Meet Our New Team Member: Prachi Mehendale
CARPC is pleased to introduce Prachi Mehendale (meh-HEN-da-lay), our new Environmental Engineer. A recent UT-Austin grad, Prachi will be applying her education and research experience in stormwater management, water infrastructure, and project management to support CARPC’s water quality-related review and planning processes.
Prachi grew up in Chicagoland (namely Berwyn and Oak Park) before moving to Austin, Texas to complete a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering with an Economics minor. Her coursework at the University of Texas at Austin included stormwater management, hydraulics, and project management.
Staff Trivia: During her undergraduate studies, one of Prachi’s design courses took her to rural Kenya, where she and her classmates collaborated with researchers from South Eastern Kenya University to assess the socioeconomic impacts of efforts to set up decentralized water systems.
Prachi’s undergraduate research focused on rural water infrastructure systems in Alaska and Kenya. The Alaska projects aimed to understand the experiences of people using rural water systems and the challenges of constructing and maintaining these systems in an extreme climate. Interviewing end users and listening to perspectives from different levels of government for this project ultimately piqued Prachi’s interest in the interactions between people and government, leading her to pursue a career in the public sector.
Since joining CARPC in December, Prachi has already begun assisting with sewer extension conformance reviews and will soon be working on Urban Service Area planning, stormwater management plan reviews, and climate resilience planning as well.
Staff Trivia: Prachi’s hidden talents include pool maintenance, which she mastered as co-manager of the pool at her residential co-op in Austin.
Outside of work, Prachi enjoys photography, especially capturing birds, squirrels, and other everyday animals, along with playing the violin, and weightlifting. As she gets settled in Madison, Prachi hopes to join a community orchestra and foster or adopt a cat.
Prachi can be reached at prachim@capitalarearpc.org or 608-474-6016. Please join us in welcoming her to the CARPC team!