483 From Process Engineer to Process Architect: Alicia Butler‑Pierre on Making Work Flow
Release Date: 07/03/2026
488 Managing Legionella with confidence: A Conversation with Patsy Root
Scaling UP! H2O
“Our goal is not zero Legionella pneumophila bacteria. Our goal is zero cases.” – Patsy Root Legionella risk becomes harder to manage when building teams treat every detection as equivalent—or collect samples without first deciding what a positive result will trigger. , Senior Manager of Government Affairs at , explains how a clear water management program can replace uncertainty with defined responsibilities, routine monitoring, and proportionate action. Focus Testing on the Organism of Concern Patsy distinguishes between the broader...
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487 The 60‑Minute CFO: Tracy Bech on Making Business Finance Less Scary
Scaling UP! H2O
“Our gross profit margin is truly the battle we have to win in order to win all of the downstream wars.” - Tracy Bech Financial statements become useful when leaders can translate the numbers into decisions. , founder and author of , explains how business owners, managers, salespeople, and field professionals can develop financial fluency without becoming accountants. Turn Financial Data into a Meaningful Scorecard Tracy teaches finance through stories and relationships rather than isolated numbers. Revenue alone does not reveal whether a company is...
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486 Meter Optimization: Air in the water with Anthony Giudice
Scaling UP! H2O
Water meters register the volume passing through them, but what happens when that volume contains both water and entrained air? Anthony Giudice, president of AquaFlow, explains how turbulent flow can influence meter readings and how AquaFlow’s calibrated valve is designed to help meters reflect what he describes as true water consumption. Why Flow Conditions Matter at the Meter Anthony connects entrained air to the pressure required to move municipal water and the turbulence created as water travels through piping, changes...
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485 Questions from the Nation Around the World with Trace Blackmore, CWT
Scaling UP! H2O
Ten questions from water professionals around the world become a practical decision-making session with Trace Blackmore, CWT. Drawing on earlier Scaling UP! H2O conversations, Trace explains how to evaluate treatment changes, use emerging tools responsibly, begin water reuse projects, strengthen teams, and continue growing professionally. Evaluate the Entire System A proposed treatment change should be evaluated by more than its purchase price. When comparing chlorine dioxide with traditional chlorine, Trace recommends examining biocide consumption, chemical storage,...
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484 Risk, Resilience, and Water Security with Dr. Newsha Ajami
Scaling UP! H2O
Industrial operations depend on water of a predictable quantity and quality, yet many organizations still treat that reliability as a given. joins Trace Blackmore, CWT, to examine water security as a business continuity issue and resilience as the ability to withstand pressure, maintain operations, and recover quickly when systems fail. Connecting Risk, Resilience, and Recovery For industrial water users, water security means maintaining access to the quantity and quality required to operate without interruption. That reliability depends on...
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483 From Process Engineer to Process Architect: Alicia Butler‑Pierre on Making Work Flow
Scaling UP! H2O
Industrial water professionals understand flow, pressure, heat exchange, wastewater, boilers, condensers, and process control. Alicia Butler-Pierre brings that same engineering logic into business systems, showing how work, information, decisions, and people move through an organization. Alicia, CEO of Equilibria, joins Trace Blackmore, CWT, to connect process engineering, operations management, Lean Six Sigma, dashboards, professional training, and business infrastructure. Her message is clear: whether you are moving water through a pipeline or work through a company, the question remains the...
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482 Preserving Our Industry’s Story – Paul Petersen and the Industrial Water Exhibit
Scaling UP! H2O
Industrial water treatment has always supported industry, but much of that story remains invisible to the public. Paul Petersen wants to change that by helping establish an industrial water treatment presence at the National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Paul Petersen, former president and CEO of Trident Technologies and current leader of the Industrial Water Task Group, joins Trace Blackmore to explain why preserving the industry’s history matters. His vision is not simply a static display of old equipment. Instead, the goal is to...
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481 From Waterfalls to SOPs: Building Better Utilities with Kalpna Solanki
Scaling UP! H2O
Water utility work depends on more than technical knowledge. It depends on clear procedures, current documents, practical training, and performance conversations that reflect what operators actually do in the field. In Episode 481, Trace Blackmore, CWT, welcomes back , President and CEO at , for a practical conversation on building stronger utilities through standard operating procedures, competencies, and performance evaluations. Kalpna shares how outdated SOPs, disconnected training tools, and top-down documentation can create risk, confusion, and missed...
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480 From Engineering Numbers to People, Power, and Policy with Sherine El‑Wattar
Scaling UP! H2O
Industrial water professionals work with chemistry, equipment, permits, and performance targets every day. Yet every gallon also moves through a framework of policy decisions: who can withdraw water, how it may be used, what quality must be returned, and whose needs are considered when systems are designed. , a science network officer supporting the Working Group II Technical Support Unit, brings an engineering foundation and a human-centered perspective to those questions. Her work focuses on climate impacts, adaptation, vulnerability, and risk while helping...
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479 Water Treatment: The Next Generation - Hustle Culture Meets Emotional Literacy with Tiffany Wentz‑Root
Scaling UP! H2O
In today’s episode of Scaling UP! H2O, host Trace Blackmore sits down with workplace resilience expert and U.S. Marine veteran to decode how different generations show up in the industrial water treatment industry. From the Silent Generation’s post‑war loyalties through Baby Boomers’ commitment to long hours, Gen X’s distrust of corporate loyalty, Millennials’ desire for purpose and feedback, and Gen Z’s demand for emotional literacy, the conversation illustrates how each cohort was shaped by historical and technological upheaval. The discussion reframes “hustle...
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Industrial water professionals understand flow, pressure, heat exchange, wastewater, boilers, condensers, and process control. Alicia Butler-Pierre brings that same engineering logic into business systems, showing how work, information, decisions, and people move through an organization.
Alicia, CEO of Equilibria, joins Trace Blackmore, CWT, to connect process engineering, operations management, Lean Six Sigma, dashboards, professional training, and business infrastructure. Her message is clear: whether you are moving water through a pipeline or work through a company, the question remains the same—how can the process flow more seamlessly?
From Process Engineer to Process Architect
Alicia shares how her chemical engineering background shaped the way she sees organizations. Early in her career, she worked around wastewater, boilers, condensers, and heat exchangers, but she also saw a gap between technical operations and business decision-making.
That gap eventually led her to business school, entrepreneurship, and the founding of Equilibria. What began as a professional organizing company became an operations management consulting firm focused on processes, systems, Lean Six Sigma, and business infrastructure.
For water professionals, this conversation offers a practical reminder: technical improvements often fail to gain support when they are explained only in technical language. Alicia challenges listeners to connect process improvements to business outcomes that accounting, leadership, and customers can understand.
Dashboards, Dollars, and the Cost of Poor Quality
Trace and Alicia discuss a familiar challenge in water treatment: a team may know that a technical improvement will raise efficiency or reduce risk, but accounting may only see the capital expense. Alicia’s advice is to show the linkage.
Dashboards can help different functions see cause and effect. When technical investments are connected to revenue, profitability, customer demand, and operating efficiency, decision-makers can better understand the true value of the work.
Alicia also introduces the Lean Six Sigma concept of cost of poor quality. Instead of presenting improvement work as another expense, she encourages professionals to frame it as an investment and show what inaction could cost in dollars and cents.
Lean Six Sigma, Training, and Podcast Education
Alicia explains Lean and Six Sigma in clear operational terms. Lean focuses on reducing waste and improving work from a customer-centered perspective. Six Sigma uses statistics and data analysis to reduce defects and errors as close to zero as possible.
The conversation also moves into professional education. Alicia describes her podcast training portal, her partnership with the Project Management Institute, and how podcast episodes can support professional development units when paired with quizzes, approval processes, and a structured learning management system.
For a technical field built on continuing education, this opens an important question: how can trusted podcast content become part of a more formal learning pathway?
Scaling Knowledge Across Borders
Alicia’s work has expanded through teaching, online training, micro-courses, podcasting, and international business development. She describes podcasting as a door that gave her access to the world and helped her see the global need for professional education.
Her path from process engineer to process architect reinforces a lesson water professionals know well: good systems do not happen by accident. They are designed, tested, improved, and translated into language others can act on.
Listen to the full conversation above. Explore related episodes below. Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge!
Connect with Alicia Butler-Pierre
Email: apierre@eqbsystems.com
Website: Equilibria | Lean Six Sigma, Project Management Training via Podcasts
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciabutlerpierre/
Equilibria, Inc.: Overview | LinkedIn
Scaling UP! H2O Resources Mentioned
AWT (Association of Water Technologies)
Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses
131 The One About Standard Operating Procedures
Words of Water with James McDonald
Today's definition is the pressure of a system measured relative to the surrounding atmospheric pressure. In other words, it is the pressure of a system above atmospheric pressure.
2026 Events for Water Professionals
Check out our Scaling UP! H2O Events Calendar where we’ve listed every event Water Treaters should be aware of by clicking HERE.
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