Taylor Lightner

After joining the U.S. Water Study Research Team in 2016, Taylor Lightner returned with the team to her home state of South Carolina, to the small town of Denmark.

A local couple, Paula Brown and Eugene Smith, had for years been worried about the safety of the town’s water and sought the team’s help finding the truth. An engineering education graduate student, Lightner was there to observe and learn from residents and their interactions with the team. On stage, Lightner described the path from her childhood in South Carolina to the present, still changing.