Mary Ann Dickinson

Mary Ann Dickinson is the founder and President/CEO of the Alliance for Water Efficiency, an organization working to promoting the efficient, sustainable use of water in the U.S. and Canada. Based in Chicago, the Alliance will work with water utilities, water conservation professionals in business and industry, planners, regulators, and consumers to promote the water efficiency message. Prior to joining the Alliance in July of 2007, Mary Ann was Executive Director of the California Urban Water Conservation Council, a non-profit organization composed of 387 urban water supply agencies, environmental groups, and other entities interested in statewide water conservation in California and implementing the nation's first set of Best Management Practices.

Prior to joining the Council in January of 1999, Mary Ann was employed at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, where she worked on planning, legislative, conservation, and community outreach programs since 1992. Prior to joining Metropolitan, she served from 1989 to 1992 as Deputy Director for Public and Governmental Affairs at the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority. In that capacity she coordinated state and local government activities and managed a statewide water conservation program involving 63 water utilities.

Mary Ann is also a veteran resource manager, having worked at the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection for 18 years as a coastal management regulator, planning specialist, executive assistant/speech writer, and legislative lobbyist. A graduate of the University of Connecticut with a degree in environmental planning, she has authored numerous publications on water conservation, land use planning, and natural resources management, and has co-produced two films which have aired on public television and community cable stations. She is a Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Water Efficiency Magazine, a fellow at the Water Resources Center at the University of California at Santa Cruz, a Trustee and past Chair of the American Water Works Association National Water Conservation Division, and has presented numerous papers on water conservation in Spain, France, Australia, Korea, Jordan, Italy, Chile, China, Romania, Canada, and all across the United States.