our Team

Our team is made up of a full and part time staff, plus graduate-level interns, and senior directors and advisers. We’re a mix of Mexicans and international residents, technologists and community organizers, researchers and educators — united by our dedication to public health and welfare.

Team_FIELD02kopie.png
Team_BOARD03.png
Team_ADVISORY02kopie.png
Team_VOLUNTEER04kopie.png

In the field

 

Dylan Terrell

Founder & Executive Director

Dylan Terrell is a member of the Ashoka Fellowship Network and oversees all of Caminos’ programming and focuses much of his time on institutional collaborations, public policy initiatives, and coalition building. In the early years, he helped build and coordinated many of Caminos core programs, including water quality monitoring, technology development, rainwater harvesting, education, and other community projects.

Casilda Barajas

Director of Social Outreach

At Caminos de Agua, Casilda Barajas in charge of the project management of our community projects as well as the coordination of all of our educational programs, material development, and outreach strategies. Additionally, Casilda works closely with our executive director to coordinate Mexican institutional and governmental relationships, grants, and contracts.

ALEXANDRA ALVAREZ

Director of Technology

Alexandra (Allie) Alvarez, is a water engineer working as the Director of Technology at Caminos de Agua. She graduated from Gonzaga University with a degree in Civil Engineering and Leadership Studies. Her background includes water and wastewater projects in the Pacific Northwest of the US, water filtration and sourcing in Zambia, and work with women coffee farmers in Ecuador. Since 2019, Allie has overseen technology development, R&D, and water quality monitoring at Caminos de Agua.

 

Saúl Juárez

Community Projects Coordinator

Saúl Juárez hails from a local rural community that struggles with the challenges of our water crisis and has been a part of the Caminos team since 2016. He is a passionate water advocate and has years of experience organizing communities and leading rainwater harvesting and other community-led initiatives. Saúl coordinates the implementation all of our community projects, leads technical capacity trainings, provides water and health education programs, and helps communities organize.

Matthieu Carrière

Research and Development Coordinator

Matthieu Carrière is our Research and Development Coordinator. His background is in water and sanitation engineering, and he now coordinates our efforts to develop fluoride and arsenic remediation methods, improve the production and design of our ceramic filters/Aguadapt, develop an accurate field arsenic meter appropriate for low-income regions, and research other technical solutions to further Caminos de Agua's work.

Ana Torres

Community Organizer

Ana Torres is our community organizer. She has a background as an anthropologist and educator, working with different communities in Mexico. Likewise, she’s a specialist in “narrative practices,” a pioneering technique for creating collaborative knowledge with the communities we work together with. Ana leads much of the work related to our community projects and education initiatives.

 

Romeo robles

Development Coordinator

Romeo Robles is currently Development Coordinator at Caminos, working together with the rest of the team in fundraising, communications, and networking. He has worked for other national and international NGOs on programs that have ranged from animal protection to international cooperation for economic development. He graduated from Tec de Monterrey in 2014 and is about to finish his Master’s degree on Political Analysis applied to land management issues.

Fátima almeida

Communications Coordinator

Fátima Almeida is part of the strategic development and communications team. As a local San Miguel resident, she has had close contact and collaboration with many of the city's non-governmental organizations over the years. Part of her role, together with the team, is to develop communication strategies that inform the different audiences about local and global water issues as well as the mission, activities, and efforts of Caminos de Agua. 

Álvaro Gutiérrez

Water Monitoring Coordinator

Álvaro Gutiérrez is our Water Monitoring Coordinator. He’s an Environmental Engineer from the University of Guanajuato specializing in water treatment. Subsequently, he received a master’s degree in Water Science, where he worked on groundwater treatment systems to eliminate arsenic and fluoride. Álvaro is in charge of increasing our knowledge of regional water issues through water testing programs as well as coordinating private and community water analysis.

 

María José Valle Ávila

Aguadapt Supervisor

María José (Marijo) Valle is a Hydrological Engineer who graduated from the Roque Institute of Technology. Marijo is part of the Tech team at Caminos de Agua where she is in charge of the production and improvement of our Aguadapt water filters — helping to solve setbacks, improve performance, and implement tests to ensure their proper functioning.

Nico Vargas

Water Filter Production

Nico Vargas is the lead on ceramic water filter (Aguadapt) production, assuring that all filters and constructed systems meet Caminos de Agua’s high-quality standards. Nico also oversees the production on high-temperature wood-based biochar and bone char filtration medias, both of which are used in our groundwater treatment systems to remove arsenic and fluoride from contaminated community water supplies.

Omar Bárcenas

Technical Social Promoter

Omar Bárcenas collaborates with Caminos de Agua as a technical social promoter, supporting the implementation of technical workshops for training and education on water issues in our watershed, following up on the monitoring and evaluation program in the field (appropriation and use of installed SCALLS technologies, dry toilets and other eco-technologies). Support the development of community projects; coordination, organization of groups, favoring spaces to promote dialogue and exchange of ideas, prioritizing mutual respect.

 

VÍctor Manuel Hernández Solís

Technical Social Promoter

Víctor Manuel Hernández Solís is responsible for sharing with the communities in the Cuenca de la Independencia the possibility of accessing and consuming water free from arsenic and fluoride, which is a widespread issue throughout the region. He believes in the local organizational capacity as a strong and essential foundation to ensure proper management of the land and water as a source of life. In this capacity, he supports the processes based on his experience in natural resources, rural development, and engineering. He collaborates with the STAS to achieve this goal.

Tomas Rehacek

Director of Development

Tomas Rehacek is a sustainable development professional working as Director of Development at Caminos de Agua. As a graduate of Wageningen University, Tomas has worked in the sustainability field since 2011. His background includes work in the fields of environmental justice, climate change, smart cities, science communication, grassroots activism, alternative economics, and organizational development. At Caminos de Agua his primary focus is fundraising, communication, and strategic development support.

Maribel Garcia hernandez

Accountant for Civil Association in Mexico

Dennis Paquette

Bookkeeper

 

Past team members

  • Jennifer Ungemach, Operations Coordinator, 2012 - 2018

  • Jeff Rottler, Operations Coordinator, Instructor, Ceramic Filter Production, 2011 - 2018

  • Aaron Krupp, Research and Technology Development Coordinator, 2016 - 2019

  • Chantal Kronenburg, Communications Coordinator, 2016 - 2019

  • Billy Thurston, Water Quality Monitoring Coordinator, 2016 - 2019

  • Paco Guajardo, Associate Director, 2018-2020

  • Melissa Landman, Development Coordinator 2019-2021

  • Filiberto Baltazar, Water Filter Production

  • Ismael Rodriguez, Water Filter Production

Board of Directors

Bruce Janklow - President
Bruce Janklow had a forty-two year career in advertising, marketing and strategic planning. He was the Senior partner and/or CEO of three different organizations and in his last role served as an executive consultant and change agent for small and large clients including Dow 100 companies. Bruce has also been a board member of several 501(c)3 foundations including Big Brothers and Big Sisters of NY and the Audubon Society of Mexico. He was a founder and President of a foundation to assist the parents of teens at risk and was a senior advisor for Catskill Mountainkeeper (a regional environmental action group) and helped lead a successful campaign to achieve a ban on gas fracking in NY State. Bruce has been living in San Miguel since 2007 and also spends part of the year in the Catskill Mountain region of NY State where he is a member of the board of advisors for the Catskill Art Society. Bruce is also a fine arts photographer and has had both one man and group shows in the U.S. and Mexico.

Agustin Madrigal - Vice President
Agustin Madrigal, has been the Director of Salvemos el Rio Laja for 11 years and coordinates conservation, soil restoration, and water projects in local rural communities as part of the National Program in Watersheds and Cities, funded by the Fondo Mexicano para la Conservación de la Naturaleza, A.C.

Joshua Samson, Treasurer
Joshua is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and is currently the Director of Financial Reporting at Guggenheim Partners, a financial services institution. Prior to joining Guggenheim Partners, Joshua worked at Protiviti, an audit and consulting firm, performing IT security and compliance audits around the world. Joshua leads the Budget & Finance Committee for Caminos de Agua, and he works closely with the Executive Director to develop yearly budgets and consolidated financial reports for the organization.

George Terrell - Secretary
George Terrell has been a community organizer and social justice activist for 45 years. A lawyer by training, his current practice is limited to the pro bono representation of several non-profits. He is one of the founders of Caminos de Agua and has worked in Mexico since 2006, first with indigenous communities in Chiapas in capacity building programs teaching earthblock construction and later in Guanajuato with Caminos. Since the early 1980’s he has helped lead Project Neighbors (Neighbors Corp.) a grass roots community organization in Valparaiso, Indiana. Using local volunteers to help improve the lives of marginalized people, Project Neighbors has built a childcare center and a community center serving a diverse population, a health care center now serving the uninsured and under-insured in five counties, and has built over 70 homes and two women’s shelters and operates a community radio station - WVLP. George also serves on the Board of the Asset Based Community Development Institute. In his earlier years, he worked as a union organizer and in union democracy campaigns in the Steelworkers Union.

Charlie Sellers, Ph.D.
Charlie has a background in advanced materials (metals and ceramics) development – spending 10 years at a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory and +10 years in industry working at international manufacturing operations. He specializes in the development and deployment of appropriate technologies for emerging economies, in areas such as alternative energy, improved cooking appliances, clean water, and sanitation. Dr. Sellers is familiar with a very wide range of materials and technologies, using them to solve problems employing a human-centered design approach to engineering. He believes in the value of mentoring startup companies, using his experiences in the business world to encourage social entrepreneurs to commercialize new products that will make a difference. He has been with Catapult Design since it evolved from the San Francisco chapter of Engineers Without Borders and enjoys working in areas such as test development and data analysis, quality assurance and risk management, manufacturing in limited-resource settings, and field deployments for new product testing. He now resides in San Miguel de Allende and supports the Caminos de Agua Technology Development Team in a variety of areas but specifically with the production and commercialization of the Aguadapt water filter.

Dave Barrett
Dave Barrett is a retired nonprofit fundraising and management professional living in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Formerly based in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts and the San Francisco Bay Area, he raised tens of millions of dollars in operating, capital and endowment funds over a 30 plus-year career as a consultant and Director of Development for a wide range of cultural, educational, and health-related nonprofits. He has served on the Boards of several community organizations in both parts of the country, and in 2015, was named one of the top 25 most “dedicated, creative and influential Berkshire County residents” by Berkshire Magazine. Barrett also had a concurrent career as a professional musician, and is now devoting the bulk of his time to creating visual art.

Hardy Holland
Born in east North Carolina, Hardy attended the University of North Carolina graduating with a BS in Business Administration. He spent just under 40 years working in the Wealth Management sector before retiring from Morgan Stanley in 2019. During his working career, Hardy served in various nonprofit organizations: The High Museum of Art of Atlanta, Project Open Hand of Atlanta, Asheville City Schools Foundation, and The Wortham Center for The Performing Arts of Asheville. Hardy and his husband John now live full-time in San Miguel de Allende. At Caminos de Agua, Hardy fulfills a range of responsibilities encompassing fundraising support, managing donor relationships, and conducting outreach.

Ilan Adler, Ph.D.
Dr. Adler is a teaching fellow at University College of London, one of Caminos de Agua's main University partners, in the Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering, and he is also the founder of IRRI-Mexico. Dr. Adler has worked in the Independence Watershed region for years; he was involved with an early water quality study of the region in 2005-2006 and ultimately installed numerous rainwater harvesting systems in rural community elementary schools to combat the high arsenic and fluoride contamination they were encountering. He received his Ph.D. in 2014; his thesis entitled: Application of filtration and silver-ion based disinfection to purify rainwater for potable uses in rural communities of Mexico. These rainwater systems are now maintained by Caminos de Agua. 

Dr. Isabel García Bastida Germán
Bio coming soon

Javier Angel, MSc, MArch
Javier is an active architect with over 18 years of experience with a keen focus on Water Sustainability. He has completed a wide variety of projects in several parts of the world including Germany, the US, Dubai, and Mexico (www.toniclab.mx). Born and raised in San Miguel de Allende, Javier has always been aware of the issues but most importantly the opportunities that the water crisis in our region represents in our society. His Master thesis “Cachinches Green Corridor” has been considered by Adaptur and GIZ Germany as one of 3 projects that have the potential to stop the effects of climate change in our watershed. This lifetime project is a proposal to regenerate the ecological corridor and create a Linear Park on the Cachinches Stream in San Miguel de Allende; restoring its perennial flow and reactivating the environmental services of this important body of water for the benefit of the entire community.

Lyn Knox
Lyn Knox worked at the Francis Family Foundation for 20 years as a Program Officer for their grant-making program before retiring and moving to San Miguel de Allende in 2017. Previously, Lyn worked as the Director of Private and Family Foundations of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. Lyn has “worked in philanthropy in one form or another for 30 years. From the Peace Corps in Africa, to six years with the San Francisco Mayor’s Office, through experiences on the staff of two California non-profits and as a consultant grant writer before returning to Kansas City.” Lyn began volunteering with Caminos de Agua in 2017 before joining the board in 2019. She is the founder of the organization’s Institutional Funding Committee, and she works closely with the Executive Director on grant opportunities.

Robert Lerner
Robert Lerner is a biologist, technologist and serial entrepreneur. A veteran of start-ups in renewable energy, outdoor gear, and technology development, his business experience spans start-ups, fundraising, product development (multiple patents), sales and marketing, and full-charge financial responsibility. Rob advises on biochar and bioenergy in Costa Rica, Panama, and Mexico, where he has resided since 1996. Rob is the former Board President of Caminos de Agua from 2016-2019 and recently took on the role of CEO of Aguadapt Inc.

Advisory Teams & Committees

Technical Advisors

  • Josh Kearns, Ph.D.
    Chief Technical Advisor - Assistant Professor NC State University

  • Aaron Krupp
    Technical Mentor & Advisor, former staff member

  • Matthew Polizzotto, Ph.D.
    Arsenic Geochemistry - Associate Professor University of Oregon

  • Peter Knappett, Ph.D.
    Water Quality Monitoring - Assistant Professor Texas A&M University

  • Charlie Sellers, Ph.D.
    Board of Directors, Production Optimization and Quality - Catapult Design and Engineers Without Borders

  • Ilan Adler, Ph.D.
    Board of Directors, University College of London, Rainwater harvesting systems and design

  • Dennis Taylor, Ph.D.
    Local Technical Advisor - Chemistry

  • Larry Dworsky, Ph.D.
    Local Technical Advisor - Arsenic Quantification and Electrical Engineering

  • Michael Schaefer, Ph.D.

  • Jay Bullen, Ph.D.

  • Kyle Shimabuku, Ph.D.

  • Pascal Salaun, Ph.D.

Individual Fundraising & Events Committees

  • Bruce Janklow, Board of Directors

  • Dixie Ashley, Volunteer, Coordinator of Events Committee

  • Romeo Robles, Staff

  • Tomas Rehacek, Staff

Institutional Funding Committee

  • Lyn Knox, Board of Directors

  • Dave Barrett, Board of Directors

  • Dylan Terrell, Staff

  • Tomas Rehacek, Staff

Budget & Finance Committee

  • Joshua Samson, Board of Directors

  • Dylan Terrell, Staff

  • Dennis Paquette & Maribel Garcia, Accounting/Bookkeeping Support

Earned income committee

  • Rob Lerner, Board of Directors

  • Charlie Sellers, Ph.D., Board of Directors

  • Dylan Terrell, Staff

volunteers & Fellows

Current Volunteers & Technical Fellows

 
 

Nancy Grimwood, Water Testing Volunteer

Past Long-Term fellows & Volunteers

2021-2

  • Eammon Ridgley, Technical Fellow, MEng Chemical and Energy Engineering.

  • Ayomide Olabampe, Technical Fellow, MEng Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham

  • Maya Anderson, Volunteer with the communications team.

2020

  • Karina Bautista,BSc in Environmental Sciences from National Autonomous University of Mexico, one year scholarship to work on the promotion of rainwater harvesting systems as well as the dissemination of the water situation throughout the region

  • Johanna Le Pors, Caminos de Agua Technical Fellow, double degree in Water, Sanitation and Environment (ENGEES, Strasbourg, France) and WASH in developing countries (Cranfield University, UK)

  • Cristina Lopez, Caminos de Agua Technical Fellow, WASH in developing countries (Cranfield University, UK)

  • Stephan Calvet, Caminos de Agua Technical Fellow, MEng Chemical Engineering, University of Edinburgh, UK. 6 month placement, 2019-2020.

  • Calum Stewart, Caminos de Agua Technical Fellow, MEng Chemical Engineering, University of Edinburgh, UK. 6 month placement, 2019-2020.

2019

  • Miguel Finguerut, Engineers Without Borders Technical Fellow, MEng Chemical Engineering, University of Edinburgh, UK, Associate Member of the Institute of Chemical Engineers. One year placement, 2018-2019.

  • Matthieu Carrière, SAFAD Technical Fellow, One year placement, 2018-2019. Transition to become Caminos de Agua Research and Development Coordinator in 2019.

  • Nina Ommerborn, BSc International Land and Water Management, Wageningen University, The Netherlands

  • Mathilde Poulle, MSc Water and Sanitation for Development, Cranfield University, UK

  • Pilar Cabrera, MSc Water and Sanitation for Development, Cranfield University, UK

  • Martijn Eikelboom, Caminos de Agua Technical Fellow, MSc Environmental Science, Wageningen Universtiy The Netherlands

  • Caleb Davis, Caminos de Agua Technical Fellow, civil engineer focused on infrastructure design. He volunteered with Caminos de Agua's Research and Development Team to improve ceramic filter production and help further the development of groundwater treatment technologies.

2018

  • Stephan Calvet, Caminos de Agua Technical Fellow, MEng Chemical Engineering, University of Edinburgh, UK

  • Álvaro Gutiérrez, Caminos de Agua Technical Fellow, BSc Environmental Engineering, University of Guanajuato, Mexico

  • Melissa Landman, Caminos de Agua Technical Fellow, BSc Mechanical Engineering, University of Delaware, USA

  • Sarah Hartman, Caminos de Agua Technical Fellow, BSc Environmental Engineering, University of Delaware, USA 

2017

  • Fernanda Arce, Caminos de Agua Technical Fellow, BSc Civil Engineering, Instituto Tecnológico de Durango, Mexico

  • Simona Dossi, Engineers Without Borders UK, MEng Chemical Engineering, University of Edinburgh, UK

  • July Gracient, College of International Agro-Development (ISTOM), France / Cranfield University, UK

  • Martijn Eikelboom, Caminos de Agua Technical Fellow, BSc Environmental Science, University of Applied Sciences Van Hall Larenstein, The Netherlands 

 2016

  • Billy Thurston, Engineers Without Borders UK, MEng Civil Engineering with Study in Continental Europe, University of Bristol, UK 

  • Sarah Mitchell, Engineers Without Borders UK, MEng Civil Engineering, University of Sheffield, UK 

  • Elena Diek, MSc Integrated Water Resources Management, Technical College Cologne, Germany 

  • Chantal Kronenburg, MSc Applied Communication Science, Wageningen University, The Netherlands 

  • Cameron Plese, MA Sustainable International Development, Brandeis University, MA, USA 

2015

  • Olivia Hobson, Engineers Without Borders UK

2014

  • Will Mitchell, Engineers Without Borders UK

2013

  • Javier Sierra, Engineers Without Borders UK