Team Member Bios
Michelle Maddaus, PE
Michelle Maddaus is a registered civil engineer in California and has a wide variety of work experience in the water resources field. Michelle has been Project Manager for dozens of water conservation plans since 2003. Michelle has been Project Manager for dozens of water conservation plans, water supply assessments, and demand forecasts including conservation savings analysis and climate change. Some of the plans completed in the past few years include those for the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency (BAWSCA) representing 27 water agencies in Northern California; Liberty Utilities, Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, the City of Santa Barbara, and Walnut Valley Water District, all in Southern California; and the City of Bend in Oregon. In April 2021, the water conservation plan for Alameda County Water District was successfully completed and adopted by the Board and includes new innovative technologies such as Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI). In addition, Michelle has been fully engaged in the recent “Making Water Conservation a California Way of Life” legislation process, having provided a 7-part webinar series in 2021 at the request of the San Diego County Water Authority.Michelle has conducted over 300 CII audits and has directly witnessed equipment and program needs of water customers. In August 2021, she conducted an audit of the Coca Cola bottling plant in Salt Lake City, Utah. In November 2021, she conducted cooling tower audits for two large (one million sq. ft.) office buildings in downtown Calgary, Canada. Over the past six years, Michelle has trained more than 300 water utility staff to conduct commercial audits in 11 U.S. states (California, Oregon, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Utah, Oklahoma, Colorado, Hawaii, Wyoming, and Illinois) and Canada (Calgary and Abbotsford). In addition, she is an excellent trainer who has done in-person trainings for over 400 people on the DSS Model, over 1,000 people on conducting a CII water efficiency survey, and over 500 people on benefit-cost analysis. In April 2020 and June 2021, Michelle led all-day virtual commercial water audit trainings hosted by Pacific Gas & Electric; each webcast had over 110 attendees from more than 21 states.
Michelle’s significant contributions through her volunteer efforts over the past decade have been nationally recognized by her colleagues. Michelle is Vice Chair of the CalWEP Research and Evaluation Committee and has been focused on developing a framework for future research efforts of the organization. She also leads the CalWEP Programs Committee AMI Task Force with over 25 agency members who discuss how to utilize AMI data to benefit water conservation programs and analyses. In addition, Michelle is co-chair of the College Water Efficiency Group with Karen Koppett from Valley Water. The group has over 120 members, was established in 2012, and is affiliated with the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE). Michelle is past chair of the AWWA Climate Change Committee and immediate past chair of the Planning Research and Evaluation Committee. The AWWA Planning and Research Committee is leading the Planning Advisory Committee that directs the work on an AMI Customer Portal Guidebook published in February 2022. She was also the 2021 recipient of the RIPPLE Award for AWWA Water Conservation Division volunteers (Representing Innovative People and Promotions that Lead to increased water).
Michelle has a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering and a Master’s in Business Administration (M.B.A.) from UC Davis.
Lisa Maddaus, PE
Lisa Maddaus is a senior water resources engineer with experience preparing water resources planning studies for water suppliers across the country. Her passion is integrated water resources planning, and her specialty is in conservation, drought and climate change planning. Lisa has presented numerous papers on integrated water resource planning, water conservation, demand management and drought preparedness at AWWA National and International Water Association conferences and for the United Nations. Lisa is also the co-author of the American Water Works Association, Manual of Water Supply Practices, M52 – Water Conservation Programs - A Planning Manual and supporting authors to other AWWA Manuals including: M60 – Drought Preparedness and Response, M50 – Water Resource Planning and M36 – Water Audits and Loss Control Programs. She led our team in preparing the International Water Association publication, Preparing Urban Water Use Efficiency Plans.Lisa was formerly Vice Chair on the Board of Directors for the California Water Efficiency Partnership and previously staff as a Technical Adviser. Lisa has been the AWWA California-Nevada Section instructor for the Water Use Efficiency Practitioner workshops for exam preparation. She has completed more than 150 conservation and drought planning studies and takes an especially pragmatic approach given her over four years’ experience managing the Regional Water Authority’s Water Efficiency Program in the Sacramento region in Northern California. At RWA, Lisa helped the 22 water provider members fulfill best management practices for water conservation and was responsible for the daily management of a $2 million budget.
Lisa has a B.S. and M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Davis.
William Maddaus, PE, CLIA
William Maddaus is a registered civil engineer with experience in water resource planning and management. In 1995, he founded Maddaus Water Management (MWM), an independent consulting practice. Through MWM, he offers technical assistance to water utilities in developing and evaluating water conservation programs. Over his career, William has established himself as an expert in urban water conservation. His list of publications include:- The widely used manual M52 “Water Conservation Programs - A Planning Manual” published in 2006 by the American Water Works Association (co-authored with Lisa Maddaus)
- The Urban Drought Guidebook for the California Department of Water Resources in 1988
- Led the effort to prepare the Water Conservation Guidebook for the Pacific Northwest Section of AWWA in 1993
- Co-author of the United Nations handbook, “Guide to Preparing Urban Water Efficiency Plans,” in 2003
- Prepared the AWWA M50 manual, “Water Resource Planning,” in 2001. William updated this manual and a second edition was published in 2007.
From 1999-2002 he was chair of an AWWA national committee, Water Resource Planning and Management. In 2008, the California Urban Water Conservation Council bestowed on him their highest award, the Mike Moynahan Excellence Award. In October 2011, he was awarded the Alliance for Water Efficiency Water Star Award, the Alliance’s most respected nationwide honor for his nearly five decades of dedication to the water conservation field.
William pioneered comprehensive conservation planning for water utilities, using cost-effectiveness analysis, and evaluating water savings from completed programs. He has prepared hundreds of water conservation planning studies for water agencies nationally and internationally. The Urban Water Conservation Best Management Practices, an innovative approach to water conservation in California, were developed with his assistance on program design. He also derived the original basis for projecting water savings. William has prepared UWMPs complying with state guidelines for numerous water agencies in California over the past three decades. As needed, William has provided expert witness services to public agencies.
His academic background includes a B.S. in Civil Engineering from UC Berkeley and an M.S. and C.E. from MIT, where he specialized in water resources. He is a member of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, American Water Works Association, and the American Society of Civil Engineers (Fellow). William is a registered Irrigation Association (IA) Member, Certified Landscape Irrigation Auditor (CLIA), and has conducted hundreds of inspections of landscapes and irrigation systems.
Chris Matyas
Chris Matyas is a computer software engineer with experience in the software and civil engineering fields and has a wide variety of work experience in both the software design and water resources fields. Chris has worked on large and small software products, including software packages distributed on HP, Lenovo and DELL personal computers and laptops. Chris is an expert in multiple programming languages including C++, C#, Java, Python, VBA and many more.Chris recently completed a thirty-year water demand forecast for the wholesale customers of the Sonoma County Water Agency, which included working with nine different water utilities (seven individual water demand forecasting DSS Models). Water demand forecasts were prepared and adopted by the contractors and three levels of conservation program savings were evaluated. Chris has also developed a Water Audit Tool for commercial audits that is currently in use by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission staff. Chris is currently working on an iPad application for commercial water audits. His recent experience also includes the preparation of the demand forecasts and conservation program updates for the City of Santa Barbara, City of Oceanside, Marin Municipal Water District, the Los Osos service areas, City of Sacramento, and Columbus, Ohio.
Chris has a B.S. in Engineering from UC Davis.
Tess Kretschmann
Tess Kretschmann is a water resources engineer with project management experience in community, nationally, and internationally based environments. She has 12 years of experience preparing water resources planning studies for urban water suppliers. Recently, Tess was part of the team that worked on a thirty-year water demand forecast for the wholesale customers of the Sonoma County Water Agency (nine different water agencies), which included working on the development of nine individual water demand forecasting DSS Models. Tess has specialized in innovative program development utilizing sustainable approaches primarily in the non-profit sector. She is experienced in preparing water efficiency and master planning studies for water systems which include water demand projections and cost effectiveness evaluations. She has prepared urban water management plans for multiple water systems throughout California. Tess participated in the numerous modeling efforts for regional clients analyzing water system reliability, potential system conservation savings, and system drought reliability, vulnerability and resiliency. She has led corporate sustainable development teams, focusing on water and energy use efficiency projects. She has also managed and coordinated projects of $10,000 - $150,000 with teams of up to fifteen people and served as project engineer on $50,000 - $2,000,000 projects. She has created strategic visioning models representing regional water supplies and demands, simulating various drought, supply, demand, and climate change scenarios.Tess has prepared and evaluated drought plans, integrated water resource plans, groundwater management plans, and agricultural and urban water management plans. She has participated in competitive grant writing efforts, helping applicants receive awards of over $8 million on behalf of regional consortiums. In 2014, she was part of the team awarded a Regional Water Authority grant for 2.5 million. She has led workshops on drought management, master planning, and urban water management planning and has managed permitting efforts for local, state, and federal infrastructure facilities (water tanks, pump stations, etc). As past vice chairperson of the Utilities Rate Advisory Commission in Sacramento, California, Tess reviewed and commented on proposed changes to utility service rates for water, sewer, garbage, recycling, yard waste, and street sweeping services and advised on utility rate changes that were subsequently majority approved. She led public City hearings about utility service rates and collected public feedback.
Tess has a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Duke University.
Sierra Orr
Sierra Orr is a Senior Water Resources Project Manager with more than 15 years of experience working for the government and nonprofit sectors. She has taken a lead role in project management for Urban Water Management Plans, Drought Risk Assessments, Water Loss Audits, Consumer Confidence Reports, website renovations, a Water Shortage Contingency Plan and the implementation of a new Customer Information System. Sierra has extensive experience in the design and implementation of community water conservation programs and activities. She has written more than a dozen water conservation, enforcement and rebate policies; developed community outreach campaigns, and conducted more than 300 residential and commercial field inspections.Working across departments and utilizing an Advanced Metering Infrastructure system, she designed and implemented a water loss response program to address irrigation violations and leak response. She promoted and processed an aggressive outdoor rebate program resulting in the removal of more than 115,000 square feet of turf over five years in a community with only 16,000 connections.
She has presented on the intersection of drought, climate change, and air quality for the California Desert Air Working Group and low-cost and no-cost institutional incentives for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency WaterSense Program. She also conducted a presentation on AMI-enabled enforcement of watering restrictions for an AMI User Working Group.
Sierra has a M.A. in Transformative Leadership from the California Institute of Integral Studies and B.A.’s in Communications and History from CSU Fullerton.
Nicki Powell
Nicki is a Water Resources Analyst and Trainer with experience in planning and implementing water efficiency and conservation programs. Through her work with municipalities, water utilities, and academic institutions, Nicki brings extensive knowledge and technical experience in the areas of water management planning, conservation program design, public education, and data analytics. She has administered several programs for water agencies including conducting water audits for commercial properties, providing customer-facing tools to help residents manage their water use, and facilitating installation of water-efficient devices and technologies in both residential and commercial settings. She also has experience producing high-quality reports based on her evaluation of industry research and analysis of water consumption data.Nicki is passionate about natural resource conservation and is dedicated to helping clients achieve their water efficiency goals. She has facilitated several public workshops to educate and train homeowners in water-efficient landscape practices and has conducted over a dozen classroom presentations to teach students about watershed science and stewardship.
Nicki has a B.S. in Environmental Sciences and a B.A. in Biostatistics, both from the University of Virginia.
Cielo Cruz
Cielo is a Water Resources Project Assistant with experience in data analytics, planning and writing. A recent graduate, while in school, Cielo was chosen to participate in a selective Women in Engineering Leadership Academy, contributed to a soft robotics research project, participated in economics clubs and volunteer groups, and is the treasurer of the California Geotechnical Engineering Association chapter at UCLA. Her work experience includes data analysis and strategy development for her local community center, where she oversaw the implementation of a grade tracking project that significantly reduced the number of students with failing grades in the program. She also created and piloted a testing system to assess student weaknesses in specific math state standards to inform the community center’s planning decisions. Cielo was previously a chemical engineering student and, after experimenting with strategy consulting and accounting, found her passion in leveraging data analysis to contribute to water management projects. Her engineering background combined with her economics training have given her the mathematical and analytical tools to be a dynamic contributor to data analysis and research projects.Cielo hopes to make her career about being of service to communities and governments in their work to manage water resources sustainably and implement projects for water efficiency and equity.
Cielo graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a B.A. in Economics.
Victoria Bravo
Victoria is a Water Resources Project Assistant with over 12 years of experience working for the government and nonprofit sectors. After working for many years in healthcare, Victoria found a similar passion for helping her local community through working in water conservation and implementing a variety of conservation programs and activities. She has contributed to all aspects of water efficiency including conducting more than 100 residential and commercial indoor and outdoor water audits, implementing educational and outreach programs, data collection and reporting, processing rebates, and enforcement of water saving policies.Victoria’s clinical background and passion for being of service have given her the ability to think critically and be a valuable contributor to water resource projects. She hopes to be an asset to aiding local, national and international clients manage their water resource efforts sustainably.
Victoria graduated from San Bernardino Valley College with an A.S. and has a B.S. in Nursing from University of Texas at Arlington.
Melissa Brown
Melissa is a Data Analyst with 5 years of experience working with water utility-related data and has worked extensively with Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) data. She spent her last 3 years as a Data Scientist for Moulton Niguel Water District (MNWD), a public utility with approximately 55,000 connections. She spent the first two years of her career interning with the Moulton Niguel Water District and the California Data Collaborative. During her internships, Melissa participated in the CA Water Data Challenge, where she led a project on per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and earned recognition for her work. Her innovative approach and analysis resulted in two awards, emphasizing her commitment to excellence in water data and community wellness.Melissa's experience thus far has allowed her to develop a deep understanding of water utility data and how to work with large amounts of data (such as AMI data). She has created numerous applications, interactive reports, and dashboards mainly using R but will research other technical-based options when needed. Melissa is self-taught in R & loves to share her knowledge, whether directly with a colleague or through workshops, when possible. She has presented her work at multiple conferences & has even presented internationally. In addition to data analysis, she has worked closely with various departments to optimize workflows by developing data or technical-based solutions. Although she does most of her work behind the scenes, she enjoys working in the field and learning from her colleagues.
Melissa has a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from the California State Polytechnic University of Pomona, California.