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Flor Sandoval was honored at the Tucson 40 Under 40 award breakfast on 12/4/18.  Flor is a natural leader. She has identified community challenges, developed possible solutions and implemented successful programs addressing those challenges. She manages staff and volunteers to successfully implement SERI’s programs. She sets an example for everyone and has established effective bilingual communication methods for SERI staff, volunteers, partners, contractors and community members. Through home visits, neighborhoods walks and workshops, Flor identified that low-income Spanish speaking residents were very interested in tree care and rainwater harvesting and would attend workshops when held in their preferred language. In addition to the language barrier, Flor identified that many low-income families could not participate in the popular Tucson Water rainwater rebate program, because they could not pay the upfront costs and wait for a rebate. She developed a pilot program that utilized community-based social capital – derived through connectedness to people and the community – as an effective means for establishing and sustaining creditworthiness and thereby allowing the implementation of a revolving loan fund. With funding from EPA, she managed a pilot program in partnership with the University of Arizona Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology. After an extensive community input process on the design of the program, 17 systems were installed, and within one year 16 of the loans were paid off. Based on the success of the program, Tucson Water formally partnered with SERI to form a Low-Income Rainwater Harvesting Grant and Loan Program. Flor is the program manager of this program, and oversees all aspects including outreach, enrollment, bidding, contract management, installation, financing, database management and tracking. Flor’s impact on the community has been significant. She implemented the pilot rainwater harvesting program and has successfully transformed the pilot into an ongoing program.