Vanessa Leiby

ARTICLES BY VANESSA LEIBY

• WWEMA Window: The New Face Of Manufacturing

  5/25/2021

  Like many of you, I have recently been listening to and participating in many webinars and reading articles about the current challenges facing the manufacturing community — supply chain disruptions, material price escalations, workforce safety issues, market uncertainties and volatility, etc. One of the more difficult challenges focuses on worker shortages and the inability to find the right people with the right skills.

• Open Invitation To Attend WWEMA’s Virtual 47th Washington Forum April 27-29, 2021 — Including Water Week Policy Zoom-In With EPA And Congressional Leaders

  4/19/2021

  The Water and Wastewater Equipment Manufacturers Association (WWEMA) will hold its 47^th Washington Forum as a virtual meeting during Water Week 2021, on April 27-29, 2021. The Washington Forum is WWEMA’s annual legislative, regulatory, and policy meeting that directly connects our members, attendees, and invited guests to leaders in the water industry and government, including Congress and the U.S. EPA.

• Congress Ends The Year With A Splash

  12/20/2019

  Congress ended 2019 with a splash, culminating in a budget for Fiscal Year 2020 (FY-20), House passage of the U.S-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on trade, and impeachment of the President of the United States.

• WWEMA Window: I Am Thankful For Water

  12/3/2019

  Having recently celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday, it is an opportune time to step back, take a deep breath, and consider all that we have to be thankful for. Whether it is family, friends, health, pets, or opportunities, each of us has something for which we are grateful.

• WWEMA Window: In Memory Of Bridget O’Grady (7/11/1949 – 7/9/2019)

  7/16/2019

  This month I would like to celebrate and honor a dear colleague and friend who recently lost a short but heroic battle with cancer. Bridget O’Grady was just two days shy of her 70th birthday — the date that she had set for retirement. What makes Bridget remarkable is that much of her life and career was dedicated to making drinking water safe and secure for all of us; and she worked to the end to make that a reality.

• Managing Disruptive Change

  8/22/2018

  We operate today in a very disruptive environment where change is happening at unprecedented speed. In the midst of this disruptive change, the successful company of the future will be the one that recognizes these transformative dynamics, meets the challenges head on, and strategically positions itself to take advantage of new opportunities and ways to do business.

• Where Is An Infrastructure Package Heading?

  1/25/2018

  As Congress faces another Continuing Resolution (CR) deadline of February 8, members are scrambling to resolve several potentially contentious issues that have eluded resolution through the last three CRs.  Those issues include addressing the status of persons affected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration policy that expires March 5 and funding of the U.S.-Mexican border wall, among others.

• A Year Of Water In The News

  12/22/2016

  As the year winds to a close, I am reflecting on the fact that 2016 could be dubbed “The Year of Water”.  January started with the disclosure and national outcry related to lead exposure in Flint, MI, and during the year, the U.S. Congress introduced almost 60 different bills dealing with water. 

• WWEMA Window: A Tale Of Two Cities — Flint, MI And Camden, NJ

  4/28/2016

  The Water and Wastewater Equipment Manufacturers Association (WWEMA) held its 43^rd Annual Washington Forum in conjunction with many other water groups who gathered to celebrate Water Week, an opportunity to discuss the nation’s water infrastructure and how to more effectively protect public health and the environment. Nowhere was this critical role more evident than in two presentations.

• WWEMA Window: Congress Needs To Reauthorize The Ex-Im Bank

  7/21/2015

  The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im) is the official export credit agency of the United States. Established by Executive Order in 1934 with a mission of supporting American jobs by facilitating the export of U.S. goods and services, in 1945 the Ex-Im Bank became an independent, self-sustaining Executive Branch agency. For over 80 years, the Bank has provided financing tools and services that allow small, medium, and large companies to compete for global sales.

• WWEMA Window: Where’s The Funding?

  4/27/2015

  Cherry trees in full bloom, Water Week, the U.S. Water Prize, the WWEMA Water Challenge, and a Congressional Technology Exposition all provided an exciting backdrop to the WWEMA Washington Forum April 13 to 15 in Washington, D.C.

• WWEMA Window: 'Buy American' March To The Sea

  1/21/2015

  Many of you may have grown up in the decades where your perfectly reasonable teenage parental “ask” was met with the story of lemmings blindly following their leader over the cliff to their death at sea.

• WWEMA Window: Do You Have A Seat At The Table?

  11/14/2014

  What do a national expert in water reuse, a motivational speaker, a Chinese technology accelerator program operator, and an entertaining economist have in common?

• WWEMA Window: The Need For Change

  9/3/2014

  In the last week, I sent my youngest daughter off to her freshman year at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania and my oldest daughter, a junior at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, off to Salamanca, Spain, to study abroad for three months. While these were much anticipated opportunities, they also came with a lot of questions, worries, and angst.  Change is never easy!

• Social Media In The Workplace – Friend Or Foe?

  5/14/2014

  Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube — these are just a few of the more popular social media sites that have found their way into the workplace. In fact, use of these sites has begun to blur the distinction between home and office, particularly with the ubiquitous presence of personal devices such as Droids and iPhones. By Vanessa M. Leiby, WWEMA Executive Director

• WWEMA Window: Why ‘Buy American’ May Be Bad For America

  3/19/2014

  “Buy American” is a sound bite that conjures up an image of a Norman Rockwell painting, motherhood, and apple pie. Ask most people on the street, in our state houses, and on Capitol Hill whether “Buy American” is good, and I suspect most peoples’ immediate response would be … “Of course it’s a good thing.” While it is good to promote the purchase of American-made goods, there is another very important side to this issue that is so much more complex and challenging than what can be conveyed in a simple sound bite. By Vanessa Leiby, Executive Director, WWEMA