Baking and cooking are the cornerstones behind Leslie Carreiro’s career as a chemist. Working first for a pharmaceutical company, then in the laboratory of the North Fork Water Treatment Plant in Asheville, North Carolina, Carreiro nurtured her love of combining ingredients to achieve product purity and consistency.After 14 years in the laboratory, Carreiro was promoted to the plant superintendent role in 2005. That included managing seven work groups with 41 employees, three water treatment plants, two laboratories, 37 pump stations and 32 above-ground storage tanks.She oversaw plant upgrades and developed monitoring and sampling programs for lead and copper, Cryptosporidium and
