I grew up on a cotton farm in the panhandle plains of Texas. My parents taught me how to work hard, and I got to see firsthand how valuable water is for growing crops. They also taught me about Jesus, and I began following Jesus in elementary school. I worked at a municipal drinking water treatment plant in high school and I married my high school sweetheart halfway through my undergraduate program in civil engineering. During my second year of graduate studies, I heard about the billions of people around the world who don't have clean water and sanitation. Recorded in Luke 4, Jesus personally identified himself as fulfilling the Messianic prophecies in Isaiah 61, including setting people free. In his ministry, Jesus demonstrated that by healing people, both physically and spiritually. As a follower of Jesus, I want to help do the same. When you step back and look at the globe, it is mostly blue. The world has an abundance of water, but almost all of it is too salty to drink. So, I decided to focus on desalination for my dissertation research. Now, I teach water and wastewater treatment, and our research team investigates ways to improve treatment processes, especially desalination. I want to partner with globally-minded and missional organizations to follow Jesus's example and help people both physically and spiritually.