skip to main content
Nat Paynter
Nat Paynter
00:36

Nat Paynter

charity:water

New York, NY USA

"From an early age, we're told 'You're either humanities or you're hard sciences.' And that's not true. You can do both."

Career Roadmap

Nat's work combines: Non-Profit Organizations, Science, and Upholding a Cause and Belief

See more careers and stories that connect to your interests.

Take Roadmap Quiz

Day In The Life

Director of Water Programs

I develop programs to help people around the world gain access to clean water.

Skills & Education

Here's the path I took:

  • High School

  • Bachelor's Degree

    English Language and Literature, General

    Brown University

  • Graduate Degree

    Engineering, General

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Life & Career Milestones

My path in life has been direct

  • 1.

    Spent his life pursuing a career in literature; once he finally found a job in publishing, he realized he no longer enjoyed reading.

  • 2.

    When he was 25, his father died suddenly; Nat realized how little control he had over his life.

  • 3.

    Realizing that he, too, could die at any time was the final impetus he'd needed to quit his job.

  • 4.

    Went back to school to get another undergraduate degree in engineering; had to start all the way at the bottom, in pre-algebra.

  • 5.

    Realized that hard science and math were also just languages, and he just had to figure out what each sentence was trying to tell him.

  • 6.

    Finished his master's degree in engineering at MIT then went to work for the World Bank's Water and Sanitation Program.

  • 7.

    His work took him to Tanzania, where he was exposed to a lack of clean water first-hand.

  • 8.

    He's made access to clean water his life's work because he sees it as the world's biggest, yet most solvable, problem.

Defining Moments

How I responded to discouragement

  • THE NOISE

    Messages from undefined:

  • How I responded:

Experiences and challenges that shaped me

Click to expand

  • My father died suddenly when I was about 25 while I was going through this questioning of my career.