Minnesotan To Meet: Jamice Obianyo Of Ecolab

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It's a company that employs 47,000 people worldwide -- and it's headquartered right in St. Paul. Ecolab's global initiatives include: water, hygiene, and energy technologies and services.

The woman you're about to meet is responsible for a big task within the company: an education program being rolled out all over the world to make sure kids aren't just washing their hands, but understand what a precious resource clean water is.

That's what makes Jamice Obianyo of Ecolab this week's Minnesotan to Meet.

Obianyo grew up in New Jersey, but has lived in the Twin Cities for a little over 16 years, and considers it home. There, she and her husband raised their two daughters, who now both live in Little Rock, Arkansas.

"We are actually in Lake Elmo and love, love, love Lake Elmo. So, it's only a short commute for me coming to downtown St. Paul," Obianyo said.

After attending college in Georgia, she worked in the research lab at Georgia State University, but this scientist hasn't just been in a lab coat her entire career.

"I've done a lot of cross-functional work," Obianyo said, "I would say about half of my career has been in research development engineering. But then, I've also worked in marketing, sustainability, finance."

Obianyo was the first African American technical director at Ecolab.

"My high school chemistry teacher lit a fire into me. I knew immediately from that experience that I wanted to be a chemist," Obianyo said. "But throughout my career, I was often the only African American, the only woman that was present in meetings. I thoroughly enjoyed breaking down barriers and being a role model."

Now she's the Ecolab Program Director of Grants Management and Community Relations.
Her work with Ecolab has taken her all over.

"I've been probably to just about every state in the U.S. and also have done international travel for the job," Obianyo said.

Obianyo's community relations team is now partnering with the Project WET foundation.

"[Kindergarten] through 12 kids, educating them on importance of conserving water," Obianyo said.

The goal of the program is to reach two million people by the end of 2017 with all these clean and conserve materials.

"Water is like liquid gold because there are so many areas that are lacking," Obiayno said.

The program is not just for children in Minnesota but across the globe. According to Obianyo, the foundation has been around since the 80s and has given more than $94 million.

Last year, she attended Project WET launch activities in China, Nigeria, and Mexico.

"The thing I'd like to teach children, is to really make sure they understand the importance of not wasting water, preserving water, clean hygiene practices - healthy hygiene practices so that they are not spreading germs - and really giving them a sense of purpose of understanding what critical part they will play in helping us make sure we are protecting Mother Earth," Obianyo said.

While Obianyo has stepped away from the microscope for now, she hopes this latest "science project" will pay dividends for many generations to come.

Phase four of Project WET is being rolled out in Germany in February.