Charissa Williar ’98

CAPT Charissa Williar ’98, PE, MPH, is an engineer officer in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She has spent her career working on water resources and public works projects, primarily in small, rural communities. Since 2014, she has worked for the Division of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, a non-profit Tribal health organization designed to meet the unique health needs of Alaska Native and American Indian people in Alaska. As the Sanitation Facilities Program Director, Charissa oversees the delivery of environmental engineering services for more than 130 remote Alaska Native Villages, working collaboratively with community leaders to address sanitation deficiencies and reduce the environmental health disparities that the Villages face. Prior to working in Alaska, CAPT Williar worked for the Indian Health Service, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, in Fort Duchesne, Utah, and Rockville, Maryland. Before earning her commission, she worked on rural water and sanitation projects as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras, on urban public works projects in California, and on water resources projects in the western U.S.