Dendra Best

Dendra is an experienced Executive Director with over 20 years of experience in the water and wastewater industry. She is a member of the Water Environment Federation and its Hawaii affiliate and has previously served as State Chair of the Decentralized Wastewater Committee. Dendra is also a member of the National Environmental Health Association and the League of Women Voters Hawaii.

As a Partner and Advisory Board Member of the Greater Lakes project from 2013-2016, Dendra collaborated with six pilot communities across the Great Lakes to address the financial and ecological challenges of managing water services. Additionally, from 2012-15, she partnered with the University of Minnesota’s Onsite Sewage Treatment Program and other national partners to develop a customizable Community System Owner’s Guide (CSOG) and the H2OandM online platform.

Dendra is an expert in decentralized/distributed wastewater collection, treatment, and dispersal systems, small community planning, and sustainability through responsible management on a watershed basis. She has presented at multiple professional conferences, authored and co-authored professional papers, and facilitates onsite wastewater distance learning training for multiple states.

Overall, Dendra’s specialties include communication on the interrelationship of water, energy, and the environment, public water environmental education, partnership building in the field of wastewater, innovation in community management, and providing public outreach and information resources through online events and distance learning opportunities.

Involved in:

• Passive and Low Input Wastewater Systems
• Harnessing nature for wastewater (May 2023)