01 Aug 2010, Posted by workshop

Speaker Information

Keynote Speakers

Don Baker is Foundation for Sustainable Development’s Interim Executive Director. Don has been involved with international development since 2003. He is the Founder and President of the Center for Sustainability and Economic Growth, an NGO that recognizes and promotes best practices in sustainable development projects. He earned a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering degree and a Master of Science in Economics from Auburn University.

Catherine A. Leslie, P.E., has served as the Executive Director of EWB-USA since 2004. Cathy began her work in developing countries as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Nepal. She has over 20 years experience overseeing both domestic and international corporate engineering projects. As the Executive Director of EWB-USA, Cathy bridges her skills and experience as a Professional Engineer with her commitment to the creation of sustainable and participatory solutions to rural community development projects.

Session Speakers

Alphabetically By Last Name
(A-F)
(G-L)
(M-R)
(S-Z)

Last Name (A-F)
Frank Borges is a Professional Land Surveyor and upcoming Vice-President of the East Bay Chapter of the California Land Surveyor Association.  He currently works for Towill, Inc. as a Project Manager on various surveying and mapping projects throughout the Western United States.

Mathias Craig started blueEnergy as a nonprofit corporation in 2003. He provides the organization with administrative, programmatic, and fundraising leadership. Mathias holds a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Patrick D. Coyle founded and is a Director for Belize Open Source – Sustainable Development, a non-profit organization that invites people to collaborate on an open source approach to implement and participate in a land-based learning and community outreach center and working farm on 40 acres in Belize. He is an involved member of the EWB-SFP chapter. Patrick graduated from Colorado School of Mines and has a MBA. He is a registered Mechanical and Professional Engineer and a certified Project Management Professional. He is within a few years of retirement from his 30 + year career as a project engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Glen Dahlbacka is a past member of the Livermore Planning Commission, the Livermore City Council and a founding member of the Board from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is currently working on final steps to commercialize vertical axis wind turbines developed under one of the Russian programs. Glen brings experience from government, the not-for-profit and the industrial sector.  He also works to improve science education and to increase the number of under-represented persons in science and math.

Louis Dorval is a former Director of Overseas Programs for Engineers Without Borders – Canada. His considerable international experience includes work in the Philippines, Burkina Faso, and Ghana with partners ranging from government ministries to local communities in a capacity-building role. Louis holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University and a Master’s in Business Administration from Oxford University’s Said Business School. 

Fred Euphrat is a forester with a doctorate in watershed management.  He has specialized in water quality issues particularly relating to landscape management, including his master’s work on soil conservation in Nepal.  Fred has worked with three California water departments, has been a consultant to industry, government, NGO’s and private parties.  Currently, Fred is the District Director for the Second Senate District of California, and consults for Senator Patricia Wiggins on issues of farming, forestry, wildlife and water management.

Heather Fleming is the CEO of Catapult Design, a product strategy firm that serves developing world markets. Catapult Design’s clients are organizations working in impoverished communities with technology needs – including rural electrification, water purification and transport, food security, and health. Before Catapult, she worked for several years as a product design consultant in Silicon Valley, designing products for a diverse range of clients.  In 2005, she helped found and co-lead a volunteer team focused on the design of appropriate technology through Engineers Without Borders – San Francisco Professionals Chapter.  Heather was named a Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellow and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader for her work with Catapult Design and EWB.  Heather is also a Staff Writer for NextBillion.net and teaches “Design for Sustainability” at Stanford University, her alma mater.

Last Name (G-L)
Andre De Greef is the Fundraising Coordinator for EWB-USA Orange County Professionals Chapter. Andres was born in The Netherlands. After his studies, he worked for Philips Electronics in different technical and commercial functions in The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Singapore and the USA. He was the co-founder of LiveTV, the company that pioneered in-flight television on commercial aircraft. In 2003 Andre started his own aerospace consultancy.

Martin Hammer is a practicing architect and straw bale expert. The lead author of a proposed Strawbale Building Code for the state of California, he has recently been involved in several efforts to introduce straw bale construction as an appropriate, seismically resistant and sustainable technology in developing countries.

Charles Hardy, PE works as an Associate Engineer at Schaaf & Wheeler, a Northern California consulting firm specializing in water resources engineering. His professional work includes planning and analysis, as well as design and construction oversight, including water quality analysis on several projects. Prior to working as a professional engineer, he was a water quality researcher at both Stanford and Yale Universities, concurrent with his graduate and undergraduate studies. Charles has an M.S. in Environmental Engineering and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. Charles has also traveled to and volunteered in various developing countries, including Bangladesh and Guatemala.

Tim Hart is a structural engineer with 21 years of practice. He is a Senior Associate with Forell/Elsesser Engineers in San Francisco. Tim has been working for several years on as a pro-bono structural engineer with Build Change, a small social enterprise that has focused on building seismically resistant confined masonry construction in Indonesia, China and now Haiti, primarily with confined masonry. Tim is also a member of the Confined Masonry Network international teams with EERI that are developing design and construction guidelines for confined masonry buildings. Tim is a graduate of the Architectural and Engineering Program at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Kelly Havens has been a member of the EWB-SFP Fiji Water Supply and Treatment Project since April 2009. She works as a staff engineer at Geosyntec Consultants focusing on stormwater management. Her Geosyntec projects include stormwater monitoring, data QAQC, and design and feasibility of stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs). Kelly attended UCLA for both undergraduate and graduate studies, and completed her M.S. in Environmental Engineering in 2008. Her Master’s thesis focused on chemical cycles in arsenic-contaminated rice paddies.

Jonathan Kart is a Senior Software Engineer at Kiva, an online lending platform that connects people for the sake of alleviating poverty. Jonathan brings a diverse engineering background to Kiva, where he works to ensure reliability and scalability of the website. Jonathan graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in Computer Science.

Susan Kinne founded Grupo Fenix and formed the Alternative Energy Sources Program with her students at the National Engineering University (UNI) in Nicaragua. Susan moved to Nicaragua in 1998 to join the UNI after 20 years in Ohio working in teaching, electronics, and the semiconductor industry. At the UNI, Susan grew into a promoter of human dignity via sustainable use of resources, particularly the renewable energies. Since 1999, Grupo Fenix has also been working with Las
Mujeres Solares de Totogalpa in northern Nicaragua to generate employment and promote renewable energy. Grupo
Fenix continues to work out of the UNI and has formed various partnerships with universities in the United States.

Dr. Kurt Kornbluth is the Founder of the UC Davis Program for International Energy Technologies (PIET) and an Emerging Venture Analysit with the UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center. He is an international energy specialist with extensive experience in the fields of renewable energy and energy efficiency, which includes projects in Africa, Central America, and Bangladesh. Kurt holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering from UC Davis and is a UC Davis Graduate School of Management Business Development Fellow.

Rachel Lanigen works as an environmental engineer for Carollo Engineers in their Portland office, primarily working on water and wastewater master planning. She graduated in Civil Engineering and Engineering Physics in 2002 from Oregon State University. For the 2009/2010 term, she served as the President for the Portland Professionals Chapter of EWB-USA. Prior to being President, Rachel traveled to Ecuador and assisted with the design of a composting toilet structure

Joseph Leslie has dedicated his professional life to keeping workers safe on the job. For the last 10 years, Joe has worked in the construction industry starting out as a site safety officer responsible for safety oversight of up to 140 workers on a daily basis. For the past 5 years Joe has served as the western regional health & safety manager for CDM constructors, responsible for developing site specific safety plans and reviewing safe working procedures for both company employees as well as subcontractors on CDM Projects.  As a member of the AGC of California Health and Safety Council, Joe has worked with different internal committees to help improve the regulations that govern safety within the state of California, and the quality of safety education available to contractors and companies alike.

Last Name (M-R)
Bruce Marcus serves on the YNPNsfba Advisory Board as Chair of the Workshop Committee. As a nonprofit manager, he has over twenty years of experience writing, managing, supervising and evaluating grant application activities. He has written successful grant applications to public and private foundations and to government agencies. He has created a Request for Proposal (RFP) protocol and reviewed and awarded grants for nonprofit agencies and community service projects. He is currently providing consultant services (strategic planning, organizational and staff development) to nonprofit organizations and staff through Third Sector Solutions.

Steve Maricle is a Project Engineer with Larry Walker Associates, an environmental engineering firm that specializes in water quality and regulation. Steven is primarily responsible for participating in and overseeing water quality sampling projects, analyzing water quality data, writing annual reports, developing sampling and analysis plans and providing support using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Steven has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Davis.

Tiffany Martindale has been a Project Manager at EWB-USA for two and a half years. In 1998, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Architectural/Structural Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Subsequent to her graduation, she moved to Niger, West Africa to work for the US Peace Corps for four years, where she managed woodless construction projects – buildings made entirely with adobe, including the roofs. Additionally, she worked with trained masons to develop a marketing program to promote the use of this technology in their respective regions. Upon her return, she worked for private structural engineering firms in the San Francisco Bay Area providing design and construction administration services. Prior to joining EWB-USA, she worked for the State of California managing the construction of courthouse remodel and new building projects. Tiffany is fluent in French and is a Registered Professional Engineer.

Snigdha Mehta is an environmental engineer working with AECOM (formerly ENSR) on air quality, hazardous material, and waste management issues. Her work includes environmental compliance studies (CEQA, NEPA, CEC) on renewable energy projects, refineries, and other industrial projects. Snigda received a B.S. in Civil Engineering and a M.S. in Environmental Engineering from MNIT, India. She also has a M.S. in Civil Engineering from San Jose State University.

Adrienne Miller is the Co-Project Manager of the EWB-SFP Fiji Water Supply and Treatment Project. Adrienne has been volunteering with Engineers Without Borders for six years and was previously a member of the India Tsunami Disaster Relief Team. As a Project Engineer with Geosyntec Consultants in Oakland, CA, she has 9 years of experience and focuses on stormwater best management practices (BMPs), low impact development (LID) principals, and industrial and municipal stormwater quality compliance. She was also a guest researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, modeling watershed-scale solute transport. Adrienne is a licensed Civil Engineer in the State of California and has a M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Washington, B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley and a B.A. in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz.

Maggie Monahan has been a member of the EWB-SFP Fiji Water Supply and Treatment Project since January 2008. She currently works at the Chevron Energy Technology Company as an environmental engineer. Her work at Chevron includes freshwater management, freshwater conservation practices, water reuse technologies, wastewater toxicity, and wastewater treatment technologies with an emphasis on the removal of trace levels of heavy metals from wastewaters. Maggie has a M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. in Environmental Systems Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Curtis Nelson is a Professor of Engineering at Walla Walla University (WWU) in eastern Washington state. He received a MSEE from Washington State University and the PhD from University of Utah, both in Electrical and Engineering. He helped found the student chapter of EWB-WWU in 2007 and continues as the faculty advisor.

Chad Norvell is the president of the Portland State University student chapter of EWB. He is a junior civil engineering student and has been a member of EWB-USA since 2008.

Stephen Penman is a partner of Environmental Sampling Services, LLC which has served Northern California since 1995. His expertise includes working with a variety of field water quality instruments and sampling in remote sites including streams, valleys and ocean side sites.

Lucy W. Reckseit currently serves as the Director, Outreach and Alliance Development for MicroCredit Enterprises (“MCE”), a nonprofit microfinance investment vehicle that mobilizes private capital to provide loans to microfinance institutions in developing countries. Lucy is a member of the Microfinance Council of Counsels, with the general counsels of some of the world’s most prominent microcredit funding organizations.

David Rieken is a volunteer with EWB-USA Health & Safety committee and a member of the Phoenix Professional Chapter since March 2010. He reviews Health and Safety Plans and Technical Plan write ups for chapters when they want to travel.  David also is a part of the Phoenix Professional water project in Marcala, Honduras and recently completed his first EWB-USA trip.  He is a licensed Civil Engineer in the State Of Washington and has worked in the construction industry the past 15 years upgrading and building water / waste water resource projects.

Last Name (S-Z)
Bert Sandell is a member of the EWB-SFP chapter, having served as the Project Manager for the San Juan de Dios, El Salvador team since 1998. In this role with EWB-SFP, he has taken an assessment trip and an implementation trip and has developed low-cost protocols for profiling community water systems in the field. Bert holds a B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley, in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research.

Bahman Sheikh is a water resources engineer, with advanced degrees in water science and engineering from the University of California, Davis. He has over 30 years of experience in teaching, research, planning, and design of water resources projects, specializing in water conservation, reclamation, reuse, and recycling. He has worked in 21 countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Far East, providing consulting services in water reuse and water demand management.

Morgan Springer is a Development Strategist at Catapult Design, a product strategy firm that serves developing world markets. Catapult Design’s clients are organizations working in impoverished communities with technology needs – including rural electrification, water purification and transport, food security, and health.  By training, Morgan is an anthropologist, sociologist, and cross-disciplinary problem solver interested in the intersection between enterprise and social change.  A Fulbright Scholar, he spent several years in Thailand and France studying language, absorbing culture, and teaching.  Before Catapult, Morgan was at Tellme Networks facilitating strategy sessions and designing user experience for corporate clients.  Morgan has a B.S. in Cognitive Sciences from Stanford University.

Jenny Starkey is responsible for EWB-USA’s media relations, marketing, public relations, branding and communications. She oversees the annual EWB-USA International Conference and is the editor of the monthly member e-blast and semi-annual Cornerstone newsletter. Jenny joined EWB-USA from Project C.U.R.E., where she served as communications manager responsible for all major communications, media relations and website management. She began her career as a public relations intern for Linhart Public Relations. Jenny received an M.A. in Public Relations and International Communication from the University of Denver and a B.S. in Speech Communication from Northern Arizona University.

Debra Stein joined the Darfur Stoves Project (DSP) with several years experience in nonprofit fundraising, communications, and project management. Prior to her position at DSP, Debra was Assistant Director at the Institute for Social Action at St. John’s University in New York. Debra has worked in the U.S. with Doctors Without Borders and amfAR: The Foundation for AIDS Research, and in Egypt with Environmental Quality International and FINCA International. Debra holds a Masters in Nonprofit Management and Public Policy from New York University and a B.A. in Middle East Studies from Hampshire College.

Laura Traferro is a Grant Writer at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. She has more than four years of nonprofit experience, specializing in grants management, grant writing, and institutional fundraising. Prior to CIIS, she was a Development Manager at the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. Laura is also an active volunteer with the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network – San Francisco Bay Area Chapter (YNPNsfba). She holds a Masters degree in English from Claremont Graduate University and a Bachelors degree in English from the University of California, San Diego.

Ellie Tumbuan serves on the Advisory Board of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network San Francisco Bay Area chapter and co-chairs their Career Development Committee, where she manages a dynamic and diverse team of volunteers. Ellie co-presented on the topic of volunteer management and retention at the April 2010 YNPN National Leaders Conference in Denver, CO.  

Kathryn Wendell currently works as a Community Engagement Advisor at Chevron. A recent MBA graduate of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Kathryn has over six years experience managing international development projects and public-private partnerships, including work at the World Bank within the Sustainable Development Department for the Latin America region and serving as a Peace Corps volunteer. Kathryn has an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Yale, and she graduated with honors from Dartmouth College.

David Youmans is co-founder of the EWB-USA – San Francisco Professional Chapter and served as the chapter president for two years.   David co-founded the chapter’s Tanzania project, for which he volunteered and served as project manager.  David is a mechanical engineer by trade with six years experience working as a consultant in the renewable energy industry.

Comedian

Samson Koletkar often called “The Indian Seinfeld”, is the world’s only known Indian Jewish Standup Comedian. Born and raised in Mumbai, and now living in San Francisco, his comedy is a unique perspective on life as an Indian Jew in the West. His observations and experiences are refreshingly new and unadulterated by existing stereotypes. He establishes a new and unique view of the world, which often echoes the voice of the seldom heard 1st generation immigrants. His comedy is intelligent, clean, and appeals to people of every race, religion and ethnicity. An instantly likeable personality, he makes you smile as soon as he steps on the stage.