Personal experience is often a powerful motivator. For Katie Waynick, the multiple floodings she experienced in her home in a single year inspired her to start a campaign whose mission is to raise awareness of local flooding and sewage backup issues caused by insufficient infrastructure.
"The number one killer of women who beat cancer is heart disease. That blows my mind. I think there are a lot of people who don’t look at heart disease with the level of seriousness it deserves. There’s also a real misconception that heart disease only impacts people who are overweight or don’t eat well and we need to change that narrative.
- Katie
In the four years since launching DrainALX, Waynick worked with residents and city officials to establish an ad hoc stormwater group and made incredible impact in raising the issue at a higher level, both through advocating for various city and state-wide legislative efforts and by working in an official capacity.
In all that she does, Waynick draws inspiration in her life from her mother and grandmothers. “Their stories and their grace left lasting impressions,” says Waynick, who works as a marketing manager at a financial services company. “My mother wanted to be an architect, but was dissuaded from following her dream and instead went into design. As a kid, I thought it was the coolest thing to walk through a house still being framed and watch her work, never realizing how intimidating it could be to be the only woman on some of those sites. She and my grandmothers are a reminder of how far women have come and how far we still have to go.”