Arizona’s emerging water leaders: Looking toward the future
Written by Daniela Sherril on July 23rd, 2025, and adapted from published article on Arizona State University’s website.
“I have spent the last two years as the community engagement specialist for Arizona Water for All, a pillar of the Arizona Water Innovation Initiative. As I prepare to attend graduate school in the fall, I find myself reflecting on the success of the Water Leadership Institute that we developed and the honor of learning from a vibrant network of collaborators living across the most biodiverse desert in the world.
The opportunity to co-create the Water Leadership Institute (WLI) in southern Arizona, alongside community partners including the Environmental Defense Fund, Water for People and Reconciliacion en el Rio Santa Cruz, has not only shaped my own capacity for leadership but, more importantly, illustrated the necessity of community-informed programs that can create networks of resilient water stewardship in a changing climate.”
About the author: Daniela Sherrill was the community engagement specialist for Arizona Water for All. She received her bachelor’s degree in sustainability with a minor in civic engagement from Northern Arizona University in 2020. Before joining AW4A, she worked in Flagstaff as a program facilitator at an environmental education center and in Tucson as a community organizer for campaigns that raised the minimum wage for workers across the state. She is now a graduate student in creative writing at Portland State University.
