About our Organization
Engineering:
President: Mark Reiner, PhD, PE, PG, LEED AP, Civil Engineering
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.
Treasurer: Stephen Fisher, PE, Civil Engineering
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.
Al Knott, PhD, Structural Engineering
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.
Mark Pitterle, PhD, Ecologic Engineering 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.
Didier Sagashya, Engineer/Planner, GSSA Liaison and Rwanda Liaison
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.
Dick Rwamuhinda, Engineer/Governmental Planning, Rwanda Liaison
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.
Architecture:
Kat Pecoraro, Architecture
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.
Steve Eagleburger, Builder/Architecture/Engineering, earth block construction/thin-shelled
concrete
Five years ago Steve and his wife, Tracey, built the first compressed earth block house in Denver, CO. Since then he has chosen a path of sustainable building and design in residential structures. Steve is now a general contractor/design builder specializing in passive solar earthen homes. He enjoys the experimental side of green building and using materials in innovative ways. When the opportunity presented itself to provide the space and to help build a prototype structure for Birambye International he jumped in whole-heartedly. The idea of dedicating oneself to sustainable and economically feasible development for communities in need is exactly the direction Steve wants to go with his business and his life.
Planning:
George Nez, PhD, sustainable engineering for communities, thin-shell Concrete
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 ).
Craig Johnson, Board Member, Sustainable Planning
Cate Townley, Board Member, Sustainable Planning
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.
Cultural:
Jordy Oleson, Board Member, Educational Tourism
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.
Dylan Terrell, Cultural Planning
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.
Laurie Manderino, Board Member
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.
George Terrell, Board Member, Legal Advisor
