time, Ben has accumulated several years of experience supporting advanced water treatment and potable reuse projects across Southern California. His work includes hands on support for reverse osmosis (RO) and membrane bioreactor (MBR) pilot studies, plant operations support, and data-driven process optimization and compliance.Ben is a licensed Professional Civil Engineer (P.E.) in the State of California and continues to focus on advancing practical and innovative solutions in potable reuse and advanced water treatment.

Niloufar Gharoon has a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno and a M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Khajeh Nasir Toosi University of Technology in Iran. Ms. Gharoon is an environmental engineer at Trussell Technologies with experience in advanced water treatment, potable reuse, water quality monitoring, and regulatory compliance. Her doctoral research focused on organic contaminant removal through soil aquifer treatment.Since joining Trussell Tech, Ms. Gharoon has contributed to direct and indirect potable reuse projects, corrosion control studies, Lead and Copper Rule Revisions and Lead and Copper Rule Improvements compliance support, and regulatory reporting for water and recycled water projects in California. Her work includes preparing technical memoranda, operations optimization plans, quality assurance project plans, monitoring reports, and regulatory submittals. She also evaluates treatment performance, reviews water quality and operational data, coordinates with laboratories, develops sampling and monitoring programs, and participates in field activities, including tracer studies, UV spot checks bioassay testing.

Brandon Cruz has a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Arizona State University and a M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. During his undergraduate degree, he assisted research on biofilm prevention and microbial inactivation through nanoparticle-enabled optical fibers at the Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment Center. During his master’s degree, he evaluated bench-scale ion exchange and membrane systems for nutrient recovery from source-separated urine. At Trussell, Brandon has prepared permitting and engineering documents for California direct and indirect potable reuse projects, simulated risk for exposure from onsite non-potable water systems, and prepared design submittals for a groundwater arsenic treatment system. He is regularly involved in design projects, permitting, and treatment modeling.

Emily Townsend has a B.S. in Marine Science from the University of South Carolina and a M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Southern California. At Trussell, Ms. Townsend provides regulatory and operations support to Pure Water Oceanside’s Advanced Water Treatment Facility. Her support ranges across compliance reporting, preparation of regulatory documents, water quality sampling, and operations optimization. Ms. Townsend has experience in developing technical reports on a variety of subjects related to potable reuse projects, such as groundwater and surface reservoir tracer studies as well as optimization/validation of unit process performance for advanced treatment. Ms. Townsend also assists with the preparation of design documents, feasibility studies, and provides managerial support to Trussell’s San Diego-based laboratory. She is passionate about water reuse for enhancing the region’s local water supply to ensure a more resilient potable water supply for future generations.

Oliver Reynolds has a B.S. in Civil Engineering – Environmental from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. While at Cal Poly Pomona Oliver completed his senior project on environmental remediation of surface water bodies in California. He helped design an integrated solution of floating islands and bioretention basins to remove excess nutrients from surface water bodies and improve water quality. Oliver’s prior work experience involved permitting and design of water systems with Glendale Water and Power as an intern in the water engineering department. Oliver holds his Wastewater Operator in Training certification, Drinking Water Treatment (T1) and Distribution (D1) Operator Certifications from the State Water Resources Control Board. Oliver’s current work at Trussell involves assisting in the operation of reverse osmosis piloting, routine water quality data collection and analysis at the Pure Water Demonstration Facility in San Diego, and technical report writing and regulatory work for various water reuse projects.

Michael Sherer has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Alabama and an M.S.E. in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining Trussell, Michael worked as a water/wastewater process engineer in Texas for over 8 years. In that role, Michael has worked on numerous treatment plant projects (both greenfield and rehabilitation/expansion of existing facilities) from conceptual design through construction. He has extensive experience in designing groundwater treatment processes, including low pressure membranes for treating groundwater under the influence of surface water, greensand filters for iron and manganese removal, and reverse osmosis membranes for arsenic removal and brackish groundwater desalination. Michael also has experience creating water quality sampling plans, designing wastewater treatment processes, developing potable reuse feasibility studies, evaluating corrosivity of water, helping clients with regulatory coordination, and estimating construction costs.

Aidan Hasegawa is an Engineer I at Trussell Technologies with several years of advanced water, drinking water, and wastewater experience. He has a B.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles, and a M.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering from University of California, Berkeley. At Trussell, Aidan has helped design multiple water reuse projects, such as the Chino Basin Program Indirect Potable Reuse demonstration facility and the Moulton Niguel Water District Direct Potable Reuse demonstration facility. He has engaged with a wide variety of tasks, such as conducting tracer tests to determine the hydraulics of chlorine contact basins, analyzing wastewater data to evaluate solids formation in a brine line, writing UV spot-check bioassay reports that establish site-specific operating conditions, and working on preliminary treatment designs for the removal of contaminants such as PFAS and iron and manganese. Aidan is excited to continue growing his engineering expertise and hopes that his projects create a positive impact on the world.

Dr. Domènec Jolis has more than thirty-five years of experience in wastewater treatment engineering, with special emphasis on biological treatment. He has led numerous research projects covering many unit processes including primary, secondary, and tertiary treatment as well as anaerobic digestion and solids handling and has published extensively on the results. While working at publicly owned treatment facilities on optimization, troubleshooting and upgrade of processes, Dr. Jolis enjoyed teaching the fundamentals of process engineering to engineers and operations and maintenance staff.

Aarthi Mohan is a Senior Engineer (Category II) at Trussell’s San Diego office. Her interests lie in the nexus of drinking water, water reuse and analytical instrumentation. Previously, she worked with the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s (SNWA) Water Quality Research & Development Division contributing at various capacities (lead/assist) to projects sponsored by the Water Research Foundation (#5035, 5031, 5053, 5210, 5205) or the Bureau of Reclamation’s Desalination and Water Purification Research Program. Most of these were reuse projects and entailed pilot operations [(ozone (O3)/ biological activated carbon (BAC)], nanofiltration (NF), reverse osmosis (RO)], analytical method development [charged aerosol detection (CAD)], disinfection by-products (DBPs) [bromate, haloacetonitriles (HANs)] and other concerning contaminants such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Prior to SNWA, she was a graduate research assistant at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) working on drinking water projects that broadly included regulated and unregulated DBPs, freshwater oil spills, O3 and ultraviolet (UV)-based advanced oxidation processes and taste and odor issues. At UMass, her projects were mostly sponsored by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and partly by the Philadelphia Water Department. Aarthi has a Bachelors in Civil Engineering from Anna University, India and a Masters and PhD in Civil/Environmental Engineering from UMass.

Samantha received her B.S. in environmental engineering in 2016 from the University of Florida. She then conducted her graduate work at Virginia Tech while working at the Hampton Roads Sanitation District. She worked at HRSD’s 1-MGD demonstration-scale IPR facility optimizing advanced treatment processes including coagulation/flocculation/ sedimentation, ozone, BAF, and GAC operations. She also participated in extensive pilot testing to improve the ozone/BAF reuse process. Her Ph.D. research was broadly aimed at validating pathogen reduction in carbon-based water reuse applications. She completed her Ph.D. in 2023 and joined Trussell shortly after.

Marcus Lira has a B.S. on Environmental Engineering and an M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. His master’s thesis focused on the recovery of winery wastewater for drip irrigation through the use of a bench-scale ultrafiltration membrane system. At Cal Poly, he participated in the Environmental Competition International (ECi) team competition, placing first overall. At Trussell, Marcus has aided in the development and execution of pilot-scale test plans for Direct Potable Reuse facilities. He has operated California’s first Direct Potable Reuse pilot facility, consisting of ozone-BAC, MF, RO, and UV/AOP, with a focus in ozone-BAC and UV/AOP treatment operations and optimization. Marcus continuously supports the design of drinking water treatment plants, which involves simulated distribution system disinfection byproduct testing, rapid small scale column testing, water quality modeling, and economic costs analyses.

Sofia Martinez has a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Drexel University. Prior to Trussell, she has worked with Engineers Without Borders, the City of Baltimore, the Philadelphia Water Department, and the City of Portland. Her prior experience includes wastewater treatment, construction management, superfund site allocation, green stormwater infrastructure design, and latrine design/implementation. At Trussell, she works on water and wastewater treatment projects, specializing in potable reuse in California. She assists with planning, design, permitting, and regulatory support for various indirect potable reuse (IPR), direct potable reuse (DPR), and desalination projects, ranging from 8 to 150 MGD. She also conducts lab analyses to support regulatory reporting and design for multiple projects, assists with field work such as tracer tests, and develops operator-facing materials including process tracking sheets, trainings, and SCADA templates.

Owen Zuidema (he/him) is an associate engineer at Trussell’s Oakland office with a background in Civil and Environmental Engineering, holding an M.S. from the University of California, Davis, and a B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley. His research at UC Berkeley focused on wastewater-based epidemiology, where he contributed to public health efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic by tracing SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater samples across the Bay Area. While earning his master’s degree at UC Davis, he performed a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of lithium extraction from geothermal deposits in the Salton Sea basin in Southern California. Owen’s prior experience at East Bay Municipal Utility District involved feasibility studies, hydraulic modelling, and project management, contributing to critical drinking water projects in the Bay Area. At Trussell, Owen is an expert in the California Division of Drinking Water’s regulations for direct potable reuse and onsite nonpotable reuse, working closely with project owners to design and optimize water reuse systems from building to municipal scale. Owen has further experience in groundwater treatment system design, waste stream management, and environmental discharge compliance from a variety of projects across California.

Michael Karish is an associate engineer. He has a M.S. from UC Berkeley in environmental engineering and a B.S. from UC Berkeley in environmental engineering science. He previously did an internship with Trussell in which he worked on the day-to-day field work and the data analysis of a non-potable reuse pilot project for the East Bay Municipal Utility District. During the internship he made a tool in R to allow for quick removal of data characteristic to maintenance events. As an undergrad, Michael did research in the Alvarez Cohen Lab doing both wet lab and data work related to the laccase degradation of PFAS. He also gained hands on engineering experience as a project lead in a rocketry club at Cal. As a master’s student, Michael was a TA for organic chemistry. Michael is particularly interested in using biology and chemistry to design more efficient and drought adapted water treatment systems.

Matthew Demer has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Davis. For his senior design project, he modeled existing and proposed alternative technologies for the recycling of air and water on the International Space Station. He has contributed to chemistry research on organometallic catalysis at The Scripps Research Institute, and on electrocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide to value added products at Caltech. Prior to joining Trussell, Matthew worked at bioprocessing companies performing industrial fermentation process improvement and biochemical analyses. Matthew’s current work includes supporting the Pure Water Demonstration Facility and other water reuse projects.

Omar Hassan has a B.S in Civil and Environmental Engineering and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. During his undergraduate degree, he was a member of the Berkeley Water Center where he assisted with research on decentralized stormwater treatment. There, he tested the performance of different sorption and oxidation materials on the removal/degradation of trace organics. In between his degrees, Omar worked in several organizations where he gained program management and design experience working on conventional Wastewater Treatment Plants and Advanced Water Purification Facility projects. In his master’s degree, he wrote a report on PFAS in the San Francisco Bay Area and the status of treatment technologies at the time. He also learned remote sensing techniques and used them to study different topics from the link between wildfires and Cyanobacteria concentrations as well as the effects of a dam’s construction on downstream Egyptian agriculture. At Trussell, Omar hopes to utilize and hone his skills so he can be a better steward for our natural resources and better protect public health.

Jessica has a M.S. in Environmental Data Science and a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Southern California. Prior to joining full-time Jessica did an internship with Trussell in which she developed a brochure for California’s direct potable reuse regulations and provided regulatory support to East Valley Water District. During her undergraduate degree, she participated in air pollution research and developed a Python tool to model air parcel back trajectories with HYSPLIT to assess high PM 2.5 events. She also worked on a latrine project in Malawi as part of EWB at USC.

Radha Kamineni (she/her) has a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from University of California, Berkeley. As an undergraduate, she conducted research on the dissolution of the silicate mineral olivine in ocean water, using olivine-containing sediment collected from beaches in Hawaii. Her work focused on quantifying the adsorption of trace metals released from the olivine onto beach sediment. In addition to her academic research, Radha held an internship with the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board in the Waste Discharge Requirements unit. Here, she helped regulate wastewater facilities and lead a community engagement initiative to connect septic-reliant communities on the Central Coast to nearby treatment plants. At Trussell, Radha is providing engineering support for the Pure Water San Diego Project.

Lorelay has a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University, where she built expertise in turning research into practical, scalable solutions. Her doctoral work developed methods for wastewater-based epidemiology at large US treatment plants, studied virus decay in semi-centralized systems in Senegal, and evaluated failing onsite sanitation infrastructure in rural Alabama. Lorelay also co-developed the course “The role of water and energy for circular economies”. Prior to the PhD, she interned at the World Health Organization in Geneva, where she became passionate about the connections between water, health, and society. She earned her M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford and her B.S. in Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at San Diego State University. At Trussell, Lorelay leads sampling efforts for pilot-scale potable reuse projects and uses those insights to inform the design of larger water treatment processes.

Luke received his B.S. in chemistry from Centre College and worked as an analytical chemist before changing his career focus to water treatment. He then received his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Arizona in 2024. Luke’s research at Arizona was primarily focused on optimizing membrane distillation (MD) for decentralized potable reuse, identifying sources of fouling and scaling, and developing membrane cleaning methods that maintain high water quality. Luke then worked as a postdoctoral researcher with the Engineering Research and Development Center of the Army Corps of Engineers. During this time, he operated a pilot-scale treatment unit using MBR, MD, and UV disinfection to be used in military applications. He also initiated a project connecting advanced water purification with hydrogen generation for clean energy production and storage. Luke joined Trussell in 2025 to further his dedication to developing reliable treatment systems that ensure safe, high-quality water for all users.