MEET OUR TEAM
Isis Mejias, PhD
Founder & Director
Isis has been a passionate Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) advocate for more than a decade. Her career in WASH started with her work in Kenya, with Rotary and Engineers Without Borders, while working on her Chemical Engineering and her Environmental Engineering PhD degree. She has worked in designing various WASH programs around the world, especially for primary schools. Isis is also the founder of the WASH Research Network of the Venezuelan Science Incubator (IVC) and a Rotary Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group (WaSRAG) Ambassador. Her mission is to create awareness of the impact that improved WASH has on living a healthier life and protecting our planet.
Yanni Karampas, B.Sc. | CCNA
Chief Information Officer
Yanni is a dynamic, self motivated professional with more than fifteen years of experience working with information technology in the US for major network systems. He is a seasoned I.T. Networking, Security and Collaboration professional with the ability to adapt in any environment. His attention to detail and dedication has enabled Yanni to design and manage large and complex network systems. He is delighted to use his skills to help improve the quality of life of vulnerable communities around the world.
Michael Matheny
Chief Financial Officer
Mike is an accountant who specializes in the nonprofit sector, where he has worked in staff, management and consulting roles for almost a decade. He is passionate about giving back and has served as a volunteer, treasurer and pro-bono consultant for several local non-profits, including animal rescue, educational, and anti-human trafficking organizations. He is excited to apply his skill and expertise to further solutions in the WASH sector, which represents to him such a worthy and important cause!
Monica De La Torre, B.Sc.
Chief Strategy Officer
Monica is a highly tactical, proactive, and visionary professional with twenty nine years of progressively responsible customer service, marketing, sales, entrepreneurship, global mobility and real estate experience with a proven international record of accomplishments – Latin America, Europe, and the USA – for major corporate organizations, small business owners, entrepreneurs and expats. This dedication to client consulting has enabled Monica to develop a capacity for rapid complex problem solving allowing her to provide creative and analytically rigorous advice on strategic challenges and to devise effective solutions to drive her clients’ programs forward. Restlessly reinventing herself & being highly driven and motivated with a dedicated attitude, she is now committed to contribute meeting the needs of today access to clean Water, Sanitation and Hygiene around the world.
Fernanda Deister Moreira, M.Sc.
Brazil Development Officer
Fernanda is an Environmental and Sanitary Engineer. She is currently a PhD student in Sanitation, Environment and Water Resources at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil. She has been working with sanitation in public spaces, human rights, management, and qualitative research. She truly believes in the power of people to change the world. Because of that she has been working in the WaSH sector since 2016, when she joined Engineers Without Borders Brazil. Her passion is to help guaranteeing water and sanitation for all, in all spheres of life.
Paula Rafaela Silva, M.Sc.
Project Analyst
Paula is an Environmental and Sanitary Engineer. She currently is a Ph.D. student in Sanitation, Environment, and Water Resources at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil. She has been working with human rights related to water and sanitation among vulnerable populations, in places such as prisons and rural areas. While pursuing her Masters degree, she worked with recovering dissolved methane to increase the UASB reactor biogas production treating domestic sewage. She truly believes that the dialogue between the management, technological, political, educational, and community spheres can improve WaSH access around the world.
Diana Rubim
Project Analyst
Diana is a Civil Engineer and is currently studying a Postgraduate Degree in Project Management at USP-Esalq. Her interest in the social sector began in 2019, when she started volunteering for Engineers Without Borders-Juiz de Fora. Throughout her work, she studied the social role of the Civil Engineer and the impact of housing on people’s lives. Now, at Global WaSH, she is contributing to the promotion of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) services for those who need it most.
Marina Alonso
Project Analyst
Marina is an environmental and sanitary engineering student at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF) in Brazil. She has research experience in the area of emerging microcontaminants in domestic effluents. She began her work as a volunteer in 2020, at Engineers Without Borders – Juiz de Fora Chapter, where she worked on social projects in the region of Minas Gerais. She developed a special interest in the area of rural sanitation and access to basic sanitation rights.
Alberto E. Paniz Mondolfi, M.D., M.S., PhD., FFTM RCPS
Tropical Medicine Health Advisor
Alberto is a specialist in travel medicine and infectious disease and is also a skilled pathologist with strong research and professional interests in molecular diagnostics of cancer and infectious diseases. He is the Academic Director and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases / Tropical Medicine and Dermatopathology at the IDB Clinic (Barquisimeto, Venezuela) and the Assitant Director of Microbiology in the Department of Pathology, Molecular and Cell-Based Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is also head of the Infectious Disease Pathology Laboratory and the Zoonosis and Emerging Pathogens Regional Collaborative Network (Venezuelan Research Incubator). He is the founder and academic director of the Venezuelan Science Incubator.
Manuel Alejandro Prado, M.Sc.
Project and Talent Manager
Manuel Alejandro is an Environmental Advisor with extensive experience working in activities related to research and development, energy industry, education, biodiversity, water & waste treatment, nature conservancy, and public affairs. He has a Bachelor of Science in Renewable Natural Resources Engineering and a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering. Manuel Alejandro is the kind of an environmental professional who really believes that sustainability is the technical and economical path that will bring us a better tomorrow.
Cindy Lucia Catoni Mejias
Photojournalist
Cindy is a Photographer by profession. She is currently living in Bogotá, Colombia where she is documenting the impact of water, sanitation, and hygiene on the migrant population, including Venezuelan refugees and displaced indigenous communities. Since 2019, she worked in Cúcuta and Pamplona, Colombia documenting the humanitarian crisis with Venezuelan walkers (“caminantes”) for the Rotary Program “Hope for Venezuelan Refugees”. She also worked documenting the life of migrant children in Colombia. Her passion is for what she observes, and giving a voice to vulnerable communities around the world.