David W. Jones serves as General Counsel for the Great Lakes Water Authority.
In this role, Mr. Jones acts as the primary legal advisor to GLWA, while working with the Authority’s Executive Leadership Team to continue the growth and success of the organization.
Prior to his selection as General Counsel to GLWA, Mr. Jones served as a partner at Schenk & Bruetsch where he specialized in complex litigation, government affairs and municipal and administrative law. Mr. Jones is also one of the founding partners of Allen Brothers, PLLC, a full-service law firm.
Before co-founding Allen Brothers, Mr. Jones was an assistant prosecutor for Wayne County and associate corporate counsel for a title insurance company. He began his legal career as an associate attorney for Lewis and Munday in 1997.
Mr. Jones earned his corporate finance degree from Wayne State University and his juris doctorate from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. He is a member of the State Bar of Michigan, the American Bar Association, the National Bar Association and the Wolverine Bar Association. In 2019, Mayor Michael Duggan appointed Mr. Jones to the Detroit Board of Ethics, an independent Charter-created entity that investigates and resolves violations of the city’s Ethics Ordinance. He was also recently appointed by the Michigan Supreme Court to its Commission on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Michigan Judiciary.
Mark L. Miller is a retired General Motors Global Executive of Supply Chain, Warehousing and Logistics. Throughout his nearly 40-year stellar career, Miller received several awards, and special recognitions for his strong leadership contributions and exemplary performance. Miller’s multiple executive leadership and managerial assignments all served to give him tremendous in-depth leadership experience in multiple business channels, including International Operations, Budgetary Processes, Labor Relations/Negotiation, Infrastructure Development and Planning, Facilities Management, Quality Control, Safety Processes, and Cultural Transformation. He is also extremely community focused. For the last two years he served as the Interim President and CEO of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint, where he now serves as Chairman of the organization’s Board of Trustees. Miller is also a member of the Board of Directors for the McLaren Hospital-Flint and the McLaren Foundation, and is past Board Chairman for Michigan Works, Workforce Development Board for Shiawassee and Genesee Counties. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Healthcare Administration and Business Management from the University of Michigan and a Master of Business Administration from Davenport University. Miller was appointed to the GLWA Board of Directors by Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2023 to represent areas served by the Authority outside of the city of Detroit and the counties of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb.
Jordie Kramer is GLWA’s Chief Organizational Development Officer.
In this role, Ms. Kramer is responsible for leading all areas of GLWA’s Organizational Development Group, including recruitment, compensation, benefits, labor relations, employee relations, retirement, performance, human resource information systems (HRIS), and training and development.
Prior to being elevated to this executive-level position, Ms. Kramer served as Director of Organizational Development, a role she assumed upon joining GLWA in 2019. Before beginning her tenure at GLWA, Ms. Kramer served as Oakland County’s Director of Human Resources, and served as Labor Relations Supervisor and Senior Compensation Analyst. Ms. Kramer is active in the Michigan Public Employers Labor Relations Association (MPERLA) and has recently been elected as President of the association. She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree from Central Michigan University.
Jody Caldwell is the Chief Planning Officer for the Great Lakes Water Authority. Mr. Caldwell brings over two decades of private consultation, municipal operations and maintenance, asset management, and strategic planning experience within the water sector. In the Chief Planning Officer role with GLWA, he supports the asset management, capital improvement planning, water and wastewater analytics, planning and metering, systems planning and member outreach groups.
Prior to this role, Mr. Caldwell was the Asset Management Director for the enterprise-wide asset management group within GLWA for over five years. He helped to support functional areas by coordinating overall asset management strategies, objectives, and activities to ensure decisions are informed by risk, regional needs, and life cycle considerations.
Prior to his service with GLWA, Mr. Caldwell was a Chief Engineer at Oakland County’s Water Resources Commissioner’s Office where he worked for 12 years in many different capacities. In that role, Mr. Caldwell was responsible for oversight of multiple areas including capital, asset management and planning, finance and budgeting, water operations and maintenance, water engineering, and cross connection control. During his time with WRC, Mr. Caldwell worked closely with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) and GLWA. He was the Oakland County representative on the DWSD Board of Water Commissioners, served as the water technical advisory committee and wastewater steering committee co-chairs, and was an important part of the DWSD-GLWA transition effort.
Mr. Caldwell is a registered professional engineer in the state of Michigan and holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Michigan State University.
John J. Zech has over 40 years of public service experience, serving in leadership roles with a number of communities across southeast Michigan including the cities of Wayne, Allen Park, Lincoln Park, Plymouth and Southgate.
Mr. Zech is active in the community, currently serving on the St. Mary of Wayne Catholic Church Finance Council and as a member of the Growth Works, Inc. Board of Directors, and previously served on the Board of Directors for the Michigan Municipal League. Zech has earned Life Membership status with the International City Management Association. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Detroit.
He was appointed to the Board by Wayne County Executive Warren Evans in March 2020.
Ms. Quadrozzi is an attorney with over 25 years of experience in complex commercial litigation in both federal and state courts. She is a member of the state bars of Michigan, Illinois and California. In addition to serving on the GLWA Board, since 2013 Ms. Quadrozzi has also served as the Oakland County representative on the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority Board of Commissioners. Ms. Quadrozzi earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from the University of Michigan, and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law School. Among the many honors and awards she has received, since 2018, Ms. Quadrozzi has annually been named among Michigan’s Top 25 Women in Business Attorneys by Super Lawyers and in March 2025 was recognized by Crain’s as a Notable Litigator and Trial Attorney.
Dr. Walker-Griffea has over 30 years of experience in higher education and is the current president of Mott Community College. Active in the Flint community, she is a member of the Greater Flint Health Coalition Board of Directors, McLaren-Flint Board of Trustees, Metro Community Development Board of Directors, Carriage Town Ministries Board of Directors and the Flint Chapter of the NAACP. In addition, she is Chair of the Flint & Genesee Group Governing Board, President of the Ivy House Foundation, and Chair of the Michigan Community College Association Board of Directors. Dr. Walker-Griffea formerly served as a member of the Flint City Water Response Team. Dr. Walker-Griffea earned her Bachelor of Science from Oklahoma State University in Broadcast Communications, Master of Education from Virginia State University, and Ph.D. in Child Development from Texas Woman’s University. She was appointed to the GLWA Board of Directors by Governor Gretchen Whitmer to represent areas served by the Authority outside of the city of Detroit and the counties of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb.
Navid Mehram is the Chief Operating Officer for the Great Lakes Water Authority’s Wastewater Operating Services.
Prior to assuming this position, Mr. Mehram served as the Chief Engineer at the Oakland County Water Resource Commissioner’s office. During his tenure at the Oakland County WRC, he led the transitioning of the City of Pontiac’s water and wastewater operations and maintenance from private contract operations to county operations. The transformation included design and construction of a new state of the art biosolids processing system. This innovative process was the first in Michigan and the third in North America. In his capacity Mr. Mehram also provided leadership for engineering, field staff member and administrative and technical support personal providing service for a number of county facilities including three treatment facilities, over two hundred pump stations, community wells and retentions basins. Mr. Mehram brings over 10 years of extensive experience specializing in design and construction of water treatment, water resource recovery and pumping systems as a consultant. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Michigan, who graduated from Wayne State University with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, and as a member of Chi Epsilon – a National Civil Engineering Honor Society.
Chief Jones was appointed GLWA’s Chief Security and Integrity Officer on January 1, 2016 after serving with DWSD in that capacity since 2012. His extensive experience in law enforcement and security spans over a 40-year career.
Chief Jones is responsible for the Authority’s entire security posture, which includes the physical security infrastructure and safety of employees, facilities and assets. In addition, Chief Jones has been pivotal in developing and implementing entity-wide integrity policies and procedures.
Prior to his arrival at GLWA, Chief Jones served as Chief of Police, Police Administrator, Fire Chief, Captain, Lieutenant, Sergeant and Deputy Sheriff with large local units of government in Michigan including the supervision of both police and fire personnel.
Chief Jones has a Master’s in Liberal Studies from Eastern Michigan University, a Master’s in Educational Leadership from Madonna University and a Bachelor’s in General Studies from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. He has also received certification from the State of Michigan to be a K-12 school administrator.
Additionally, Chief Jones is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, and a graduate of the Secret Service Dignitary Protection training, as well as a certified firefighter. Chief Jones is a 2023 graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government/Executive Certificate in the Public Leadership Program.
Jeffrey E. Small has served as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Great Lakes Water Authority since August 2016. In this role, he provides strategic IT leadership, customer service, innovation, and information security for the regional authority. Jeff is adept at leveraging technology in conjunction with business process re-engineering to improve productivity and internal efficiencies across the utility.
Jeff brings 30 years of information technology, project management, and business process experience to GLWA. Immediately prior to joining the GLWA team, he served for four years as Deputy Chief Information Officer at Wayne County, Michigan. Prior to his work at Wayne County, Mr. Small held IT leadership roles at several global companies in a cross-section of industries, including retail, sourcing, brand management and consumer products.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from The George Washington University and an MBA in Computer Information Systems from Baker College. Jeff also serves on several nonprofit boards related to technology in both the public and private sector included currently serving as Board secretary for the Michigan Government Information Sciences (Mi-GMIS) organization whose membership includes IT leaders from the State and local governments throughout Michigan. Jeff was named 2019 IT Professional of the Year by the Michigan chapter of the Government Management Information Sciences (Mi-GMIS) and was recognized as a 2020 Special District Program Award Winner from Government Technology magazine in the Technology and Innovation Leadership category.
