This Week’s Profile: Samantha Menathy
Meet Samantha Menathy, Project Manager in Drainage & Wastewater with SPU. Samantha came to SPU in early 2014 and is with the same team she’s currently in now.
When she’s not on the clock, Samantha stays busy by spending time with Theodore (Teddy, to his friends), her 10 year old Yorkshire Terrier. They like to visit the many parts of Seattle, wander through different neighborhoods, explore parks, and trek the trails together. Samantha shares, “He’s my #1 stakeholder.”
Through her role with SPU, Samantha is proud to see the work she’s doing impacting the lives of her neighbors. “I like that my daily core work is improving communities and the city I live in. My projects are mainly rehabilitating aging infrastructures (assets) throughout the city,” says Samantha.
When asked about a project she’s proud of, she cites one of the most recent projects that came about as a direct response to the COVID-19 health crisis in 2020, saying, “In April 2020, I was asked to work on a special assignment for hygiene sanitation, which was very different from the typical capital improvement projects, my core work.” Indeed, when the City requested SPU work on providing access to hygiene facilities for our most vulnerable residents during the COVID-19 crisis, Samantha and her teammates assigned to this project shifted their focus in an effort to stop the spread of a deadly virus and offer much needed services to our neighbors in need. “I feel fortunate to be part of Hygiene Trailer project and for the opportunity to not only help the vulnerable population in our city but also to work directly with people who are/were experiencing homelessness as part of this project. The humanity and humility serve as reminders of why I am a civil servant and project manager working to build and improve our communities, especially the historically marginalized communities of color,” she says, adding, “I am especially proud of how our SPU teams worked together through all the chaos to deploy the hygiene trailers and continue to provide our guests access to hygiene services. Since May 21, 2020, SPU hygiene trailers has provided over 8,000 showers to date (as of 9/24/20).”
Our thanks to Samantha for taking the time to email with us for this project.