Leadership
The WaterRising Institute is a 501(c)(3) with UN ECOSOC Special Consultative Status, founded in response to the Flint Water Crisis. Chaired by Gary LaDrido, Chair of the Board, with Vice Chair Russell Read and Founder & CEO Alicia Douglas, its board and advisors bring together infrastructure leaders, family offices, policymakers, technologists, scientists, and creatives to advance the future value of water.
Mission
The WaterRising Institute builds the ecosystem that advances water through leadership, research, strategic partnerships, and innovation. We bring together the public, private, philanthropic, and civic sectors to make water more visible, strengthen resilience, and accelerate solutions that create lasting economic, environmental, and social impact.
Vision
A world where water is recognized as the foundation of healthy communities, resilient economies, and a sustained future. The WaterRising Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Board of Directors
Chair of the Board, The WaterRising Institute + The WaterHouse. Read more →
LinkedInVice Chair of the Board, The WaterRising Institute + The WaterHouse. Founder of the C Change Group. Read more →
LinkedInFounder & CEO, The WaterRising Institute + The WaterHouse.
LinkedInIn Memoriam
Founding Board Member & Secretary
It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of David Totman, our founding board member and Secretary, and a friend to everyone who helped build WaterRising alongside him.
From our earliest days, David helped shape who we are. He gave his wisdom, his steady judgment, and his belief that safeguarding water is work worth giving yourself to. He was a builder of this institution in the truest sense, and his fingerprints remain on its foundation.
We are grateful beyond words for his service, his generosity, and his friendship. He will be deeply missed by all who had the privilege of working beside him. Our hearts are with his family and all who loved him.
With gratitude and remembrance.
Board of Advisors
Spanning infrastructure, finance, science, policy, technology, and culture.
Organizational Evolution · 2017–Present
WaterRising was founded on the premise that persistent water failures, like Flint, were not single breakdowns, but systemic misalignment between policy, technology, capital, and community. Each phase revealed what the next required.
Founded as a neutral intermediary, not an advocacy group. Backed by the Wege Foundation through the Aspen Institute, WaterRising convened non-disclosed, invitation-only meetings alongside UNGA, WEF, and World Water Week, building trust and capital pattern recognition. The DRAWQ Detroit River AI water-quality pilot was fully designed and partner-aligned before COVID halted deployment, revealing a decisive insight: the binding constraint was human and institutional capacity, not technology.
WaterRising reframed "infrastructure" to include the people who determine whether systems function: operators, engineers, executives, and regulators. Workforce readiness emerged as the structural capacity solution, addressing talent shortages and institutional continuity in alignment with utilities and international workforce frameworks.
A formal platform to make leadership capacity visible, senior, and investable. Supported by SUEZ, Xylem, Kohler, Heineken, and the Wege Foundation, it elevated the leaders already running systems. The insight: capital does not move toward potential alone; it follows visible, credible leadership.
The institutional response to everything learned since 2017: trust must precede capital, leadership must precede technology, and workforce readiness must precede investment. The WaterHouse functions as a curated policy–market–capital hub, embedding workforce and leadership directly into infrastructure finance. In 2024, WaterRising's role as a sub-recipient on a U.S. EPA workforce-development grant validated its capacity as a delivery partner. The WaterHouse is not a departure from the early work; it is the institutional container for everything that work revealed.
Contact
To learn more about The WaterRising Institute, connect with our leadership, or explore ways to support our mission, reach the team directly.
Founder & CEO, The WaterRising Institute + The WaterHouse
adouglas@waterrisinginstitute.org
thewaterrisinginstitute.org
The WaterRising Institute · 501(c)(3) Nonprofit · UN ECOSOC Special Consultative Status under UN Water · Flint, Michigan · Founded in response to the Flint Water Crisis · Make the Invisible Visible™
