Through a Long Career, This Massachusetts Utility Executive Never Strayed Far From a Focus on Water

Cheri Cousens found out early that wastewater treatment was interesting. Her Girl Scout troop visited the South Essex Sewerage District in Salem, Massachusetts, when she was 8. “To get the Water Badge, we had to tour a water or wastewater facility or something like that, and that’s where we went,” Cousens says. “I thought it was fascinating.” Now she is the executive director of the Greater Lawrence Sanitary District in North Andover, Massachusetts, and winner of the New England Water Environment Association’s 2021 William D. Hatfield Award. STEADY PROGRESSThe line from that Girl Scout trip to her present position isn’t perfectly straight, but