2025 CONFERENCE ADVISORY BOARD

Anwer Ahmed, National Technical Leader for Stormwater Services, Arcadis' Resilience Water Practice

Anwer is a national technical leader for stormwater services in Arcadis’ Resilience Water practice. He has over 36 years experience in stormwater master planning, watershed protection/restoration, MS4 compliance, green infrastructure, asset management, and funding. He has authored several technical papers including “Maximizing Stormwater Program Effectiveness Through Risk-Based Stormwater Asset Management” (AWWA) and is a co-author of the “Urban Stormwater Controls Operation and Maintenance” Manual of Practice (ASCE/WEF). He served on the Board of Directors for the Center for Watershed Protection and the WEF ENVISION Task Force to develop stormwater guidance for Envision™ Rating System. 

Seth Brown, Executive Director of the National Municipal Stormwater Alliance

Seth Brown has over 25 years of experience in the water sector and is the principal and founder of Storm and Stream Solutions, LLC, a consulting firm providing a range of services from policy and alternative project delivery analysis in the stormwater sector to facilitation and training services focused on stormwater topics. He was the director of Stormwater Programs at the Water Environment Federation from 2010-2015 and is currently the executive director of the National Municipal Stormwater Alliance, which is a 501.c.3 representing stormwater-focused organization in 25 states across 9 of the 10 U.S. EPA regions with a network that is comprised of over 4,400 MS4s. 

Brown has a Ph.D. in civil engineering from George Mason University with a research focus on socio-economic modeling of incentive-based investments of green stormwater infrastructure on private properties. He leads courses in green infrastructure and innovative water partnerships at Virginia Tech and the University of Maryland at Eastern Shore and is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Maryland. 

Sarah Ganley, Bohannan Huston's Stormwater Quality and Regional NPDES Expert

Sarah Ganley, PE, ENV SP, is Bohannan Huston’s Stormwater Quality and Regional NPDES expert, with over 20 years of experience in Water Resources and Environmental Engineering. Sarah is a Vice President in the Surface Water Group at Bohannan Huston, Inc. She provides comprehensive NPDES Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) stormwater compliance support to clients throughout New Mexico. Sarah is a surface water quality expert bringing technical experience in hydrology and hydraulics as well as expertise in Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) and Low Impact Development (LID) planning, policy support, Best Management Practice (BMP) implementation, surface water quality analysis, and stormwater quality compliance

Jonathan J. Meronek, IGP-TOR, ENV-SP, QISP, CPESC, QSP/D

Mr. Meronek has been with SCS Engineers for twenty years and is an SCS National Expert on Stormwater. He is a current State of California Industrial General Permit (IGP) Qualified Industrial Storm Water Practitioner (QISP) and QISP Trainer-of-Record (ToR).  Mr. Meronek develops Client-focused, strategies while leveraging current technology and innovation across a wide myriad of sectors. With an eye to Client's operational needs, combined with long-term sustainable solutions, Mr. Meronek has successfully developed comprehensive stormwater management programs for hundreds of Facilities throughout the Western United States.

Brian Merritt,  Global Advisory - Strategic Advisory / Regulatory Support Black & Veatch

Brian Merritt is a manager with Black & Veatch Management Consulting based in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. With a background in civil engineering and more than 20 years of stormwater related experience, he has helped communities ranging in population from 10,000 to 1.56 million develop and maintain their stormwater utilities. He has extensive experience leading outreach efforts for implementation projects and understands the balance needed in communicating engineering topics and financial needs to the public to build broader support for change. He has helped communities gain the resources needed to address both aging infrastructure as well as the beginning to tackle the impacts of climate change.  Merritt holds a B.S. and M.S. in civil engineering from Lehigh University. 

Melissa Simpson, Stormwater Strategic Growth Lead, WSP

Melissa Simpson is a professional civil engineer and senior vice president specialized in stormwater management and project management for local, state, and federal clients.  She has extensive experience in NPDES policy and compliance, stormwater management planning and design, green infrastructure, hydraulic flood control structures, project management, climate change adaptation, and resilient infrastructure.  Melissa is responsible for organic growth, technical excellence, and strategy for WSP’s rapidly expanding water business.

Harry Stark, Director of Engineering and Public Services, City of Aurora

Harry Stark, MPA, CPMSM, is the director of Engineering and Public Services for the City of Aurora, Ohio. Stark has more than 31 years of experience in administrative activities and multiple areas of expertise. With a background in public administration and project development and management, he is well-versed in working with a variety of groups including planning commissions, steering committees, councils, local political groups, citizen groups and organizations, non-profit organizations and other groups and has given many presentations at a variety of venues.  

Stark also serves as the past-president of the Ohio Stormwater Association, executive director of the Annual Ohio Stormwater Conference, editorial board for Stormwater Solutions magazine, state of Ohio representative for Envirocert International and several other volunteer activities. He assisted in the development of Tinker’s Creek Watershed Partners in 2005. He has previously served as the president of Tinker’s Creek Watershed Partners, chair for the Northeast Ohio Watershed Council, vice chair of Envirocert’s CPMSM Board of Directors, district director for the Ohio Environmental Health Association, and member of Streetsboro Recreation and Preservation Committee and Master Plan Committee. Mr. Stark has a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of South Florida, a master's degree in public administration from the University of Akron and is a 2012 graduate of Leadership Medina. He has received the Storm Water Professional of the Year from the Ohio Stormwater Association, Distinguished Service Award (2020) from Envirocert, Distinguished Service Award and Wayne S. Nichol’s Award from the Water Management Association of Ohio, District Director Service Award from the Ohio Environmental Health Association, and Business Advocate of the Year from the Wadsworth Chamber of Commerce.