Ms. Cappelle is the Associate Director of the Center for Inland Desalination Systems at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Prior to UTEP, she worked at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. She has more than ten years of experience focused on water and energy, primarily focused on water treatment technology and how to make use of it to address water and energy security, environmental quality, and climate change issues. Her career has included research & development, evaluation, commercialization, and application of new technologies, as well as project management, program development, and strategic planning. Interdisciplinary experience includes on-site work in rural areas of New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Libya to research water treatment (e.g., arsenic, desalination) and strengthening the local business infrastructure to supply and maintain the technologies.
At UTEP Ms. Cappelle is working on several pilot demonstration projects focusing upon concentrate management options, Libyan seawater desalination, and carbon footprint analysis.