PhD Spotlight: Kyla Drewry, PhD’25, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Kyla Drewry, PhD’25, civil and environmental engineering, researched access to safe drinking water supplied by private wells. She presented at various conferences, was published in Environmental Science and Technology, and is starting a full time position in fall 2025 as a water resources engineer.

Kyla Drewry, PhD’25, civil and environmental engineering, joined the PhD program at Northeastern in 2022 after earning a BS in environmental engineering from the University of Connecticut. She is advised by Kelsey Pieper, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. Her dissertation research addressed access to safe drinking water that is supplied by private wells, particularly in post-disaster conditions. She combined qualitative and quantitative methods to explore how populations using well water experience and respond to environmental hazards.

After Hurricane Debby, Drewry organized a citizen science campaign, collaborating with local health departments to provide free well water testing to 227 residents in Eastern North Carolina. Following Hurricane Helene, Drewry helped develop a decision support system for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, providing data on the storm’s impact to environmental health services. Through field work, communicating test results, and providing data, she empowered well users with knowledge and tools to manage their systems.

Drewry’s research is supported by the Cochrane Fellowship, and she received the 2025 Civil and Environmental Engineering PhD Department Award. She presented her research at various state and national conferences, including the 2024 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, North Carolina Public Health Association quarterly meeting, Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center webinar, and the Private Well Conference.

Drewry published a first-author research paper in Environmental Science and Technology, which explored the use of flood mapping techniques to identify well water contamination after hurricanes. She also co-authored a manuscript describing the development of a decision support system after Hurricane Helene. Drewry is working on three other first-author papers.

Beyond research, Drewry served as vice president of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Graduate Student Council. She also mentored multiple undergraduate and co-op students in support of her commitment to create a welcoming scientific community. Following graduation, Drewry will join Fuss and O’Neill in September 2025 as a water resources engineer in climate adaptation and resiliency.