The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences (SCEEES) is pleased to welcome Dr. Jacqueline MacDonald Gibson as its fourteenth SCEEES Distinguished Lecture. Her lecture titled “Unequal Access to Safe and Reliable Drinking Water in North Carolina: Infrastructure Gaps, Health Impacts, and Paths Forward” will be held on March 6, 2026 at 11:15 a.m. at the Watt Family Innovation Center.
Dr. Gibson is the Twisdale Family Department Head of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University. Dr. Gibson’s career spans both academia and high-level public policy, uniquely positioning her to address the intersection of science, engineering, and governance. Before entering academia, she spent 13 years in influential policy roles, including serving as Associate Director of the U.S. National Research Council’s Water Science and Technology Board and acting as a key liaison to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during her tenure with The RAND Corporation. Her interdisciplinary research addresses critical global challenges, ranging from optimizing water infrastructure to enhance public health in the United States to developing strategic frameworks for prioritizing environmental policy initiatives in the United Arab Emirates. Her research interest is in the quantification of risks due to environmental contamination and on the quantitative comparison policy options for controlling environmental risks.
Currently, Dr. Gibson is the President of the Society for Risk Analysis and serves as an Associate Editor for Environmental Science & Technology, one of the premier journals in environmental engineering and science. She holds dual PhDs in Engineering and Public Policy and in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, an MS in Environmental Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a BA in Mathematics from Bryn Mawr College. Dr. Gibson’s work continues to influence transformative policy decisions and pave the way for sustainable solutions to critical environmental challenges.
Lecture Abstract
Over the past century, the expansion of community water systems dramatically reduced waterborne disease in the United States. Yet many communities—often shaped by historical racial and economic segregation—were excluded from these investments and remain without access to safe, reliable drinking water. The extent to which these infrastructure gaps persist, and their implications for public health, are still not well understood.
This seminar synthesizes recent research examining drinking water access gaps across North Carolina and the associated health consequences. Findings document substantial and persistent inequities in water service, with affected communities experiencing elevated risks of waterborne illness and increased exposure to harmful contaminants, including lead. These risks are not evenly distributed and disproportionately burden low-income and marginalized populations.
The presentation also evaluates short- and long-term solutions to mitigate these harms. While point-of-use water filters can reduce certain chemical exposures in the near term, they do not fully address microbiological risks and may be difficult to sustain over time. Lasting improvements in public health will require targeted infrastructure investments, improved governance, and policies that explicitly address the legacy of exclusion from community water systems.
