The TI team is grateful for the input and support of our many partners and advisors.

Academic

Dr. Craig Just has served the College of Engineering at the University of Iowa since 1993. He earned a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Northern Iowa in 1994 and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering & science from the University of Iowa in 2001. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and an assistant research engineer at IIHR – Hydroscience & Engineering. Dr. Just teaches Principles of Environmental Engineering, Fundamentals of Environmental Sampling & Analysis, the Capstone course for the Sustainable Water Development Graduate Program, and the CEE Engineering Service Project course. Dr. Just is the Faculty Advisor for the UI Student Chapter of Engineers Without Borders USA and Bridges to Prosperity (aka Continental Crossings) and he coordinates the UI International Engineering Service Program.

Dr. Ralph Hall is an Associate Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech. He has over a decade of academic and professional experience in applying the concept of sustainable development to infrastructure systems with a specific emphasis on water supply, sanitation, and transportation systems. In 2008/09, Dr. Hall co-led a Water and Sanitation Program (WSP), World Bank, research project in Colombia, Senegal, and Kenya focused on the emerging concept of multiple-use water services (MUS). This research involved around 150 rural communities and led to several publications exploring MUS from the perspective of water service sustainability and the human right to water. More recently, Dr. Hall led a multiyear impact evaluation of the US Millennium Challenge Corporation-funded rural water supply project in Mozambique. Dr. Hall has also undertaken water-related research in India, Burkina Faso, and Malawi, and co-teaches a water, sanitation, and hygiene course in Malawi for students from Virginia Tech, Denver University, and Mzuzu University.

NGO/Sector Specialists – WASH

Henk Holtslag is a specialist in so-called SMARTechs, being innovative, low-cost water and sanitation technologies that in general are produced by the local private sector. Examples are manual well drilling, rope pumps, rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharge, irrigation and household water filters. He has over 30 years experience in both failures and success in 18 developing countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa. He is co-initiator of the SMART Centre Group, which consist of training centres in Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and starting up in several other countries. He was a key person in the dissemination of the rope pump, an effective low cost hand pump of which there now are 70,000 installed in Nicaragua and 40,000 in Africa.

Jim McGill has been a coordinator for WaSH Programmes with the Presbyterian Church (USA) for the past 25 years in partnership with the Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian (CCAP) Synod of Livingstonia, Mzuzu, Malawi. Jim is now shifting to work with the Presbyterian Church Of South Sudan (PCOSS) and the Eglise Evangelique de la Republique du Niger (EERN). In Malawi, Jim managed hand-dug well and ecological sanitation programs, managed the implementation and management of the Livingstonia Gravity-fed Piped Water Scheme with Rotary International, and helped start up the CCAP Smart Centre for technical and business training the local private sector in low-cost water and sanitation options including Household Water Treatment (HWTS), latrines and slab construction, hand and mechanical drilling, Rope and piston pump manufacture. Previously Jim worked five years with Project PROBE (Proto-Rift and Oceanic Basin Evolution) collecting geophysical data on the R/V Nyanja on the East Africa rift lakes. 

Professional

Steve Werner, a dedicated Rotarian, is an international development and non-profit organization consultant who has worked or consulted with numerous international, national and local organizations. Most recently he served as executive director of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) based in Aurora, Colorado, USA. Steve has 25 years of experience in major gift fundraising, board leadership, program development and evaluation, strategic planning and organizational development. He has helped nonprofit organizations to grow programs and resources. Werner also served as Executive Director and Corporate Secretary for Water For People and Water For People – Canada, international non-profit organizations that help people in developing countries obtain access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation.

David Siburg is a management consultant with over 30 years of experience in executive change management and organizational capacity building as a general manager and consultant in the utility sector. Working with small and medium size water systems with severe limitations in technical, managerial and financial capacity, he became a national leader in evaluating and developing organizational capacity and capacitated relationships. Building and strengthening communities through water and broadband utility services, Dave has extensive experience integrating environmental, economic, relational and technological resources to promote capacity building for eco-system health, social well-being, and organizational growth and transformation. He has worked extensively with local, state, federal, and international agencies and organizations in the United States and its territories, Haiti, Southern Africa, and the Middle East.

Dave is a skilled facilitator and a “co-learner” with every organization or group he works with. He uses a variety of accelerated organizational learning practices, supporting people and groups interested in promoting resilient and sustainable communities around the globe. His enthusiasm is infectious as is his tenacity to achieve positive outcomes with the people he is working worth.

NGO/Sector Specialists – Education/Capacity building

Dr. Carla Funk is an executive consultant who began her career in Ethiopia with a Master of Agriculture degree, assessing the Ogaden Desert region on behalf of UNHCR for its agronomic potential. She realized there that social challenges were more complex and gnarly than any technological agricultural fixes, and shifted her sights from the production of food to the process of aid delivery. She has since lived and worked in Zimbabwe, Switzerland, Tanzania, and Canada, with a focus on capacity building in support of community development and nonprofit initiatives.

She delights in brokering unique partnerships resulting in global impact. Her work with First Peoples’ Cultural Council, global linguistic leaders and language champions based in British Columbia, Canada, and Google.org out of Paolo Alto, USA, resulted in the June 2012 global launch of the Endangered Languages Project.

Carla recently completed a doctorate at Royal Roads University examining the role of philanthropy as it shapes international development aid. She is a frequent public speaker, and is writing about her work with the goal to make current nonprofit management and training research more easily accessible to practitioners.

Dr. Aaron Tanner has a BA (Hons) in Industrial Design, an MSc in Community Water Supply, and a Doctorate In Water Utility management and sustainability. Aaron has dedicated the last 15 years to WASH and the water sector supporting CBOs, NGOs INGOSs and Governments across SE Asia, Africa in Europe and in North America. Aaron specializes in the water sector sustainability and has expertise in the delivery mechanisms for sanitation and sanitation technologies for low and medium income countries. Aaron is now focused on supporting the WASH sector with skills and knowledge through, education program development, consultancy support and action research. Aaron has presented at conferences internationally and is a published researcher.

NGO/Sector Specialists – Energy

Web/Communications

Leslie Van Patter is a communications professional specializing in graphic design (print and digital). She worked on both the agency and client sides before launching a home-based business as a freelance art director. Her clients include companies and organizations in the recreation, tourism, government, education, communications, and health sectors. Approximately 30% of Leslie’s time is spent on pro bono work for local and international organizations that benefit from her experience as a designer, project manager, and copy writer. As a 15-year member of Rotary International, Leslie volunteered in South Africa for an educational project, and multiple times in the Dominican Republic for a water and sanitation program.

Paul Gilbert is a brand strategy expert with over 40 years experience advising organizations across diverse sectors. Gilbert was Executive Director of the Bateman Foundation in Victoria from 2010 to 2015, and prior to that acted as Interim Director, Marketing at the AGO for a short period after the Frank Gehry renovations. Mr. Gilbert led the brand shift at Aeroplan becoming its first VP, Marketing. Prior to Aeroplan, Mr. Gilbert owned and operated a series of creative agencies in Ottawa, Toronto and Atlantic Canada serving such diverse clients as Bell, Canadian Stage Company, McCain Foods, Mitel, Molsons, The NAC, Rogers, SunLife, Tourism New Brunswick and TD Bank. More than 36 cultural organizations have benefited from his pro bono contributions over the years.