Afua Ampomah

Program Officer

Afua leads activities in Ghana for the Hilton Africa Water Quality Testing program. She is responsible for executing all related program activities in Ghana. This includes overseeing water quality data collection and collaborating with the University of Ghana to develop a new Water Quality Testing Fellowship program that will train and support experienced water quality testing practitioners. She engages with key stakeholders, such as national and local government representatives.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Afua worked as an associate engineer at Desolenator BV in the Netherlands, where she developed environmental monitoring protocols, supported scientific papers, and prepared research and development reports to promote knowledge building among the team. She led all water quality, transport, and distribution tasks to ensure the best possible produced water quality. In addition, she led the certifications and compliance processes for the company.

Afua holds an MSc in urban water and sanitation with a specialization in water supply engineering from IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, Delft-Netherlands, and a BSc in environmental engineering from the University of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyani, Ghana.

Alicea Easthope-Frazer

Deputy Director of Operations

Alicea manages operational activities for the entire Aquaya team across six countries. She combines her international WASH operations and WASH research experience to support research and program staff. Her contributions to numerous studies and peer-reviewed papers uniquely position her to understand staff needs and support projects as they arise. In particular, she guides Aquaya’s fellowship program, AquayaLEARN, and data hub initiative, Project W. Alicea was previously based in Aquaya’s Kenya office, assisting with field research team management and technology support.

Prior to working for Aquaya, Alicea focused on chemical water quality in Southeast Asia for her master’s thesis, studying arsenic and other heavy metal levels in Cambodia and China. Her service in the Peace Corps in El Salvador fostered a passion for working with underserved populations.

Alicea holds an MS in environmental earth system science from Stanford University and a BA in environmental chemistry from Skidmore College. Alicea is a fluent Spanish speaker.

Allan Mutegeki

Program Assistant

Allan oversees implementation of the Monitoring for Safe Water II program activities in Kabarole District, Uganda. Allan coordinates fieldwork and data collection, which supports Aquaya’s research aimed at improving the financial health of rural water systems. This involves evaluating Village Savings and Loans Associations as a mechanism for pooling and managing community funds to support water safety management.

Prior to joining Aquaya in 2020, Allan worked as a loans officer at Hofokam Limited, a Ugandan microfinance institution, where he focused on group lending. There, he established and supported village banks in managing loans and operating micro-credit schemes.

Allan holds a BS in quantitative economics from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, as well as a certificate in data management and statistical analysis from Uganda’s Center for Action and Applied Research for Development.

Anna Murray

Senior Research Manager

Anna manages the Hilton Africa Water Quality Testing Program, which aims to: 1) establish water quality monitoring programs in focal districts in Ghana, Uganda, and Ethiopia; and 2) develop student fellowship programs with local universities to train and support experienced water quality testing practitioners.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Anna was a senior monitoring and evaluation manager at charity: water, which funds more than 40 WASH programs across more than 20 countries. There, she established and implemented a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation framework for all grantees. Her doctoral research focused on evaluation and regulation of household water treatment technologies, including field evaluations, laboratory studies, and policy work. Anna has coordinated research and trained data collection teams across sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Earlier in her career, she worked as a mechanical engineer, designing rural water supply systems in Nicaragua and working in the building services industry in the US.

Anna holds a PhD in environmental engineering from Tufts University, and MEng and BS degrees in mechanical engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Bashiru Yachori

Program Officer

Bashiru coordinates Aquaya’s research programs on expanding safe, equitable, and sustainable water access in rural Ghana, and develops research protocols and data collection tools. Under the REAL-Water project sponsored by USAID, he leads expansion of the Water Quality Assurance Fund program, which provides a financial mechanism for existing water quality laboratories to process samples from smaller water systems. He also provides advice on the program’s introduction in East Africa. Under the Monitoring for Safe Water project, he coordinates evaluation of innovative chlorination technologies to improve water quality in rural communities. 

Bashiru has seven years of experience in water, sanitation, and nutrition, collaborating with development partners and local government agencies in Ghana. Prior to joining Aquaya, he was a WASH development planning officer. His expertise includes monitoring and evaluation, statistics, planning, and management. 

Bashiru holds an MPhil degree in development planning and management and a BA in integrated community development from the University for Development Studies, Ghana.

Caroline Delaire

Director of Research and Programs

Caroline leads the growing research & programs team at Aquaya, composed of about ten staff members based in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and the United States. She is responsible for ensuring the quality of research deliverables across the organization and for overseeing staffing, timelines, and budgets. She joined Aquaya in 2016, working for two years from the Nairobi, Kenya, office before returning to Europe.

Caroline has experience conducting applied research in the water and sanitation sector in sub-Saharan Africa, India, and Haiti. Her doctoral research focused on a low-cost technology to remediate arsenic and microbiological contamination from groundwater. It also analyzed drivers of water consumption behaviors in arsenic-affected communities of West Bengal, India. She has published 20 peer-reviewed manuscripts in a range of disciplines including engineering, data science, social sciences, and economics.

Caroline has a PhD and MS in civil and environmental engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and an engineering diploma (BS and MS level) from the Ecole Polytechnique in France. She is a native French speaker. 

Chloé Poulin

Senior Research and Program Manager

Chloé focuses on building Aquaya’s research programs related to water quality modeling and data science. She has expertise in surface and groundwater resources management, as well as water quality under different environmental contexts, including arid, semi-arid, and tropical regions. Based in Kenya, Chloé has been leading projects to develop groundwater microbial quality predictive models in Uganda and an AI-based model to predict poor households’ eligibility to receive water subsidies in rural Ghana.

For her doctoral research, Chloé worked on modeling surface and groundwater fluxes in the Chad Basin using different geochemical tools. She also assessed historical and current groundwater recharge and the impact of climate change on water resources.

Chloé has a PhD in environmental sciences from Aix-Marseille University, a master’s degree in hydrogeology, and a bachelor’s degree in geosciences from the University of Montpellier, France. She is a native French speaker.

Daniel Kwaah

Program Assistant

Daniel oversees and supports the implementation of the Monitoring for Safe Water II program activities and the Hilton Africa Water Quality Testing program in Asutifi North District, Ghana. He coordinates logistics, fieldwork, data collection, and laboratory activities that support Aquaya’s research aimed at improving WASH and developing a new Water Quality Testing Fellowship program at the district level and for the country at large.

Prior to joining Aquaya in 2020, Daniel served in roles such as health, safety, and environment officer and site supervisor/engineer at various construction and mining sites. His areas of expertise include research, the built environment, environmental monitoring, auditing and reporting, environmental management, water and wastewater treatment, and infrastructure.

Daniel holds an MSc in environmental engineering management from the University of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyani-Ghana, a Ghana Minerals Commission Competency Certificate in Health, Safety and Environment, and a BTech in Building Technology and BSc in Petroleum Engineering, both from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.

Dayna Hansberger

Senior Program and Operations Manager, REAL-Water

Dayna manages the administration and activities under the Rural Evidence and Learning for Water (REAL-Water) project, including field research in Ghana, India, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. REAL-Water strives to improve the evidence base for policies and interventions that increase access to safe, affordable, and sustainable rural water services in low- and middle-income countries. It is supported by a 5-year, $19 million USAID grant from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Prior to Aquaya, Dayna served as the project manager for a USAID project focused on improving organizational development, professional development, knowledge management, and communications across the USAID Development, Democracy, and Innovation Bureau. She brings extensive project management expertise from contract management for the USAID Bureau for Global Health’s Global Health Professional & Organizational Development Project, as well as  managing operations and global programming for a gray water technology startup company. Dayna’s areas of technical experience and global health research include COVID-19 testing and vaccine access, human-centered design for sustainable development, and improving access to water, sanitation, and hygiene in East Africa and South America.

Dayna holds an MPH from the George Washington University, an MA in Global Studies from the University of Oregon, and BAs in International Development and Economics from American University.

Edward Dotherow

Research Manager

Edward supports Aquaya by managing the development and implementation of research projects. Based in Ghana, his ongoing research projects evaluate 1) water safety plans, 2) open-defecation free sustainability, and 3) the impact of targeted water subsidies.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Edward served as a postdoctoral research associate in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona. There, he studied state policies on the use of household water treatment systems to meet federal drinking water standards. His doctoral research focused on domestic well water testing and the use of household water treatment systems in rural agricultural communities.

Edward holds a DrPH in community health behavior and education from Georgia Southern University, as well as MPA and BS degrees in business administration from Auburn University Montgomery.

Faith Chepngeno

Program Assistant

Faith supports Aquaya’s programs with a focus on collecting, organizing, and analyzing international water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) data, mapping, and literature reviews. She contributes to development of the Project W data platform, while devising data enhancement methods.

Prior to joining Aquaya in 2021, Faith worked as a research assistant with the Jassa Centre. She took part in numerous research initiatives in the fields of education, WASH, healthcare, and mental health. Her areas of expertise include report writing, literature reviews, and data collection and analysis.

Faith holds a BS in statistics and programming and a certificate in leadership from Kenyatta University.

Gilbert Kiprop

Senior Accountant

Gilbert manages billing for Aquaya’s projects. He assists in maintaining financial records and reports, performing account reconciliations, assisting with budget and close-out processes, and maintaining accounts payable documentation.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Gilbert was a finance lead at Access Afya, a social enterprise delivering affordable and effective primary healthcare to low-income markets in Kenya. He was responsible for managing company finance and accounting operations, including budgeting, financial reporting, and statutory compliance. Previously, he worked at GEMS Cambridge International School in Nairobi and Kenya’s Bridge International Academies, where he supported finance and accounting operations.

Gilbert holds a BCom in accounting from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. He is a certified public accountant and a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya.

Haleemah Qureshi

Program Manager

Based in Kenya, Haleemah manages Aquaya’s research for USAID’s Urban Resilience by Building partnerships and Applying New evidence in WASH (URBAN WASH) program. Led by Tetra Tech, URBAN WASH focuses on sustainable and equitable WASH policy and programming in urban and peri-urban areas. Her work includes case evaluations and pilot intervention studies with local partner organizations, particularly around pro-poor WASH subsidies and improvements to water safety among small-scale providers. 

Haleemah’s prior work spanned the public and private sectors. She has managed the design and delivery of infrastructure projects and evaluated systems that create enabling environments for improvements to water and sanitation access. Prior to joining Aquaya, Haleemah managed water and sewer capital planning improvements for a city government in the US. Her master’s thesis investigated the crisis of water affordability in Baltimore, Maryland, through a financial and operational analysis of the city’s public utility and an evaluation of resulting policies that excluded or harmed residents who were unable to pay.  

Haleemah holds a master’s degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BSc in civil and environmental engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. 

Hellen Wangari Ndung’u

Staff Accountant

Hellen supports all accounting activities in Aquaya’s Nairobi, Kenya, office, including preparation, entry, and management of bills, checks, invoices, and advances. She also assists in ensuring timely preparation of financial reports.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Hellen was the audit manager for Davella LLP, a firm of accountants and business consultants. She was involved in project, financial, and operational audits. She also worked as a project accountant for Kurrent Technologies, a consulting company specializing in the energy sector. There, she provided accounting services for multiple projects.

Hellen holds a BComm (specialized in finance) from Kenyatta University in Nairobi and is a certified public accountant and a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya.

Irene Atieno

Program Assistant

Irene supports multiple Aquaya research programs. She contributes to Project W by collecting, organizing, and analyzing international water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) data. She performs data collection and literature management for large rural and urban WASH projects, and conducts field work for targeted low-income area mapping in Kenya.

Before joining Aquaya in 2021, Irene volunteered with the Kenya Red Cross Society, a humanitarian agency that focuses on alleviating human suffering and saving lives. There, she focused on empowering and sensitizing communities in urban slums in Nairobi. She participated in projects on community-led total sanitation, WASH beneficiary data entry, community education, outreach training, and blood drive coordination.

Irene holds a BS in population health and a certificate in leadership and project management from Kenyatta University.

Jeff Albert

Deputy Project Director, REAL-Water

Jeff co-leads the Rural Evidence and Learning for Water (REAL-Water) program, a 5-year, $19 million grant to Aquaya from the US Agency for International Development (USAID). REAL-Water strives to improve the evidence base for policies and interventions that will increase access to safe, affordable, and sustainable rural water services across the developing world. He previously led efforts on the USAID-funded Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Partnerships for Learning and Sustainability (WASHPaLS) project, overseeing the design and execution of Aquaya’s research outputs and coordination with partners. 

Jeff has extensive research experience spanning water, sanitation, and hygiene service delivery and water resources management. Prior to co-founding Aquaya with Ranjiv Khush in 2005, he was a science and technology policy fellow (sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science) at the United States Environmental Protection Agency. He held joint appointments as a lecturer in the Geological Sciences and Environmental Studies departments at Brown University between 2002 and 2004.

Jeff holds PhD and MS degrees from Yale University and a BA from Brown University.

Jessica Tribbe

Senior Manager, Strategic Partnerships and Programs

Jessica manages Aquaya’s implementation research activities, with a focus on rural sanitation and behavior change. She manages Aquaya’s activities under USAID’s Rural Evidence and Learning for Water (REAL-Water) project and previously managed activities under USAID’s Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Partnerships for Learning and Sustainability (WASHPaLS) project. Under WASHPaLS, she led a qualitative study on the sustainability of community-led total sanitation programs in Cambodia and Ghana, and a qualitative analysis of sanitation in Kenya’s pastoralist communities. Jessica also manages development of the Sanitation Planning (SanPlan) Tool. This web application supports sanitation practitioners in designing and executing sanitation programs by exploring highly localized, contextual spatial data.

Jessica brings extensive experience in research and evaluation, technology innovation for low-resource settings, and project design and management. Prior to Aquaya, she served as WASH Innovation Specialist for UNICEF, where she managed a portfolio of emerging technologies, including products to improve water quality monitoring and emergency sanitation for people with disabilities. Jessica has also worked on national political campaigns in the United States, women’s rights in urban India, mobile healthcare in rural India, and systems strengthening for Malawi’s agriculture sector.

Jessica has an MPA from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) and a BA in diplomacy and foreign affairs from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

John Orapa

Finance Manager

John manages all of Aquaya’s finances, encompassing budgeting, accounting, financial reporting, financial analysis, and compliance.

Prior to joining Aquaya, John was a Financial Trainer with Africa (YES) Young Entrepreneurs Support, training social entrepreneurs in setting up sound financial systems. He has worked as a finance professional in various organizations in different roles and has also worked as a Consultant with several donor-funded projects including USAID and DSW. John contributes articles to The Accountant Journal of Kenya on corporate governance and other emerging issues in the financial sector.

John is a Certified Public Accountant of Kenya and a member of The Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya. He holds a Bachelor of Science in International Business Administration from the United States International University (Africa).

John Trimmer

Deputy Director of Research

John develops Aquaya’s research programs on sanitation markets, economics, and outcomes in urban and rural areas. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, he oversees research on enabling environments for safe and sustainable urban water and sanitation service provision, economics for container-based sanitation in Kenya, pathogen exposure pathways affecting young children in Madagascar, and financially sustainable rural water and sanitation service provision in Ghana. 

Previously, John was a postdoctoral research associate and doctoral student within the Energy-Water-Environment Sustainability Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. There, he studied the global sustainability and suitability of resource recovery from sanitation chains, working within an interdisciplinary engineering, economics, agriculture, and social-ecological systems perspective. In particular, he focused on resource-limited contexts such as informal settlements in Kampala, Uganda. John also worked in Uganda for three years as a Peace Corps volunteer, helping to develop water, sanitation, and school infrastructure programs with Brick by Brick Uganda.

John holds a PhD in environmental engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an MS in environmental engineering from the University of South Florida, and a BS in civil and environmental engineering from Bucknell University.

Joyce Kisiangani

Research and Program Manager

Joyce coordinates and oversees quantitative and qualitative data collection, data analysis, and partner engagement for research projects across sub-Saharan Africa. She also supports Aquaya’s implementing partners as they apply evidence-based findings into their programming. Joyce currently manages research on targeted pro-poor sanitation interventions, sanitation economics, and safe water management in Ghana. Joyce joined Aquaya in 2014 as an AquayaLEARN Fellow in Nairobi, Kenya.

Joyce has several years of experience in water, sanitation, and health research. Previously, she was a research fellow with the School for Field Studies and Boston University, where she studied health impacts of the Kenya Community Health Strategy. She also worked as a researcher under Funzo Kenya, a USAID-funded program.

Joyce holds an MPH concentrated in epidemiology and disease control and a BS in microbiology, both from Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya.

Julia Borovinskiy

Grant Accountant

Julia manages the financial grant reporting compliance and monitoring of subrecipients for the Rural Evidence and Learning for Water (REAL-Water) project funded by USAID. 

Prior to working for Aquaya, Julia was a financial analyst at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, Minnesota. She was responsible for US Office of Management and Budget Uniform Guidance and grant reporting compliance, subrecipient monitoring of grant contracts, and audits. She also prepared and distributed financial reports for several sponsors. 

Julia has a BBA in finance from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She is a native Russian speaker.

Kara Stuart

Senior Technical Manager

Kara supports Aquaya’s projects by managing research programs, leading quantitative data analysis activities, and developing interactive data visualizations and web applications. Based in Kenya, she aids decision-makers in designing and planning sanitation programs. Her work includes cost-benefit modeling, technology evaluation, and poverty mapping.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Kara was a projects and membership manager with the Coalition for Urban Rural Environmental Stewardship and the Central Coast Groundwater Coalition. She worked on various projects to monitor and improve drinking water quality on irrigated lands in California and to facilitate growers’ compliance with the requirements of the California Regional Water Quality Control Boards. Her master’s research dealt with high-solids anaerobic digestion and life-cycle analysis of an innovative system for ammonium recovery from urine.

Kara holds an MS in civil and environmental engineering from the University of California, Davis and a BA in earth science and environmental studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Karen Setty

Senior Manager, Research Translation

Karen works with diverse partner organizations and audiences to bolster the practical applications of evidence produced by Aquaya. She oversees development of Aquaya’s resource library and written products, including project reports, research papers, briefs, proposals, and other communication pieces to ensure clarity and scientific quality. Karen primarily supports management of the Rural Evidence and Learning for Water (REAL-Water) project funded by USAID. She also advises on quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research methodology for various projects.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Karen’s consulting experience included support for the US Environmental Protection Agency, National Toxicology Program, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She worked for several years as a science writer for the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project. Her doctoral research evaluated drinking water safety plans (a risk management approach) for European water suppliers, while her master’s project advanced water management programs in a peri-urban community in Chiapas, Mexico. She volunteered with Engineers Without Borders in rural Peru and has authored more than 15 peer-reviewed publications.

Karen holds a PhD from the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a MESM specialized in water resources management from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a BS in environmental biology from the University of Dayton.

Katherine Marshall

Research and Program Manager

Katherine manages Aquaya’s water safety management research programs in Uganda. She supports development and implementation of action-research projects, with a focus on innovative approaches to achieve universal, safe, sustainable water supply coverage. Her ongoing research projects evaluate 1) novel chlorination technologies to improve water safety and 2) innovative approaches to improve the financial viability of rural water points.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Katherine worked on water supply projects focused on groundwater development and point source infrastructure. As a Peace Corps volunteer, she helped to assess and improve water supply access in urban and rural communities of northern Uganda.

Katherine has an MS in engineering science (concentrated on environmental engineering) from the University of South Florida and a BS in geology from the College of Charleston.

Lara Egbeola-Martial

Research Manager

Lara manages a project for Aquaya focused on urban domestic water services in Ghana. It is sponsored under the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Urban Resilience by Building partnerships and Applying New evidence in WASH (URBAN WASH) program, led by Tetra Tech. Based in Ghana, her work involves needs assessments as well as design and implementation of pilot interventions to improve water supply quality, reliability, equity, and non-revenue water management (to maximize water conservation and cost recovery) among urban water suppliers.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Lara was a consulting engineer and project manager, supporting a range of small to large water and wastewater utilities in California. Her work involved improving water supply resilience and operations reliability, strengthening long-term strategic planning, planning and implementing system improvements, achieving regulatory compliance, and supporting high-quality service delivery.

Lara holds an MSc in civil and environmental engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BEng in civil engineering from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Lisa Appovou

Program Officer

Lisa oversees water quality data collection, coordinates fieldwork logistics, and conducts data analysis for several Aquaya projects. Under the REAL-Water project funded by USAID, she works on strengthening water quality monitoring and water treatment protocols in rural areas of East Africa by expanding Assurance Funds, a financial tool allowing existing water quality laboratories to analyze water samples from small water systems. Under the URBAN WASH program funded by USAID, she implements research to progress sustainable, equitable, and climate-resilient water, sanitation, hygiene, and water resources management in urban and peri-urban areas.

Previously, Lisa served as an intern at Aquaya, working on a new chlorination technology to improve drinking water safety in rural Uganda. She later completed her master’s thesis on the same topic, evaluating the performance of several low-tech passive chlorinators in rural Kenya with the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag).

Lisa holds an MSc and BSc in environmental sciences and engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne. She is a native Italian speaker and also speaks English, French, and German.

Meseret Dessalegne

Senior Program Officer

Meseret leads activities in Ethiopia for the Hilton Africa Water Quality Testing program. She is responsible for overseeing water quality data collection and collaborating with Bahir Dar University to develop a new Water Quality Testing Fellowship program.

Meseret has experience in university-level teaching and water-related research projects. Her doctoral work focused on synthesis, characterization, and testing of aluminum-based adsorbents for fluoride removal from drinking water. Part of this research took place at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), where she served as a Partnership Program for Developing Countries (EPP) fellow. She also served as a post-doctoral researcher on a collaborative research project entitled Water Infrastructure for Schistosomiasis-Endemic Regions (WISER) funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Meseret holds a PhD in water and health specializing in water and wastewater treatment from Addis Ababa University, as well as an MS in environmental science. She has her BSc in applied chemistry from University of Gondar.

Miles Schelling

Research Officer

Miles coordinates  development and implementation of research projects at Aquaya. Based in Ghana, his research for USAID’s Urban Resilience by Building Partnerships and Applying New Evidence in Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (URBAN WASH) program examines targeted subsidies for improving water and sanitation access among the urban poor.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Miles worked on rural water quality in South India as an InterExchange Foundation Christianson Fellow. His master’s thesis focused on designing and implementing a water filtration system called “induced bank filtration” in a rural village in Karnataka. This system relies on locally available resources to remove contaminants from drinking water using natural processes.

Miles holds an MS in environmental and earth sciences from the University of Rhode Island and a BS in mathematics from Bates College in Maine, USA.

Monicah Ngima

OPERATIONS ASSISTANT

Monicah supports operational activities for the Aquaya team. She combines her operational, projects, and information technology (IT) experience to provide staff support, focusing on IT, data security, program support, and organizational policies.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Monicah worked in the private, government, and humanitarian sectors in Kenya, focusing on IT, project and process implementation, and customer experience support. Her most recent assignment was at American International Group (AIG) Kenya Insurance Company Limited, where she served as a program coordinator handling systems and IT project implementation as well as contact center management.

Monicah holds a BSc in business and information technology from Strathmore University in Nairobi. She is undertaking an MSc in monitoring and evaluation at Daystar University.

Peace Liz Sasha Musonge

Program Manager

Peace manages REAL-Water projects in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. She has international experience working at the water, science, and technology nexus in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America, especially with freshwater ecosystems. She worked on research biomonitoring projects in the Mekong River in Vietnam, the Nile River in Uganda, and the Guayas River basin in Ecuador.

During her doctoral research, Peace examined the ecological status of major rivers of the Rwenzori Mountains. This led to development of the first Ugandan biotic index for evaluating nutrient enrichment in Rwenzori rivers, using an economic metric called the Rwenzori Score. She has published ten peer-reviewed articles.

Peace holds a PhD in bioscience engineering from Ghent University, an MS in technology for integrated water management from Antwerp University, and a BS in food science and technology from Makerere University.

Peter Ongalo

Communications Assistant

Peter supports communication and dissemination efforts that make Aquaya’s research more accessible. He helps to share Aquaya’s high-level outputs with international stakeholders and enhance analyses by developing user-friendly visuals. Peter supports Aquaya’s brand awareness through social media management, playing a key role in maintaining Aquaya’s online presence.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Peter specialized in digital communications, with experience in both the private and public sectors. His previous work included marketing and communication efforts for corporate organizations, social enterprises, research programs, parastatals, and government entities. Most recently, he was a social media executive at Securex Agencies (Kenya) Limited, leading digital marketing strategies while enforcing communications policies. He also served as a team leader for a practical skills project during his studies, which showcased how the Kisumu Water and Sanitation Company has adopted different models and approaches to improving water, sanitation, and hygiene in low-income settlements in Kisumu County, Kenya.

Peter has a BA in communication and media technology with information technology from Maseno University, Kenya, where he specialized in public relations.

Rachel Peletz

Executive Director

Rachel oversees Aquaya’s strategic direction, sustainable growth, and execution of its mission to build the evidence base for water, sanitation, and hygiene development. She joined Aquaya in 2012 and led the team in Nairobi, Kenya, for five years before returning to the United States. She has extensive water and sanitation experience, having collaborated with partners from more than 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Rachel was a research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an international technical advisor for the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology in Canada. Her doctoral research included a randomized, controlled trial of a safe water intervention to evaluate health impacts on young children born to HIV-positive mothers in Zambia. With more than 30 peer-reviewed publications, she brings an interdisciplinary research approach that combines engineering, public health, nutrition, microbiology, and economics.

Rachel holds a PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, an MEng from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BS in environmental engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ranjiv Khush

Project Director, REAL-Water

Ranjiv is the Project Director of the Rural Evidence and Learning for Water (REAL-Water) program. REAL-Water strives to improve the evidence base for policies and interventions that increase access to safe, affordable, and sustainable rural water services across the developing world. It is supported by a 5-year, $19 million grant to Aquaya from the US Agency for International Development (USAID). REAL-Water partners from the United States, Africa, India, and Europe will conduct field research in Ghana, India, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. 

Ranjiv co-founded Aquaya in 2005 following a fellowship with the Office of the Science and Technology Advisor to the United States Secretary of State. He served as Aquaya’s Executive Director from 2009–2021. Previously, he worked as a research scientist at Stanford University in California and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris, France. 

Ranjiv holds a PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an MS and BS from the University of California, Davis.

Rawlings Akamanya

Program Officer

Rawlings leads activities associated with the Hilton Water Quality Testing Fellowship Program in Uganda to inform better decision-making for drinking water supply. As a program officer, his duties include: overseeing water quality data collection and analysis, ensuring that data quality is assured and controlled, working with Makerere University to develop local capacity in water quality testing, and engaging local governments and ministries on dissemination of results. 

Prior to joining Aquaya, Rawlings worked as an engineer and program support lead at Acts for Water, a Canadian water, sanitation, and hygiene implementing organization in southwestern Uganda. His scope of work ranged from designing gravity flow schemes to serving on the senior leadership team to offering strategic direction, program design, and management, including monitoring and evaluation. 

Rawlings is currently pursuing an MSc in water management for development at the Water Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC), Loughborough University, UK. He holds a master’s degree in project management for international development and humanitarian aid from the Social Change School in Spain and a BSc in Civil Engineering from Makerere University, Uganda.

Rose Onyango

Operations Assistant

Rose supports Aquaya’s administration and operational matters from Nairobi, Kenya. This includes human resources, technology, recruitment, immigration, procurement, and compliance activities.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Rose worked in both the nonprofit and private sectors for several years, focusing on administration and operations. Most recently, she worked at Canaan Group of Companies as an executive assistant, where she provided executive administrative support; managed staff immigration matters, recruitment, and onboarding; and developed and implemented human resources policies.

Rose holds a BA in psychology and communication from the University of Nairobi, Kenya.

Tari Lewis

CONTROLLER

Tari oversees financial plans, policies, and reporting, as well as human resources and treasury management.

Prior to working for Aquaya, Tari was the chief financial officer of the National Police Foundation in Washington, DC. She also worked for a top accounting firm, consulting with for-profit and nonprofit organizations on tax research, reporting, and transaction planning. There, she led numerous training sessions in the area of nonprofit taxation, as well as publications such as tax newsletters, articles, and IRS private letter rulings. Her interests include disruptive and innovative technologies for finance, enterprise, and social use cases.

Tari is a certified public accountant and has a BS degree from The Ohio State University.

Valerie Bauza

Senior Research Manager

Valerie manages the Enhancing Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (E-WASH) baseline project and the water safety plan evaluation research study for REAL-Water. Both projects are funded by USAID and being conducted in partnership with other organizations in rural Ghana. She also contributes to study design and research activities on other projects.

Valerie has experience working on water and sanitation projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the United States. Prior to joining Aquaya, she was a researcher at the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a postdoctoral fellow in environmental health at Emory University, and a water/wastewater engineer at AECOM. Her research has spanned a wide range of WASH topics, including water quality, child-focused sanitation, WASH and health, fecal contamination exposure and transmission pathways, solid waste management, and sustainable service delivery for WASH in low- and middle-income countries.

Valerie earned a PhD in environmental engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an MS in environmental engineering from Stanford University, and a BS in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Vanessa Guenther

COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

Vanessa leads communication and dissemination efforts to make Aquaya’s research more accessible. She shares Aquaya’s high-level outputs with international stakeholders and enhances analyses by developing user-friendly visuals. Vanessa builds Aquaya’s brand awareness through website and social media management and search engine optimization. For the Rural Evidence and Learning for Water (REAL-Water) project, she coordinates communication outputs between consortium members and USAID. Vanessa also supports Aquaya’s data initiative, Project W, overseeing data categorization and design of the online platform.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Vanessa was a Duke University Global Policy Fellow with international work experience (e.g., Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland). Her marketing experience ranges from American professional soccer clubs to small startup businesses. Vanessa’s master’s project analyzed the impacts of air quality on diabetes risk in California.

Vanessa has a MESM from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a BA in strategic communication from the Hubbard School of Journalism at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Vanessa is a native German speaker.

Bessy Ewoenam Odame-Boafo | Affiliated Expert

WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE CONSULTANT

Bessy provides high-level support to research program activities for the Enhancing Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (E-WASH) baseline in Ghana, using a mixed-methods approach. She oversees both qualitative and quantitative data collection, while conducting quality control checks. Sponsored by USAID, this work aims to increase access to sustainable WASH services in districts across six regions of Ghana.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Bessy worked as a WASH Advisor for the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV)  and as an independent consultant for IMC Worldwide (UK), Water & Sanitation for Urban Poor (WSUP), UNICEF, and HOPin Academy. She led work on WASH governance and behavior change to ensure scalable and sustainable sanitation and hygiene service delivery. Bessy additionally led or supported baseline, midline, and endline surveys and other evaluations.

Bessy holds an MSc in water and environmental management from the Water, Engineering and Development Centre at Loughborough University (UK), where she serves on the Alumni Advisory Board. She also holds a BSc in Natural Resources Management from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana, with a specialization in water and fisheries management.

Tom Mahin | Affiliated Expert

WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE CONSULTANT

Working with Aquaya and the World Health Organization, Tom has led an evaluation of national drinking water regulatory programs in Bhutan and Indonesia. Tom has also supported Aquaya’s work in evaluating chlorination systems in rural Ghana.

Tom worked for many years as an environmental engineer at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, including as regional drinking water section chief. In addition to drinking water, water pollution, and solid waste projects, his experience includes:

• Emergency WASH responses in Haiti, Nepal, and Zimbabwe (with Oxfam); 
• Arsenic filter research in Bangladesh and Cambodia (with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology); 
• HIV/WASH training in Zambia, Ethiopia, and Nepal (with the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology); 
• Evaluation of a USAID-funded multi-year private-public project in Mozambique (with Catholic Relief Services); and 
• Supervision of UNICEF-funded rural drinking water system construction in Nepal. 

Tom holds a BS in environmental engineering/engineering science from the University of Texas at Austin and a graduate certificate in global nutrition programming from Tufts University.