The University of Oklahoma WaTER Symposium

The 2008 Symposium featured a panel of international experts including Dr. Greg Allgood, Dr. Michael Campana, Henock Gezahegn, Daniele Lantagne and Malcolm Morris. The panelists spoke about their experiences and expertise regarding water and sanitation issues in remote villages of developing countries. The symposium was then opened up to a question and answer session moderated by Dr. Paul Kleine. At noon a luncheon was held where Dr. Stephen Luby was announced as the first OU International Water Prize winner by Daniele Lantagne and Dr. Greg Allgood. Dr. Luby will be officially presented with this award at the 2009 International WaTER Conference.

Distinguished Speakers for the Symposium Included:

Dr. Greg Allgood

Dr. Greg Allgood is the Director, Children’s Safe Drinking Water at Procter & Gamble and Senior Fellow in Sustainability. Dr. Allgood has been with P&G for 23 years and leads P&G’s efforts to provide safe drinking water in the developing world. He has a PhD in Toxicology from North Carolina State University and a Master of Science in Public Health from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, where he did research in the water area. In 2007, the program that Dr. Allgood leads received the Ron Brown US Presidential Award for Corporate Citizenship, the United Nations Association Global Leadership Award, the Grainger Challenge Bronze Award for Sustainability, and the EPA Children’s Health Excellence Award. Dr. Allgood is chair of the communications working group of WHO’s International Network to Promote Household Water Treatment. He serves on the Advisory Board of Aquaya Institute and the Global Health Focus of the Clinton Global Initiative.

Dr. Michael Campana

Dr. Michael Campana is a hydrogeologist and international expert on a range of complex water management issues. He became Director of the Institute for Water and Watersheds at Oregon State University in June 2006 after serving as the Director of the Water Resources Program at the University of New Mexico. He has done extensive research on water resources in developing countries, transboundary water resource issues, water allocation and availability, and other areas. He is also founder and president of a charitable foundation that funds and undertakes water, health and sanitation projects in developing nations.

Henock Gezahegn

Mr. Henock Gezahegn is Marketing and Technical Services Director for Population Services International, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Mr. Gezahegn has extensive senior management experience, having led activities in both the private and public sectors. His experience in health services delivery includes social marketing of Point of Use (POU) water treatment and Malaria prevention. He was instrumental in setting up the POU intervention in Ethiopia from determination of chlorine demand all the way to setting up local production capacity with a co-packing arrangement.

Daniele Lantagne

Ms. Daniele Lantagne works for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA. She received her Environmental Engineering degrees from MIT (BS '96, M.Eng. '01, PE '03) and is currently pursuing her PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in addition to working at CDC. In her 3 years at MIT and 4 years with CDC, she has worked to implement and study chlorination, filtration, and combined treatment household water treatment implementations in over 30 countries. She is a member of the board of directors for Potters for Peace.

Malcolm S. Morris

Mr. Malcolm S. Morris is Chairman of Stewart Title Company. Mr. Morris oversees the financial stability and improvements in efficiency of the company's title insurer operations. Mr. Morris received his Bachelor of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University and Master of Business Administration and Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Texas. He served as President of both the Texas Land Title Association and the American Land Title Association. Mr. Morris is also an active civic leader, having served as Chairman of Living Water International and founder and current Chairman of the Millennium Water Alliance of American non-profit organizations with a common goal to bring clean water to 500 million people by the year 2015.