The Make Water Work Podcast - Episode 12 Featuring Nicole Brown

Episode 12: Nicole Brown - Community, Equity, and Joy-Filled Leadership

In this episode of Make Water Work, Isaac Pellerin and Megan Glover sit down with Nicole Brown, Growth Lead for Water at GFT and co-founder of the Black Water Professionals Alliance. Nicole shares how water “found” her through a love of math, science, and problem solving, and how a high school hydrology class opened her eyes to water as the building block of life.

Nicole talks about the science of water, but also the social side she discovered later in her career: how water shapes cities, health, mental well-being, and community identity. She shares stories from public meetings, church pulpits, and neighborhood conversations that show why utilities cannot just “trust us, we’ve got it,” and must instead communicate openly about everything from boil advisories to PFAS and lead.

She also unpacks the vision behind the Black Water Professionals Alliance, the importance of representation in the sector, and why her word for the year is “abundance.” Nicole’s contagious optimism, honesty about her journey as a Black woman in water, and practical advice for mentoring and storytelling will leave you encouraged to see water, and your role in it, a little differently.