Amy E. Childress

Amy Childress is an American professor. She is Dean's Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering, Director of USC's ReWater Center and Academic Lead for the Water Reuse Consortium. and a Fulbright U.S. Scholar. In 2024 Childress was named the Athalie Richardson Irvine Clarke Prize Laureate by the National Water Research Institute (NWRI).

Early life and education Childress graduated from the University of Maryland in 1992 with a B.S. degree in civil engineering. won the Journal of the American Water Resources Association William R. Boggess Award in 1994. Upon graduation, Childress was awarded a fellowship from the University of California, Los Angeles where she earned a master's degree and PhD in civil and environmental engineering. A paper from this research was awarded the 2012 AEESP Outstanding Paper Award as a "landmark environmental engineering and science paper that has withstood the test of time and significantly influenced the practice of environmental engineering and science."

Career Childress joined the faculty of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno in 1997 where she was tenured in 2002. She rose to the rank of Professor and became chair of the department in 2008. Her accomplishments during her time at the University of Nevada, Reno include a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and being selected as a speaker at the US National Academies Frontiers of Engineering Symposium in 2007. Childress served as President of AEESP from 2008 to 2009 and was a founding member of the AEESP Foundation. In 2011 she spoke at the First Arab-American Frontiers of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Symposium in Kuwait City.

In 2013, Childress accepted a position in the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at USC's Viterbi School of Engineering as Professor and Director of environmental engineering. She was Gabilan Distinguished Professor In Science and Engineering from 2019 to 2022. Childress was appointed to the USEPA Science Advisory Board in 2021 after having served on the Drinking Water Committee. In 2023 she became the founding Director of USC's Center for Water Resource Recovery (the Rewater Center). She currently serves on expert advisory panels for U.S. water infrastructure projects and previously served on the Singapore Public Utilities Board's external audit panel.