Our Team - Tennessee Water Technical Assistance

Senior Staff

Steven W.H. Hoagland, PhD Comprehensive CV	Dr. Steven Hoagland is a Research Assistant Professor with the Tennessee Water Resources Research Center at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he has been employed since April 2022. Dr. Hoagland manages the Center’s technical assistance (TA) and training program, which consists of four federally funded projects including the Appalachian Community Technical Assistance and Training (ACTAT) project (funded by USDA), a TA project for small and rural wastewater systems in Tennessee (funded by USEPA), a workforce opportunity for rural communities (WORC) project (funded by USDOL), and a hydraulic modeling-focused TA project for small water systems (funded by USEPA through the Southwest Environmental Finance Center). Through these TA projects, Dr. Hoagland has conducted numerous training workshops in Tennessee for water and wastewater systems on the subjects of sustainable utility management and asset management, and has assisted utilities with digital system mapping, asset management plan development, and hydraulic modeling. Dr. Hoagland also has prior work experience as a Civil Engineer for Tetra Tech (January 2016 – October 2018), where he contributed to a variety of projects including civil-site design and construction, environmental monitoring, hydraulic modeling, and municipal stormwater program management.
Jyotsna Pandey, PhD	Dr. Jyotsna Pandey is a Research Specialist at the Tennessee Water Resources Research Center, at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She became part of the Center in October 2025. Dr. Pandey specializes in water resources engineering, with a particular focus on the sustainable management of urban water systems. She earned her PhD in Water Resources and Environmental Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, where her research focused on integrating hydraulic modeling with complex network theory to enhance the performance of water distribution networks. Her work centers on developing innovative, data-driven approaches that reduce reliance on computationally intensive hydraulic simulations and support informed decision-making for water utilities. At TNWRRC, she contributes to projects involving hydraulic modeling of water systems, asset management planning, and the development of predictive tools for identifying leaks, breaks, and other system vulnerabilities. Her work aims to bridge the gap between advanced analytics and the practical needs of water utilities, ultimately strengthening the resilience of community water systems.
John S. Schwartz, PhD, PE	Dr. John Schwartz is a professor of environmental engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is also the director of the Tennessee Water Resources Research Center, the state’s USGS National Institute of Water Resources (NIWR) center. John started at the University of Tennessee in 2003 as an assistant professor being promoted to full professor in 2015. Previous appointments include postdoctoral research position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2002-2003. Professional experience related to wastewater utilities include: Project Engineer/Manager at HGE, Inc. in Coos Bay, Oregon serving as consultants small rural community utilities (1992-1998); Environmental Engineer at Parametrix Inc. in Portland Oregon (1991-1992); Environmental Engineer with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region VI Water Quality Division, NPDES Compliance; Dallas, Texas (1986-1987); and Project Engineer, U.S. Peace Corps; Kenya Ministry of Water Development, South Nyanza District Office; Homa Bay, Kenya (1983-1985). Currently, as the water center director, Dr. Schwartz oversees three technical assistance projects for Tennessee water and wastewater utilities including the Appalachian Community Technical Assistance and Training Program, a workforce opportunities for rural communities project, and a small and rural wastewater systems technical assistance project.
Qiang He, PhD	Dr. Qiang He is a professor of environmental engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Previous appointments include postdoctoral research fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2003-2005) and assistant professor of environmental engineering at Temple University (2005-2007). He has more than 20 years of teaching and research experience in wastewater treatment, resource recovery from waste materials, and water quality control. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and owns two patents on beneficial waste reuse. Dr. He served as the editor of an ASCE Geotechnical Special Publication: Geoenvironmental Engineering and Geotechnics: Progress in Modeling and Applications (2010). He has been serving as an associate editor for the journal BMC Microbiology (2014-present). Dr. He is also involved in projects providing technical assistance to rural wastewater systems in East Tennessee.

Graduate Research Assistants

Currently, there are no GRAs working with the TNWaterTA group.

Undergraduate Research Assistants

Hannah Laymon	Hannah Laymon is a third-year undergraduate student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering and has taken classes in Water Resources, Engineering Approaches to Sustainability, Bio-thermodynamics, and Environmental Engineering Fundamentals. This summer, Hannah will be working on technical assistance and training projects for small water and wastewater utilities, where she will be doing GIS mapping, helping create asset management plans, and developing hydraulic models. She is passionate about water and land conservation and aims to contribute to a more sustainable infrastructure. Upon completing her undergraduate work, Hannah plans to take the Fundamentals of Engineering (F.E.) Exam and work towards obtaining her Professional Engineer (P.E.) license.
Miles McReynolds	Miles McReynolds is a third-year undergraduate student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. This summer, Miles will be working on technical assistance and training projects for small water and wastewater utilities, where he will be doing GIS mapping, helping create asset management plans, and developing hydraulic models. Interested in major infrastructure projects and GIS, he plans on focusing in Water Resources and Transportation Engineering. After completing his undergraduate work, Miles plans on continuing his education by completing a master’s degree in Water Resources Engineering or Transportation Engineering.
Kendall McGowan	Kendall McGowan is a third-year undergraduate student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. This summer, Kendall will be working at the Tennessee Water Resources Research Center on developing hydraulic models, creating asset management plans, developing training presentations for small water and wastewater utilities, and GIS mapping. Kendall is interested in sustainability, water and wastewater systems, and conservation. After completing her undergraduate work, she plans on continuing her education at the graduate level.
Katherine (Kate) L. Ermer	Kate Ermer is a fourth-year undergraduate student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Kate has been an intern with the Tennessee Water Resources Research Center since spring 2024. During her time with the Water Center, Kate has worked on geographic information systems (GIS) mapping, analysis and presentation of survey data, and development of asset management plans for rural utilities. Passionate about environmental conservation and infrastructure, she plans to further her education by attending graduate school starting in fall 2026 to pursue a masters degree in water resources engineering.

Former (Graduated) Students

Celia M. Jackson, M.S. (2025)

Celia Jackson earned her master’s degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2025. During her time as a GRA, Celia worked with Dr. Steven Hoagland at the Tennessee Water Resources Research Center to develop GIS training modules, which will be used in introductory GIS workshops for Tennessee’s water and wastewater utilities.

Enoch Zhang, M.S. (2025)

Enoch Zhang earned his master’s degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2025. During his time as a GRA, Enoch worked with Dr. Steven Hoagland at the Tennessee Water Resources Research Center to develop preliminary (uncalibrated) hydraulic models for small water systems.