The Water Quality Association, a trade association representing the residential, commercial, and industrial water treatment industry, has named Cindy Tomei, CAE, its Engagement & Advocacy Services Deputy Director. In this new role, Cindy will lead the association’s membership, external affairs, and government affairs departments.
“Cindy’s expertise at strategizing initiatives, developing new programs, and building effective teams will serve her well in leading our important organizational outreach and member engagement efforts,” said WQA Executive Director Pauli Undesser. “With her 20-year career in association and nonprofit leadership, WQA will certainly leverage Cindy’s knowledge and successes from building long-lasting, mutually beneficial relations with members, partners, and colleagues.”
Cindy previously served as Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, with the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association. She holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration with a Marketing Concentration from Kutztown (Pennsylvania) State College and has earned a Certified Association Executive (CAE) certification.
“I’m thrilled to take on this new challenge with WQA, an association I have admired for a long time,” said Cindy. “This gives me an opportunity to build on my past successes of building member value while developing new opportunities to expand WQA’s outreach to like-minded organizations, regulators, and public officials.”
In a related move, Tom Bruursema has been named WQA’s new Associate Executive Director of Technical Programs. Tom has been with the association since 2018, serving as Associate Executive Director of Member & Public Engagement.
“Having Tom assume this new role allows him to use his extensive experience and knowledge of the water treatment industry to lead the growth, development, and innovation of our WQA laboratory and Product Certification program,” said Pauli Undesser.
Prior to WQA, Tom spent 30 years at NSF International, where for a time he was General Manager of Drinking Water Treatment Units and Environmental and Research Services. He holds a Master of Science degree in biology from Eastern Michigan University.
“I’m excited to move into this new position where WQA plays such a pivotal role, offering third-party certification for drinking water products so that consumers, public health officials, code officials, and others can have confidence the products and systems meet stringent national standards,” Tom said.
WQA moved into a new state-of-the-art laboratory and headquarters last year. The new lab allows increased capacity, flexibility, and efficiency for product testing and research and development through WQA’s Gold Seal and Sustainability Certification programs.
Source: WQA
