2025 Industry Icon: Wayne Miles on putting people first

Community-first approach 

When Miles reflects on his career, he said he is most proud of what he has been able to do in the city of Raleigh.  

“I believe we really help the community be more resilient,” he said of the stormwater team. “You know, we very much look at public safety here at Raleigh.” 

He points to western North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene caused a lot of devastation in 2024, as an example of why building resilience is key.  

“It really puts into perspective why we need to continue getting better prepared,” he said. “You can never be prepared for an event like that, but we can be better prepared. We can keep working on getting the community prepared, and getting our systems prepared. A lot of it is just awareness of the community of what to do, what not do, how to be prepared, what the potential impacts can be ... .” 

Embracing a team-first mindset 

When he thinks locally, Miles calls his Raleigh team wonderful with a focus on environmental awareness, resilience and sustainability. 

"I think we’ve got a really good message I think, in terms of an employer,” he said. “We draw people to come work in our program who really want to make a difference with the community.” 

On Fridays, Miles leads his team in a weekly progress report he calls the Hit and Misses Report, also known as the HAMR report. Bryant said the team has more hits than misses, but even the misses provide a learning opportunity.  

“His way of support for us on the staff, it really stands out,” Bryant said.  

Zooming out, Miles has been heavily involved in industry organizations that have shaped his career. From early in his career to now, he has found this a good avenue for sharing ideas, sparking new ideas and collaborating with other municipalities and stormwater programs.  

In fact, some of his first involvement was with the North Carolina joint organization of AWWA and WEA where he created the sewer collection system committee. Then, he became involved with the National Wastewater Collection System Committee and authored a few of their manuals of practice related to wastewater collection and design standards for sanitary sewer programs.  

“It’s an opportunity to learn from others and to network and to share what we’re doing at the same time,” he said.  

On the horizon 

While there is no date on the calendar, Miles said his career is coming nearer to its end. So, with that in mind, he is focused on making Raleigh’s stormwater programs and community more resilient. He and his team have been creating a system that documents all their decisions and processes for legacy knowledge.  

He also is focused on creating a culture and legacy of open-mindedness and collaboration. For example, through the City Parks Alliance, the stormwater team and the parks department work together on implementing green stormwater infrastructure and stream restoration projects in local parks. Miles calls it a natural fit that leads itself to community education. Parks see a lot of visitors, so Miles’ team has put up explanations and signage about what the GSI elements are. Plus, local artists help them create these designs, so it is a true community effort.  

When he reflects on his career, he calls himself lucky for having so many wonderful mentors, and he tries to pass that on.  

“I try to do everything I can to return the favor to others earlier in their career that I get to work with,” he said. “Spend the time to teach, to help them understand the whys of decisions, so that they can become better decisionmakers themselves and help them with the other skills that are so important and oftentimes don’t come naturally to engineers, like the community engagement and the communications and policy aspect.”