Team

MARK REINER | PRESIDENT

Mark served as a former Projects Director for Engineers Without Borders - USA, where he reviewed, advised and participated in the design for dozens of sustainable water, sanitation, alternative energy, and structural projects in communities throughout the developing nations of the world. He was the co-lead on the infastructure assessment for the Kigali, Rwanda Master Plan. In Rwanda, Mark let workshops on low-cost housing materials, e.g. stabilized compressed earth blocks (SCEBs). He has also served as Adjunct Faculty at the University of Colorado at Denver Health Sciences Center teaching: Urbanization of Developing Countries and has a PhD from the same university in the Civil Engineering Department with a focus on sustainable urban infrastructure. Currently, Mark is the Principal of Symbiotic Engineering in Boulder, Colorado.

STEPHEN FISHER

Mr. Fisher has dedicated himself to community development in the areas of community water system policy, capacity building, evaluating reforestation and microcredit programs, and designing and implementing rural water and sanitation resources and systems. He is a civil engineer and also has experience with human health, civil infrastructure, and environmental issues in developing countries. Mr. Fisher is committed to Birambye because of its rare emphasis on sustainability and its triple bottom line.

SUSAN GUNN

Susan received a Bachelor of Environmental Design from the University of Colorado, and a Master of Science in Real Estate and Construction Management from the University of Denver, with an emphasis in finance. Her background is in architecture, construction, and real estate, and her passion is sustainable communities. She is the feasibility lead for Birambye International.

JONATHAN HODGSON

Born in Forli, Italy, I later moved to the German town of Ober-ramstadt with my parents. After completing my first few years of schooling, we moved to Boulder, CO, which will always have a special place in my heart. Because of the occupation of my father, I have traveled to over 25 countries in my young life. This experience has been invaluable to me. I am now an undergrad who took some time off from University to gain some experience, have a little adventure, and get a different type of education. Becoming completely submerged in the life of Rwanda, I have grown to love this country. To leave it will not be easy; and if I do, I will be back. I deal heavily with project development, marketing and fundraising, specialized maintenance of projects, teaching, and administration and organization of children and workers. My hobbies have been a huge part of my life, but not shaped it. They include climbing, biking, learning, and making things with my hands (to name a few). Few things in life make me as happy and as satisfied in life as seeing others trying to improve their own lives, and seeing people trying to improve the lives of others.

AL KNOTT

Dr. Albert Knott, registered professional engineer, is the founder and past CEO of Knott Laboratory, a Denver Colorado based structural and mechanical testing laboratory specializing in failure analysis in the structural and mechanical engineering fields. He has presented expert reports and testimony in hundreds of cases involving collapses, and engineering performance failures. He has over 100 publications in the fields of engineering failure analysis, nuclear weapons effects, ethical practice, teaching and laboratory management.

PETER KRAFT

Peter comes to Birambye with a diversity of skills and interests. For the past two years he has worked at the Denver Water Department as a GIS technician producing models and maps for the distribution of treated water. He is currently working on a dual Masters/MBA at the University of Colorado at Denver, combining his interests for environmental planning/GIS applications with green marketing and business management. Peter received his B.A. from Colby College in Cultural Anthropology and has conducted community service projects in Cape Town, South Africa and Port au Prince, Haiti. Peter lives in Boulder with his wife Sarah and daughter Emma. In his spare time he enjoys hiking, playing music, and laughing with his daughter. 

LAURIE MANDERINO

Ms. Manderino has an M.S. Degree in Finance from the University of CO at Denver. She worked for thirteen years in environmental policy and finance, consulting for government and private sector clients, including the USEPA, State of Colorado, and the US Agency for International Development. Recently, she spent 5 years managing local development projects in Africa, first as an Assistant Country Director for the Peace Corps in Benin, and later working with local partners to establish and HIV/AIDS project in Rwanda.

HELGA MAHLKNECHT

Helga received the university degree in Economics and Social Sciences at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (Austria) with the emphasis in tourism and ecology and a Master of “peace, development, security and international conflict transformation” at the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna (Italy).
Her background is in tourism, communication and project cycle management. Her passion is acting and painting. Helga is of Italian nationality but her mother tongue is German.

DAVID MARCHELYA

David is a web designer and developer who received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in Business Information Systems. He is interested in technology including green, renewable and sustainable technologies and how technology improves peoples lives. His technical background led to his involvement in Birambye where he is responsible for maintaining the Birambye website. He gained an interest in developing nations after travelling through South America in 2006.

JEREMY NEMETH

Jeremy Németh is an assistant professor of planning and design in the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. His interest in Birambye stems from his previous work in Tanzania, where he worked with community members to develop a community-based design and management plan for an informal settlement outside of Dar-es-Salaam. He is interested in the relationship between public policy and urban design, and his research focuses on the creation of inclusive and sustainable built environments. Dr. Németh has teaching responsibilities in the undergraduate and graduate planning and urban design degree programs. Before coming to Denver, he taught at both Rutgers and Temple University. He received his PhD in planning and policy from Rutgers University, his MS in urban design from University College London, and his BA in architecture from UC Berkeley.

GEORGE NEZ (MCP, PhD.)

City and regional planning, redevelopment,  low cost housing.

USA experience: four decades of urban planning management in three US cities, and federal programs aiding regional economic development, a new town in Alaska, and teaching in US universities.

Overseas:  on call by USAID and UNDP in numerous projects in physical planning, reconstruction after earthquakes, and urban absorption of displaced population,  in cities or regions of Central America, Middle East, South Central Asia, Far East, and West Africa.

Ex: in Ghana’s Volta Basin  hydroelectric development, it became necessary to move some 100,000 population from hundreds of riverside villages.  Nez’ UN team helped develop 20 new towns based on new cooperative farming –  totaling 14,000 new houses  started “roofs-first” where settlers could move in quickly and fill in the walls themselves - a complete  transition from subsistence to cash employment.  In US private work in recent years he planned several small-town developments in Colorado – Log Hill, and Franktown. 

Now as a retiree, active in volunteer projects,  he has focused on low-cost durable roofing, the thin-shell latex-modified concrete system, designing and building it in mountain parks, urban parks, year-around camps, and pavilions. He worked with retired Engineer Albert  Knott on testing and applying this unique process, and they have published Latex Concrete Habitat – a Manual on Low Cost, Permanent Shelter for Needy Families Built Using Unskilled Labor.  ( Trafford Publishing Co., Canada, 2005 ).

JORDY OLESON

Jordy is currently the Marketing Coordinator for a Fort Collins, CO based nonprofit organization called Global Explorers. He recieved his B.S. in Business Administration: Marketing, along with a Spanish Minor and an International Business Certificate from Colorado State University. He became passionate about sustainable development after volunteering as a teacher for a 3/4 grade class at an environmentally-based ESL school in Costa Rica and spending time backpacking through the rest of Latin America.

KAT PECORARO

B.A. in Environmental Design: Architecture from University of Colorado at Boulder. M.A. in Architecture from University of Colorado at Denver Intern Architect, renovating homes in Black Hawk, CO at PEH Architects in Boulder, CO. Currently working in project management and design of FirstBanks at Davis Partnership Architects in Denver, CO. Became passionate about building capacity in her local community by assisting on participatory planning with the children, parents and staff for the Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in New Orleans, LA. Kat is the architectural lead for Birambye International and is focused on the triple bottom line in each design.

MARK T. PITTERLE

Stressing applications of ecological engineering, zero waste, waste-to-energy, and systems thinking, Mark has years of hands-on field and consulting experience in designing, construction, and installation of sustainable energy and water treatment systems. His efforts have always focused on quantification of life cycle performance impacts as a means to establish what technologies are most sustainable for a given region and population. He has led renewable hybrid ‘home-made’ windmill-solar energy installation projects in both India and Sri Lanka. Additionally, he hasled workshops in both the US and internationally, where he taught participants to make home-made reliable windmills. Targeting low-tech, locally made, self-sustaining technologies, he has been involved with the design/construction/installation of home-made greywater phyto-enhanced treatment systems, composting toilets, methane digesters, alcohol fuel stills, wood gasifiers, solar hot water heaters, and solar ovens/dehydrators, where 90+% of the materials were recycled. With Birambye, he seeks to integrate triple bottom line sustainability metrics with locally produced, self-sustaining technologies, through participatory workshops that walk community members through design, construction, and installation of renewable energy and water systems that meet their desired needs.

DICK RWAMUHINDA

Dick holds a bachelors' degree in Civil Engineering and Environmental Technology obtained from Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). He has held different positions in Rwandan Government as a civil engineer. He has worked for the City of Kigali, in charge of inspection for water, energy, and other urban infrastructure. Dick also was in charge of following up of the design and implementation of the city master plan. Dick worked with Mark Reiner on the infrastructure assessment for the Kigali, Rwanda Master Plan and also participated in the workshops that Mark conducted in Rwanda on low-cost housing materials, e.g. stabilized compressed earth blocks (SCEBs). Dick is currently working in the Ministry of Local Government as a central coordination unit civil engineer of a local development program for labor intensive infrastructure (HIMO). At HIMO, Dick oversees the design and implementation of engineering works of the program in the sectors of roads, water, buildings and other related infrastructure as well as evaluating the construction sector technical support needs from regions for the decentralized entities, community based organizations, private operators and other stakeholders of the sub-projects for actions.

DIDIER SAGASHYA

Mr Didier holds a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering and Environmental Technology from KIST (Rwanda), he recently finished a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. He has been working with the City of Kigali Council as a Director of General Inspection Unit before he was transferred to Eastern Province of Rwanda as a Director of Lands, Physical, Housing, Infrastructure and Environment Protection in Rwamagana District. As a Genocide Survivor, Didier has been involved in many activities for the Association of Students Genocide Survivors. For Birambye, Didier will provide his experience and advice in terms of community culture, especially Rwandan culture, and planning issues. He will also act as our liaison advisor in Rwanda.

DYLAN TERRELL

Dylan received a B.A. in English Literature and History from Indiana University. Over the last five years he has lived, worked, and volunteered extensively in Central and South America where his enthusiasm for sustainable development materialized. He is currently involved in initiating stabilized earth block workshops in Southern Mexico, and he looks forward to returning to school next year to pursue his M.A. in Sustainable Development and Political Ecology with a focus on Latin America.

CATE TOWNSLEY

Cate will graduate in May from the University of Colorado Denver where she is currently working towards masters degrees in Urban Planning and Urban Design.  Cate began her college education in at Creighton University studying art and philosophy and after a few years away from the academic world she graduated from Western Washington University in 2005 with a B.A in Fine Arts.  Cate attributes her interest in the developing world to her family and traveling. 

MIKE WHITAKER

Mike graduated with a PhD in Sustainable Urban Infrastructure Development from the University of Colorado at Denver Health Sciences Center, specializing in the quantitative analysis of the environmental impacts of projects and policies using life cycle assessment. Mike has joined with Mark Reiner and Mark Pitterle to form Symbiotic Engineering, LLC in order to engage companies and municipalities in an iterative process of "Defining Green" and strengthening claims of being "green" or "sustainable". Mike's focus with Birambye International is on developing and quantifying the metrics used to measure the social, environmental, and economic impacts of projects.