December 2025 - MABA Biosolids Spotlight: SPOTLIGHT on Thaddeus Stevens College Faculty and Students

SPOTLIGHT on Thaddeus Stevens College Faculty and Students

Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, in the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has a unique two-year Associate Degree program in Water and Environmental Technology (W&ET). For students interested in a career in water and wastewater treatment, this program provides exceptional preparation for new operators and significantly accelerates achieving state operator certification.  The program has an affordable tuition of $4,500 per semester, although nearly half of the 20 or so students in each of the two classes are on full or partial scholarships.

W&ET did not just arrive fully formed and fully enrolled, but rather it has evolved and formed with leadership of previous and current instructors, with the active collaboration of students and graduates, and with support of public agencies and companies in the county.  Today, the program is a bright spot in the wastewater industry’s response to the “silver tsunami” which is a real threat to the future operation of environmental infrastructure as experienced operators retire. Here are stories of some of the individuals who have been involved in the Stevens W&ET program.

Bill McKeon

“This program changes lives. When students complete the program, they have excellent job opportunities and the potential for successful careers,” Bill McKeon confidently asserts. McKeon was four years out from retirement as manager of wastewater operations at the Philadelphia Water Department and living in Lititz, Lancaster County, when he heard that Thaddeus Stevens College, a trades-oriented college in the city of Lancaster, intended to create a two-year associate degree program titled “Water & Environmental Technology.”  With a co-instructor Katie Surra, with 20 or so students in each of the two years, and with a hearty “why the hell not” spirit, McKeon signed on. Starting from scratch, he borrowed furniture and lab space, he drew on the well-regarded Sacramento course material, and he proceeded to develop courses for wastewater treatment operators, water filtration operators, wastewater conveyance and water distribution.  In 2019, after five years developing the W&ET program, having produced some strikingly successful new operators for water and wastewater agencies and consultants in Pennsylvania, McKeon was ready to return to his retirement, and turn it over to other water professionals looking for a shift in their careers. 

Bill McKeon, cofounder of the Water & Environmental Technology program at Thaddeus Stevens College, standing with Kevin Kowalski, today superintendent at the Butler Township (Luzerne County) plant, at an awards ceremony in 2018.

Kevin Kowalski

Kevin Kowalski was among the first students in the W&ET program and one of the program’s early successes.  Kevin was looking to create a career after completing a 4-year program in Environmental Planning at Bloomsburg University which had been derailed by a cycle of alcohol abuse, rehab, and sober living shelters, and by dead-end jobs in warehouses and manufacturing. Kevin saw one day a billboard about W&ET on the way to repairing a sober house in 2018.  He took the chance to fill out an application, with the thought of taking this on as a solid career. When he was accepted into W&ET, Kevin committed himself 100 percent to learning and excelling in a career in wastewater treatment, getting beyond concerns that he had lost over the years his computer and writing skills.  He has had no second thoughts about this commitment, quickly gaining broad experience through interning at Lititz, working at Marietta Borough, riding a circuit of operations with Miller Environmental, and working in the wastewater section of York Water Company.  He was surprised when Butler Township in Luzerne County selected him as superintendent of its <0.5 MGD wastewater plant (with 4 operators and a clerk in addition to himself), as his term of experience had been short. But the position has worked well for him, as it is close to his home in Shenandoah, where he has settled.  Kevin is now in a solid career, having acquired over the past two years a spouse and house, and also a baby. It was not so many years ago that a life with a solid career and family seemed unimaginable. 

Heath Edelman

Heath Edelman, 2nd-year professor of W&ET at Thaddeus Stevens, is a keystone to this program of career development for future water professionals. He is now in his 10th year of teaching in the program.  “When I started as an adjunct at Thaddeus, Katie Surra and Bill McKeon had a vision for what the program could be, and we have been working at that ever since. We are building that legacy, one graduate and one community at a time, and fulfilling the mission of our College,” says Edelman.  Alongside Edelman, working with the 40 to 50 students enrolled in W&ET, is Shannon Butler, the 1st-year instructor, who joined Stevens in 2020 and is herself a certified wastewater operator.  Edelman is an example to the program’s students of the possibility that they can both work and pursue education.  He is, in fact, doing so currently himself, as he is now closing in on a PhD from Old Dominion University in Education & Workforce Development while working full-time for Thaddeus Stevens College.  In his role at the College and through his studies, Edelman is responding to what he forecasts is a major loss to retirement of experienced operators in water and wastewater treatment. 

Edelman sees current education programs, both at trade schools and at 4-year colleges, failing to provide young people with the full-range of skills they need to enter the water field. In line with his PhD research, Edelman has established the potential for a practical training program at the associate degree level to combine technical training with training in policy, programming, budgeting, and public relations – all components of delivering these critical public services.  Edelman also argues that public authorities are stuck in past hiring practices that presume young people just out of high school will last in their entry positions for more than a couple of years when instead they jump to other fields. By adding leadership and management skills to his two-year program, the young people can envision a clearer path for themselves to a family-sustaining, technical career and they stay the course.  He cements that vision by building a sense of community and teamwork among the students and engaging them with employees at cooperative water industry partners in the southcentral Pennsylvania region.  While many students may not have seen for themselves a path to a full four-year degree or beyond, he shows them that they can find employers that help support their progress toward that goal. This is how the W&ET program at the College creates a comprehensive foundation for developing a solid workforce for the wastewater industry. 

Field trips to local treatment facilities are a key component of the W&ET program, and here the Class of 2025 is pictured, with recent graduate Alex Vargas (now at Carlisle Borough) on the far right and Heath Edelman (2nd year assistant professor in W&ET) third from the right. 

Alex Vargas

Alex Vargas is one of the recent graduates of the program Edelman has created.  Alex credits his parents’ patience with giving him the freedom during COVID to give up dependable work at Target, which had left him feeling unfulfilled, to work on an Associate Degree from Stevens in W&ET. Alex’s interest in water science had been ignited at Conestoga Valley High School, with its field trips to the Conestoga Creek for nutrient sampling and macroinvertebrate identification. But not until he met Heath Edelman did Alex realize that wastewater treatment could be an environmental career that built on this interest: “Heath really sold me on it.”  Alex appreciated the combination of strong process training and biological science, but he also enjoyed the memorable trips to nearby treatment facilities, such as the activated sludge processes at the City of Lancaster.  Today, Alex is an operator at the Carlisle Wastewater plant, recently completing his probationary period. He says it is “really cool, meaningful work” and finds biosolids particularly interesting for its value to nearby farmers. Alex looks forward to being part of the upgrade in solids handling, which will include centrifuges.  He was engaged to be married three months ago and is saving for a wedding.  W&ET not only provided a meaningful career but also has opened up for Alex a life of new possibilities. 

Kendra Weiss

Kendra Weiss makes no bones of the fact that she hates desk work and that sitting makes her crazy; she loves plants and animals and has had a lifelong affinity for exploring creeks. In the fall of her senior year of high school, with no idea what she would do, her father showed her a brochure for the Stevens Associate Degree in Water & Environmental Technology, and after attending an open house she was convinced to apply. While neither parent was a graduate of a 4-year college, several family members had attended or were already attending Stevens, so she felt confident jumping in. But her way forward was not a straight one. She flunked her first tests, and credits Edelman as a positive role in getting her through it. She was buoyed by the good group of students, all of whom wanted to be there. Then Covid hit, and Kendra struggled with the online learning, so she took a break. When classes resumed, she had a moment of doubt, but fellow student Mikayla Regan reached out, made sure Kendra felt supported, and brought her into a tight-knit group.  Kendra was concerned with being a younger woman in a male-dominated field, having heard unsettling stories. But her first employer, York Water Company, with its diverse team, recognized that Kendra was a sponge for knowledge and a hard worker. They have consistently supported Kendra in honing her skills, providing mechanical training, and developing her troubleshooting abilities. She works solo daytimes Wednesday through Saturday on a circuit with 5 of York Water’s nine small wastewater plants, mostly aeration basins, but one SBR (a “beast of its own”). She aspires to work up from her Class B license to a Class A license, which could open opportunities in other regions and states, but she sees a lot of learning ahead first with York Water. Kendra enjoys the miracle of the process by which wastewater is cleansed and can feel joy at being outdoors with the mice, snakes, deer and birds, even if at moments she curses the cold, rain and wind.  

Training in laboratory procedures for process control is a core program element. Pictured here is Kendra Weiss (foreground), at York Water Company today, with Emily Zimmerman (now at Lancaster Area Sewer Authority) using the jar tester to establish coagulant doses for filtration optimization.

Mikayla Regan

“I am a dedicated and passionate water and wastewater professional,” Mikayla asserts in her LinkedIn profile, and a proud graduate of the W&ET program. If Mikayla’s energetic enthusiasm for the wastewater profession evokes an image of kids at outdoor play, that is because field hockey coaching is nearly a second career for Mikayla.  Mikayla is keen on teamwork and strong training, and she expresses that ethic with a strong liaison with Stevens instructors and students, even as she advances quickly in her wastewater career. While attending the two-year WE&T program in the morning, she worked full-time in the evening as a drinking water operator at Red Lion Municipal Authority's 3.5 MGD treatment facility. Her combined experiences prepared her to join Arro Consulting in the position of circuit rider for a diverse caseload of different small to medium drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities all over Pennsylvania.  She then transitioned to the consulting side of the industry as a wastewater and biosolids scientist with Material Matters. Now Mikayla has landed at Northern Lancaster County Authority in Denver, Pennsylvania, a utility with an average daily flow of 400,000 gallons, where she helps oversee their Class B biosolids beneficial use program, utilizing some of the first reed beds built in the state. She has also started an internship program between the W&ET program and Northern Lancaster and continues to work with other water professionals to help further develop the next generation of talented operators to join our meaningful industry.  Mikayla further draws upon her communication skills to reach out to the public on environmental issues of the day, such as PFAS. She solicits public support for reducing nuisances that flow in the influent from the authority’s large waste watershed, items such as rags, fibers wipes, personal waste items and persistent pollutants.  Mikayla is showing herself to be not only a great hockey coach, but a great coach to all young operators joining the wastewater profession, particularly those at Thaddeus Steven’s W&ET program.

Mikayla Regan, one of the original graduates of W&ET, is now at the Northern Lancaster County Authority plant, pictured here making plans for reed bed replacement. 

Mikayla Regan and WE&T program intern, Kanya Hines, observe Northern Lancaster’s Beam Road WWTP activated sludge treatment train and biological nutrient removal processes.

Marci Poli

Like Kevin Kowalski, Marci Poli is one of Stevens W&ET successful early graduates.  She remembers the uncertainty of the early years of the W&ET program as McKeon sought to acquire needed resources, in particular the laboratory.  After a year's pause in her program, she resumed under the directorship of Heath Edelman, at which time the program had begun to hum along.  Marci chose to explore alternative career paths before committing to a 4-year college, having witnessed the debt her older siblings had incurred. Marci explains: “My dad was an arborist who built and ran his own tree company with my mom for decades, before he passed away. I spent many summers working with him doing tree work. They both really encouraged me to explore alternative career paths and figure out what I was passionate about before making a large financial commitment with a 4-year college. I found that career path and that passion in the water and wastewater industry, thanks to the W&ET program.”  Edelman, impressed with Marci’s smarts and ambition, recommended her to his former employer, Entech Engineering, and they hired Marci right after her completion of the W&ET program.  Stevens became a steppingstone for a four-year Civil Engineering degree at Penn State Harrisburg, which she completed in December 2024, all the while working fulltime at Entech. She has attained the job title of Engineering Designer and intends to sit for her Professional Engineer test in 2026.  In addition, Marci was married in 2022, and she and her husband acquired a new home this year, built on a parcel subdivided from her mother’s farm. 

Marci Poli, after completing W&ET, began working for Entech Engineering and continued her education while working full-time, earning a 4-year engineering degree from Penn State. 

The Stevens Contribution

The Stevens W&ET program fills a special niche in the wastewater industry. According to Heath Edeleman, students who complete the program share several attributes:  they feel a connection to nature, they express a commitment to public service, they are looking for meaningful work, and they appreciate the low-cost option for post-high school education.  The graduates also see their path toward state operator licensing accelerated by the W&ET program, thereby opening up opportunities for quick advancement.  Those who stick with the profession can expect a well-paying, family-friendly career, because the W&ET program has gone beyond technical training to include management and leadership skills. While Edelman is unwavering in his efforts to enroll students, the success of the program’s graduates is its strongest selling point.