Molly Hesson, PhD
Dr. Hesson is the founder of Sage Services LLC and has over 15 years of experience in the field of water resources management in the Delaware River Basin. Project experience includes water allocation permitting, reservoir optimization modeling, hydrological studies, estuarine salinity intrusion policy and analysis, strategic policy review and drafting of formal comments, source water protection, watershed planning, and water quality analysis. Dr. Hesson received her PhD in environmental engineering from Drexel University in 2013 performing an analysis of alternative reservoir management options in the Schuylkill River watershed. Dr. Hesson has consulted for the past 15 years as an advisor to the Philadelphia Water Department and is specialized in the technical and regulatory aspects of the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act in the Delaware River Basin.
Alex Ridyard
Alex is a water resources specialist with over 12 years of experience in the water resources management field. Project experience includes regulation and policy support, source water protection, the Delaware Valley Early Warning System, and water quality analysis. Alex is skilled in tracking and researching potential changes to Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act regulations in the Delaware River Basin, strategizing opportunities to intervene in the regulatory development process, and preparing technical analyses and formal comments to support clients. Alex has been consulting to the Philadelphia Water Department since 2017, supporting its Planning and Environmental Services Division. Alex previously worked at Suez Water Delaware from 2011-2017 as a water quality specialist and received a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Conservation from the University of Delaware in 2010.
Dean Randall, PhD, PE
Dr. Randall has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Minnesota, and Ph.D. from Purdue in civil engineering with an emphasis on water resources engineering and systems analysis. Dr. Randall has spent 50 years developing and using water resource-related models. These models have taken into account many aspects of water resources management, but for the last 30 years his focus has been on modeling the operations of water supply systems. Dr. Randall was one of the leaders in the original development of the modeling platform OASIS with Hydrologics, and remains an expert user of that platform.
Joe Anarumo
Joe graduated from Rutgers University in 2020 with a master’s degree in Oceanography, after finishing his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers in 2019 for Ocean Physics. He is experienced in water quality data analysis using MATLAB and python. He has experience with data from oceanography equipment like high-frequency radar, CTDs and side-scan sonar, as well as data from models like EFDC, NCOM AMSEAS, NCOM USEAST and FYCOM. He has worked closely with Philadelphia Water Department staff and other contractors with river model data and observed data to better understand salinity intrusion and other variables in the Delaware River.
Melissa Murdock
Melissa graduated from West Chester University in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in Geoscience. She earned her master’s degree in Environmental Sciences and Policy from Johns Hopkins University in 2021. Her expertise spans across diverse fields including geology, agriculture, conservation, policymaking and policy analysis, resource management, source water protection, and geographic information systems technology (GIS). Melissa has been involved in numerous projects involving water quality, conservation, climate change, and GIS-based watershed analysis.
Jennifer Ailey
Jennifer is new to Sage Services, coming with a background in educational non-profits and thorough experience in community outreach. She graduated from Dickinson College in 2020 with a degree in English Literature. In the years since, she has harnessed those critical writing skills to implement engaging youth-oriented programming in Philadelphia. Jennifer is also a published author, "Give It Our All: Creating Sustainable Change Through the US Non-Profit Sector" is her exploration into the nuance of the space aimed towards Millennial and Gen-Z readers. As the Community Outreach Associate, she assists the PWD Public Engagement team with their Green City, Clean Waters initiative.
Shannon Boyle
Shannon recently graduated from Drexel University in 2022 with a B.S. in Environmental Science and a minor in Geoscience. As an undergraduate, Shannon channeled her passion for conservation into her internships with the Philadelphia Water Department. During her time as a co-op, Shannon worked within PWD's Freshwater Mussel Laboratory, propagating and restoring native freshwater mussels species to the Delaware River Watershed. As a consultant at Sage Services, Shannon is continuing her career in freshwater mussels conservation and protection of the Delaware River Watershed. Shannon's expertise includes source water protection, aquatic ecosystem restoration, bivalve conservation and propagation.
