Joan Douglas is the State Lead for Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project’s Florida office, working with rural communities since June 1998.

Douglas’ duties include project and program development; grant writing; and onsite training and technical assistance for the planning, financing, and development of existing and new water and wastewater systems.

Her experience includes providing onsite assistance on financial, managerial, and technical problems in water and wastewater system operation, small group management and security training for boards and staff of public utilities, and onsite assistance to water/wastewater system staff in areas of rate setting, policy development, accounting, bookkeeping, and environmental compliance.

As an elected council member/current Mayor for the town of Worthington Springs for 14 years, she also has direct experience in working with small, rural leadership boards. Her prior experience includes ten years as an environmental science laboratory manager at Santa Fe Community College.

Track: TAP Skills: Regionalization
Title: Regionalization for Resilience
Day/Time: Thursday, 8/18 | 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm
Description: With the rise of natural disasters, and with an eye on climate change and its direct impact on resources, it is essential rural communities and tribal entities brace themselves when a disaster strikes. Regional collaboration is a tool small water and wastewater systems should consider in helping to achieve compliance, long-term sustainability, and resiliency. There are many examples of partnerships born out of crisis whether that is being part of a mutual aid agreement, having backup operations in case of COVID or other absences, or having an emergency interconnect between water systems. In this session, we will dig into some of these examples, and share real-world case studies, as well as resources to help implement these types of partnerships and programs in the communities TAPs, are working in.