Margaret E. Hunter

  • Margaret E. Hunter

Margaret E. Hunter

Margaret E. Hunter, B.S. Civil Engineering, 2002

Margaret is now an Engineering Director in the Capital Planning department at New Jersey American Water, a subsidiary of American Water. She leads several initiatives: sustainability and resiliency planning; functional leadership for planning, including master planning studies, which recommend capital projects such as new treatment plants; and plant rehabilitation and regulatory compliance for water and wastewater systems in NJ. 

Rowan & Roots

Engineering with Impact

What role does engineering play in creating real-world change in your industry?

My team develops the future recommendations for water and wastewater systems, and our other project delivery engineering team constructs the projects to provide our customers with safe reliable drinking water supply and wastewater services for long term sustainability. 

What advice would you give to current Rowan Engineering students who want to make an impact?

Find your passion, get experience early in your career to help you offer a meaningful service to protect and improve our communities with your work in your career.  I have found that staying values driven in my work pursuits has enabled a rewarding career that continues to make an impact through the teams I work with and the customers we serve.

Your Engineer’s Lens

What’s something in your daily life that you now see differently because you're an engineer?

Drinking Water.  There is so much detail and effort from a very passionate workforce that goes into ensuring the quality of water is safe to drink many miles away from where it was sourced and the quantity is available to fight a fire or water your lawn on demand. Tap water is extremely undervalued and often taken for granted.

If you could design or improve anything in the world — no limits — what would it be?

I would eliminate pollution.  All industries would increase their focus and investment on leaving no trace on the environment to produce their goods and services. More stringent regulatory compliance requirements for all industry and non-point source discharges to the environment would support this.  

Quick Hits

First engineering job:

During the semester and summers, I worked for Dr. Jahan in water and wastewater quality research and the Attracting Women into Engineering (AWE) workshop. 

Coffee or tea during all-nighters at Rowan?

Coffee

One tool or software you can’t live without today:

Excel

Favorite place to eat near campus back then:

Tokyo Mandarin

One word that describes your engineering mindset:

Efficiency