Our Team
Board of Directors
ZOE MAISEL, EIT
President
Zoe Maisel has been involved with AguaClara since 2015. As a student at Cornell University, she served as a Team Lead, Research Adviser, and Student Researcher with the AguaClara Program. Since her graduation in 2018 with her Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering in Environmental Engineering, she has served as a Volunteer Coordinator with the AguaClara Volunteer Network. She served as the AguaClara Reach Board Secretary from August 2019 - October 2020. She is currently working in New York City at Brown and Caldwell as a Senior Environmental Engineer.
BLIXY TAETZSCH, CPA
Treasurer
Ms. Taetzsch has over 30 years of professional experience in organizational leadership, financial management, and accounting. She is currently College Dean of Operations and Enrollment Management at Tompkins Cortland Community College. She provides leadership and vision for the operational and enrollment management functions of the College and related organizations. She is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Government Financial Manager, and member of American Institute of Public Accountants (AICPA). She also serves on the Board of the Sciencenter in Ithaca, NY.
MATT CIMINI
Secretary & RIDE Chair
Matt Cimini graduated from Cornell University in 2019 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering as well as a minor in Environmental Engineering. He has always enjoyed applying his passion for mechanical design to the field of EnvE. During his time at Cornell, he participated on the AguaClara Cornell team for 5 semesters, starting out as a member for a fabrication team, then eventually moving onto AIDE to develop the parameterized abilities of the CAD model. Matt was eventually elected as Team Lead his last two semesters at Cornell. Having graduated, Matt now works in Boston, MA for AECOM as a Mechanical Process Engineer; he designs water and wastewater treatment facilities for municipalities across the country.
SERENA TAKADA, EIT
Volunteer Management Chair
Serena Takada joined AguaClara in 2014. Since then, she has served as a Team Lead for the AguaClara Cornell Program and a Volunteer Coordinator for the AguaClara Volunteers. She currently works in New York City at Hazen and Sawyer in their Stormwater group. She is passionate about sustainable development and working with local communities to create meaningful change.
MONROE WEBER-SHIRK, PHD
Technical Director
Dr. Monroe Weber-Shirk received his PhD in Environmental Engineering from Cornell University in 1992. His experiences working in Salvadoran refugee camps in Honduras led him to found the AguaClara program in 2005 to invent sustainable water treatment technologies. He guided the AguaClara Cornell student team to empower students, to conduct research, to invent a series of technologies that produce safe drinking water with zero electricity, and to create the open source AguaClara Infrastructure Design Engine AIDE). He works to empower partner organizations that in turn empower communities to build, operate, and sustain their AguaClara water treatment plants.
KAREN SWETLAND-JOHNSON, PHD
Karen has been involved with AguaClara since 2009, when she began her doctoral research at Cornell University. She focused on optimizing the coagulation and flocculation processes in AguaClara plants. She was also involved in early efforts to start the nonprofit arm of the organization that later became AguaClara Reach. Karen’s formal education includes a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and a master’s in Environmental Engineering from Vanderbilt University, and a doctorate in Environmental Engineering from Cornell. Karen currently works at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the hazardous waste program.
SKYLER ERICKSON
CHEER TSANG, EIT
JILLIAN WHITING, EIT
Skyler Erickson graduated from Cornell with a B.S. in Operations Research Engineering in 2016, and a Master’s in Computer Science in 2019. He was a co-lead for the AguaClara project team during his time as an undergraduate, and then spent a year post graduation working on a Fulbright Research grant with Agua Para el Pueblo (APP). During his time in Honduras, Skyler was involved with the design, implementation, and capacity building components of several AguaClara plants ranging from 1L/s to 120 L/s.
Cheer Tsang graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Biological Engineering (2019). As a student, she was involved with AguaClara Cornell for 6 semesters, as a team member in Sensor Development, Contact Chamber, Fluoride Removal, and Ram Pump, and as a Particle Removal Research Advisor. In July 2019, she started working as a Water Resources Engineer in Syracuse, NY at O’Brien & Gere, which was recently acquired by the Ramboll Group, an engineering, architecture and consultancy company founded in Denmark.
Jillian Whiting has her B.S (2019) and M.Eng.(2020) in Environmental Engineering from Cornell University. As a member of AguaClara Cornell, she was a Team Lead, Research Advisor, and researcher in both water and wastewater treatment. Jillian currently holds an Engineer in Training certification and works as a Water Resource Engineer for AECOM in Massachusetts. She began volunteering with ACR in the Fall of 2020 as a member of the RIDE committee.
ELENA TIFFERT-VAUGHAN
Elena brings 28+ years of international experience in leadership in humanitarian and operations management and planning. She has created impact by designing strategic, innovative, and high-quality WASH programs around the world. With experience working in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East with organizations including WaterAid UK and America, Save the Children, Oxfam, Christian Aid and Medical Aid for Palestinians, Elena’s particular interests are program strategy, program design and development, emergency preparedness, response and recovery, and how to integrate accountability to disaster affected communities. Elena holds an MBA from Oxford Brookes University.
Committee Chairs
LOIS LEE
Volunteer Management Chair
Lois Lee graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science & Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University (2019) and her Master of Engineering in ECE at CornellTech (2020). During her time at AguaClara Cornell, she worked as part of the Sensor Development subteam and as Professional Development chair. Lois now works as a Technology Specialist at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks as a member of the Electrical and Computer Technologies group, where she will continue to work on the patent attorney track.
ETHAN KELLER
Technology Chair
Ethan loves design, water, and programming. He graduated from Cornell in 2015 with a B.S. in Environmental Engineering and then graduated again with an M. Eng in Computer Science. He’s been working with AguaClara Cornell since 2013, when he joined the wastewater team. Since then, he has worked on the foam filter team, created the POST team, advised other design teams, and been the lead architect and designer of the AIDE system. Ethan also spent a year post graduation working on a Fulbright Research grant with Agua Para el Pueblo (APP). During his time in Honduras, Ethan was involved with the design, implementation, and capacity building components of several AguaClara plants ranging from 1L/s to 120 L/s. For his day job, Ethan works as a software engineer at PTC to help develop Onshape - the future of CAD.
Staff
IZUMI MATSUDA, EIT
Design & Partnerships Officer
Izumi Matsuda graduated from Cornell University in 2019 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering. Currently, she lives in Brooklyn, NY and works with AguaClara Reach to further develop the AIDE design tool, build and maintain relationships between ACR and other organizations, and manage projects. Izumi is excited to continue facing interesting technical challenges while being able to pursue her passion for sustainability and innovative design.
MONROE WEBER-SHIRK, PHD
Technical Director
Dr. Monroe Weber-Shirk received his PhD in Environmental Engineering from Cornell University in 1992. His experiences working in Salvadoran refugee camps in Honduras led him to found the AguaClara program in 2005 to invent sustainable water treatment technologies. He guided the AguaClara Cornell student team to empower students, to conduct research, to invent a series of technologies that produce safe drinking water with zero electricity, and to create the open source AguaClara Infrastructure Design Engine AIDE). He works to empower partner organizations that in turn empower communities to build, operate, and sustain their AguaClara water treatment plants.
Technical Advisory Board
Subhani Katugampala
Maysoon Sharif, PE
Subhani Katugampala joined AguaClara in 2013, where she served as the Team Lead, Research Adviser, and Researcher during her time at Cornell University. After graduating, Subhani joined AguaClara Reach for two years as an Engineer-Trainer and later as the India Program Manager to oversee the delivery and implementation of AguaClara’s Hydrodoser technology in Odisha, India. She currently works for WaterAid America as a Program Development Officer, overseeing corporate grant management for WASH projects in Asia.
Ms. Sharif is the founder of AguaClara Reach and was an undergraduate intern with the AguaClara program at Cornell University. She continued to be involved as part of her Master of Engineering project and, upon graduating, worked to maintain the Automated Design Tool that produces 3D CAD drawings of the water treatment systems. She worked to pilot the first four AguaClara systems ever implemented in India.
Alissa Diminich, PE
Ms. Diminich has over 10 years of experience in the water and wastewater engineering sector both in New York and Tennessee. She completed her Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering degrees at Cornell in Civil and Environmental Engineering while also acting as a Team Lead with the AguaClara Program at Cornell University. Alissa is a licensed Professional Engineer in Tennessee, where she works at Inflo Design Group, just south of Nashville. Alissa served as the ACR Board President from July 2019 until October 2020.
John Finn, PE
Mr. Finn has over 30 years of experience in engineering practice. His broad range of skills have been built through 10 years as an engineer and project manager in multi-disciplinary teams, 2 years as leader of a relief and development program in Cambodia, and 18 years as leader of an engineering consulting firm in Ithaca, New York. He served as a long time adviser to the AguaClara Program.
Carol Serna, PE
Michael Klug
Michael Adelman, PE
Ms. Serna graduated from Cornell University with a BS in 2006 and a ME in 2007. She has over ten years of experience in the planning and design of various civil engineering projects. She started her career internationally working on sustainable water treatment plants and continued on to work in Houston as a Municipal Utility District Engineer. She is now a Senior Engineer with Carollo Engineers and works on a wide variety of water and wastewater projects for various cities in and around the Houston area. Her passions lie in projects geared towards sustainability, reuse, potable water and wastewater.
Mr. Klug has over 30 years experience providing business and operations guidance for profit and non-profit companies, working across 4 continents. He has helped over 30 technology, financial services, utilities and charitable organizations scale their businesses to better serve their customer bases. He graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and has served as an advisor to AguaClara for over 5 years.
Mr. Adelman was a part of the AguaClara Cornell team as an M.S. student from 2010-2012, where he focused on the development of the Stacked Rapid Sand Filter and researched topics ranging from particle capture by plate settlers to the effectiveness of the economic and governance model of AguaClara plants. He is currently a professional environmental engineer with Stantec MWH in Pasadena, CA, where he works on both conventional and advanced treatment process engineering for a variety of water, wastewater, water reuse, site remediation, and waste management projects.
Aminta Nuñez
Ms. Nuñes is a civil engineer and has been working in WASH for 5 years with partner organization Agua Para el Pueblo. One of her majors roles has been the design and the supervision of the construction of the AguaClara plants in Honduras. She sees her role as a great opportunity to serve and help people of her country and to improve their quality of life.
Tori Klug
Peter Hobbs
Juan Guzman
Drew Hart
Ms. Klug was a part of the AguaClara team as an undergraduate student from 2011-2014, where she focused on translating insight from the AguaClara lab and feedback from the field into improvements to AguaClara water treatment plant designs. She is currently working as an environmental engineer in California, where she focuses on a variety of water supply, treatment, and management projects.
Professor Hobbs is a crop scientist and agronomist with 30 years of experience with IRRI and CIMMYT, two CG centers working mainly on rice and wheat systems and conservation agriculture in South Asia. He is presently an adjunct Professor in CSS and also an International Professor teaching various courses on international agriculture systems, agroforestry and GMO`s. In August 2010 he became the new Associate Director for IP-CALS for academic and professional studies.
Mr. Guzman has been with the AguaClara Cornell program since 2015, and received his BS and ME from Cornell in 2017. Starting in August 2018, he will be working for Agua Para el Pueblo in Honduras designing and implementing AguaClara technologies. His professional aspirations include propagating innovative water and wastewater technologies in the global south.
A 2011 graduate of the Cornell AguaClara program, Mr. Hart has worked on AguaClara projects and program development as an engineer for partner organization Agua Para el Pueblo in Honduras and as design lead at Cornell. Since 2016 he has continued to work in potable water as a Staff Professional at Carollo Engineers in Walnut Creek, California.
John Foote
Guneet Sandhu
Simone St. Anne
Rahul Bawa
Mr. Foote is a visiting lecturer at Cornell University teaching infrastructure finance and a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for State and Local Government. He has twelve years of experience as a public finance investment banker both in the United States and Asia. Following his career in investment banking, John co-founded a transportation engineering company, specializing in intelligent transportation systems and services such as electronic toll collection. John holds a Master of Public Administration (1976) from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in engineering (1974) from Cornell University.
Ms. Sandhu began her association with AguaClara Cornell as a member of the design team while pursuing Master of Chemical Engineering at Cornell University. After graduating in 2014, she joined AguaClara LLC as a project engineer to lend technical support for implementation of the pilot systems in India. This enriching experience spurred her interest in understanding the interdisciplinary facets of water management. She is currently a Masters candidate in Sustainability Management (Water) at the University of Waterloo. Her research focuses on designing provincial bulk water pricing frameworks to promote efficient and sustainable water management.
Ms. St. Anne is a creative facilitator, with development and communication skills honed at Cornell University. Her attention to big-picture thinking, problem defining, storytelling, histories and myth, enables effective and sustainable interaction and innovation. Her focus is creative collaboration, and watering things to make them grow.
Mr. Bawa is an experienced executive, investor, consultant, and mentor who thrives on strategic and challenging opportunities to improve business results and create value. He is experienced in transforming startups through Fortune 500 organizations to consistently develop and deliver products and services focused on customers’ needs while exceeding an organization’s revenue, cost and profit goals. He has deep business and technical expertise combined with strong team-building and management skills to promote positive change.