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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

Karen Setty

SCIENCE WRITER

Karen develops Aquaya’s written products, including project reports, research papers, briefs, proposals, and other communication pieces to ensure clarity and scientific quality. She helps to tailor accessible outputs for diverse partner organizations and audiences. In particular, Karen supports management of the Rural Evidence and Learning for Water (REAL-Water) project funded by USAID. She also conducts qualitative and mixed methods data analysis for various projects.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Karen’s consulting experience included support for the 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 also volunteered with Engineers Without Borders in 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.

Peace 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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Edinah Samuel

Research and Program Associate

Edinah supports the design, development, and management of Aquaya research programs to improve water, sanitation, and hygiene in development settings. Based in Kenya, she leads and coordinates literature reviews, quantitative and qualitative data collection, data management, analysis, and dissemination. One research project supports innovative solutions for water safety management in rural Uganda. Since joining Aquaya as an AquayaLEARN fellow in 2018, she has worked on projects focused on sanitation among pastoralists in Kenya, urban sanitation economics, willingness-to-pay for sanitation services, and fecal sludge market assessments.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Edinah represented Africa as an AGUASAN young water professional in Switzerland and served as a research fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology under the Eawag Partnership Program for Developing Countries. Her master’s thesis contributed to the Sustainability Transitions of Sanitation Regimes in Urban Africa project in Nairobi, Kenya. Her expertise includes strategic sanitation planning and economics, urban planning, multi-stakeholder engagement, and programming for basic service delivery and behavior change.

Edinah holds an MS in environmental planning and management from Kenyatta University and a BS in environmental science from Egerton 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fredrick Gudda | Affiliated Expert

WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE CONSULTANT

Gudda works on Aquaya’s Project W, supervising junior data editors and identifying and organizing water, sanitation, and hygiene data with a focus on developing countries. He also supports USAID’s project on risk assessment of environmental pathogen pathways among young children (under the age of two) in southeastern Madagascar. He joined Aquaya in 2021 as an AquayaLEARN fellow.

Before joining Aquaya, Gudda was a research fellow with the Sanitation Research Fund for Africa, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and South African Water Research Commission. There, he studied onsite sanitation system fill-up rates, user activities, design, and fecal sludge management in Nakuru, Kenya. He likewise worked for several years as an independent consultant with private organizations, academic institutions, and the Kenyan government on projects related to shared onsite sanitation systems, fecal sludge treatment and disposal, socioeconomic impacts of development activities, and public health policy. He held an adjunct teaching assistantship at Egerton University between 2015 and 2018 and has more than 10 publications.

Gudda is a PhD candidate in environmental chemistry, working on emerging environmental pollutant risk assessment and control at the Institute of Organic Contaminant Control and Soil Remediation, Nanjing Agricultural University, China. He holds a BS in environmental science and MS in environmental and occupational health from Egerton University.

Irene Atieno

Junior Data Editor

As one of Aquaya’s junior data editors, Irene focuses on collecting, organizing, and analyzing information about international water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) data. She contributes to development of the Project W data platform, while devising data enhancement methods.

Before joining Aquaya, 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 and outreach training, and blood drive coordination.

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

Faith Chepngeno

Junior Data Editor

As one of Aquaya’s junior data editors, Faith focuses on collecting, organizing, and analyzing information about international water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) data. She contributes to development of the Project W data platform, while devising data enhancement methods.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Faith worked as a research assistant with the Jassa Centre. She was involved in various research projects in education, WASH, healthcare, and mental health. Her expertise includes data collection, data analysis, literature review, and report writing.

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

Matteus Van Der Velden | Affiliated Expert

WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE CONSULTANT

Matteus coordinated an assessment looking into long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on water, sanitation, and hygiene access and behavior in multiple countries, as part of Aquaya’s WASHPals engagement funded by USAID. Since joining Aquaya in 2021, he has also served as an advisor for Project W.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Matteus worked for six years with the Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), initially as a senior program officer for the Global Sanitation Fund and later as the regional manager for Asia. At WSSCC, he oversaw development and implementation of a $35 million grant portfolio of sanitation and hygiene programs and coordinated technical support for sector systems strengthening and advocacy initiatives in a number of countries across Asia and Africa. Between 2005 and 2014, Matteus worked as a WASH Specialist for UNICEF in Mozambique and Nepal on the implementation of large WASH service-delivery and capacity-building programs. His prior work included a feasibility study on low-cost membrane filtration technology for household settings in Myanmar and various projects on natural resource management and rural development in Latin America.

Matteus holds an MS in environmental sciences and policy from Central European University and an MS in biology, with a focus on natural resources management, from Utrecht University.

Michal Usowicz | Affiliated Expert

WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE CONSULTANT

Michal supports Aquaya’s research on improving water safety management in Ghana. Under the Michal supports Aquaya’s research in Ghana and Madagascar. In Ghana, under the Hilton Foundation’s Monitoring for Safe Water program, he coordinates evaluation of innovative chlorination technologies to improve water quality in piped water systems serving rural communities. In Madagascar, he works on a study of pathogen pathways for rural children under two years of age

Prior to working with Aquaya, Michal spent five years working on engineering and WASH projects in sub-Saharan Africa, initially as a Peace Corps volunteer in Madagascar. He worked with a variety of non-governmental organizations in Madagascar on projects related to self-supply well pumps, water quality testing, groundwater treatment, and rural emergency transportation.

Michal holds an MS in environmental engineering with a concentration in engineering for international development from the University of South Florida and a BS in physics from Case Western Reserve University.

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.

Prince Antwi-Agyei | Affiliated Expert

Lecturer, University of Energy and Natural Resources

Prince began consulting with Aquaya in 2018, supporting sanitation studies in Ghana. He led the Ghana team investigating urban sanitation costs and low-income consumers’ willingness-to-pay in collaboration with Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor.

Prince is a lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (Sunyani, Ghana). His academic work focuses on fecal sludge management, solid waste engineering, health risk assessments, sanitation economics, wastewater management, and rural water supply. He is also a reviewer for several academic journals. Prince led the Quality Indicators of Shared Sanitation project and has served as a committee member for the Ghanian Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, helping to evaluate liquid waste management in the Accra and Tema metropolitan areas. His extensive professional experience spans numerous countries.

Prince holds a PhD in environmental sanitation and health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Valentina Zuin | Affiliated Expert

PROFESSOR, YALE-NUS COLLEGE

Valentina is interested in improving water and sanitation services for the urban poor. Her research and work experience cover institutional development, policy development, evaluation, and project management, with a particular focus on informal sector provision, water regulation, and institutional models of service delivery for the poor. She has been involved in redefinition of institutional arrangements in the water and sanitation sector in Mozambique.

Valentina is an academic collaborator with Aquaya and is currently also working as a Post-doctoral Fellow at Yale-NUS College in Singapore. Valentina has worked in Latin America (Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru), Sub-Saharan Africa (Mozambique, Angola, Benin, and Ghana), and South Asia (India). Valentina’s experience includes working with the Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank in Maputo, Mozambique, and as an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Ashoka University in New Delhi.

Valentina has a PhD from the Emmet Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources at Stanford University, a Master’s in International Development and Regional Planning from MIT, and an undergraduate degree in Public Management and International Relations from Bocconi University, in Italy.

Salim Haji | Affiliated Expert

PRINCIPAL, SIERRANNA PARTNERS

Salim is an independent management consultant who has worked with Aquaya on the business and economics of safe sanitation and fecal sludge management. 

Salim was previously the senior vice president of strategy at MacDermid, a ~$700 million global specialty chemical company in Denver, Colorado. He also served as a vice-president and partner at Oliver Wyman, a leading strategy consulting firm. In 2007, Salim founded Distributors Solutions LLC to serve as a co-op purchasing organization for the ~500 independently owned and operated distributors of MillerCoors brands around the United States. He likewise spent a year as a visiting Fulbright professor at a business school in Tanzania, where he lectured on corporate strategy and economics.

Salim holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BA in economics and development studies from Brown University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.