Susan Seacrest

Susan Seacrest is an American environmental activist and teacher who is an advocate for groundwater protection. She is the founder of the Groundwater Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to educating people about threats to public drinking water.

Early life and education

Seacrest was born in 1953 in Lincoln, Nebraska. She graduated from Lincoln Southeast High School in 1971 and a Master of Science in Education from the University of Rochester.

Career

Seacrest worked as a teacher and guidance counselor for the Lincoln Public Schools in Nebraska. His illness was eventually determined to be Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and he recovered within a year. After learning that a study found a high rate of occurrence of this type of lymphoma in the Platte River Valley, Seacrest reached out to the study's author who encouraged her to do her own research on water issues in Nebraska.

Seacrest served as president of the foundation from its inception through her retirement in 2007. It is credited with educating the public on the need to protect drinking water and reducing nitrate levels within the Platte River Basin. She has been cited for her expertise on Nebraska's Ogallala Aquifer and her lifetime of work on groundwater issues.

Awards and honors

In 1989, Seacrest was awarded the JL Higgins Award for her dedication to groundwater In 1994, Seacrest was the recipient of the John Wesley Powell Award from the United States Geological Survey