Underground Infrastructure - June 2023 - 36

Rehab Technology
In 2019, Matt Wierzchowski and Kathy Romans
hold a ShowStopper Award for VersaFlex/Raven
exhibit earned at the UCT show.
Business Development Manager, I
worked there just under two years until
I moved on to NPC (now Trelleborg)
where I started out as their Gulf Coast
Representative specializing in I/I reduction
with mechanical chimney seals and
mechanical joint seals. After a year I was
promoted to National Sales Manager for
NPC and continued there for 10 ten years.
My next move was Raven. Starting out
as Regional Sales Manager for Texas and
Louisiana, I took the role of Wastewater
Segment Manager when Raven merged
with Versaflex Companies. I enjoyed
this role and started influencing the direction
of the business and the products
we were recommending. In 2021, PPG
acquired the Versaflex Companies (including
Raven), and I became the Water
& Wastewater Segment Manager for
PPG Protective and Marine Coatings,
where I remain today.
While I knew of NASSCO from my
time at Avanti, I really jumped in when
I started my career with NPC. I wanted
to get more involved for the benefit of
networking, but also to learn more about
how the products I represented could really
make a positive impact on eliminating
I/I. When I got involved, Grant Whittle
was serving as chair of NASSCO's Health
and Safety/Government Relations
Committee, and he asked me to take over
as chair. I agreed and served in that role
for five years. It was my first experience
in NASSCO leadership and opened the
door for my nomination and election
to become a member of NASSCO's
Board of Directors in 2006. After two
36 JUNE 2023 | UndergroundInfrastructure.com
years of service on the board, I moved
on to NASSCO's Executive Committee
where I served as an officer of the board.
I was the second female to ever serve on
that committee and eventually became
NASSCO's first female president in 2011.
I considered it a real honor to hold that
position and was grateful that I had managed
to gain the trust and respect from a
great group of peers, people I considered
pillars in the industry who encouraged me
to get involved, then encouraged my participation
as a NASSCO Officer. Thinking
back to that time, the only females that
were highly involved in NASSCO were
Marilyn Shepard, Joan Stone and me.
Today, it is great to see so many women
involved in NASSCO and our industry.
The organization has grown at a very
impressive rate, and this is thanks in part
to increased involvement by its members.
The first annual conference I attended
had about 50 members. It was such a
small group that we could go around
the room and talk about who we were,
where we worked and what we did. Now,
the rooms are so crowded that it would
take us the entire event to get around the
room and that, to me, is very exciting.
The
participation
by
NASSCO
members both in-person and on virtual
committee calls is greater than ever. I
can remember back in the early 2000s
when I was chair of the Health and Safety
Committee and an issue with confined
space and construction came up. We
brought it to members and had a meeting
where only six people showed up. If that
were to happen today, I estimate we would
have at least 50 people sign up to help.
Growing participation
It is also encouraging to see the number
of new NASSCO members getting involved.
I believe it's because NASSCO
now represents the entire industry.
While contractors are still the majority,
public agencies and consulting engineers
now represent 40 percent of NASSCO's
membership base, combined. When I
was on the board, the only system owner
I can recall being part of the organization
was Jim Harris. The association has also
grown from focusing primarily on televising
and cleaning to building awareness
of all trenchless assessment, maintenance
and rehabilitation technologies.
My hope for the future of NASSCO
is that it continues to develop standards
to support our entire industry. In a recent
poll, a question was asked regarding what
resources are used in the development of
specifications. One choice was industry organizations
such as NASSCO, ASCE and
ASTM; consulting engineer was another
option; and manufacturer was the third.
Forty percent of the respondents said they
use NASSCO and other associations for
the development of specs. This is a great
responsibility for NASSCO and one that
I hope we continue to take very seriously.
I also hope to see NASSCO leverage
the tremendous strides it has made
with Pipeline Assessment Certification
Program (PACP) by tying in the importance
of how condition assessment
supports asset management, overall. I
know that one of NASSCO's key recommendations
to Washington D.C. is to
encourage asset management programs
so that infrastructure funds are spent
wisely. This is a strong strategic path that
will ensure our limited funding is spent
on the most critical needs.
NASSCO also encourages elected officials
to support underserved communities
with funding programs. I am pleased to
see NASSCO supporting its members and
our communities through this outreach.
I am also encouraged to see NASSCO
take on the tough subjects such as styrene
emissions in the cured-in-place pipe
(CIPP process), just as it did in advocating
for acrylamide grout many years ago.
In closing, Mike Hogan was one of the
first people I met when I attended my first
NASSCO meeting in 2004. He was the
outgoing president at the time and gave
me one very important piece of advice:
get involved. I followed that advice and
quickly learned that the non-competitive
nature of NASSCO brings together
people who truly care about doing what's
right. The more you get involved with
NASSCO the more you will find that the
industry gives back to you, even more
than you are giving to the industry. UI
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