Eileen O'Neill is the executive director of the Water Environment Federation, an international organization of water-quality professionals headquartered in Alexandria, Va. Before being appointed as WEF's executive director in January 2014, O'Neill had worked with the organization for more than 20 years in a variety of positions, including responsibility for oversight of WEF's technical, international and communications programs. She served as the organization's chief technical officer before becoming deputy executive director in late 2011.
Before joining WEF, O'Neill worked as an academic and in environmental consulting in the United States and in Europe. She has a bachelor's degree in soil science from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the United Kingdom and a Ph.D. in soil science from the University of Aberdeen in the U.K., and she undertook a postdoctoral traineeship in environmental toxicology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
