MEET THE TEAM!
by Sirua Aulo Water Project
Project Home Page
Eric Slaugh, P.E., Founder, Project Manager
Eric is a civil engineer who grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. After obtaining a degree in Chemical and Environmental Engineering from Clarkson University in 2015, Eric took a job with an engineering consulting firm in Buffalo, NY. Because of his love for adventure and outdoor recreation, Eric transferred within this company to Seattle, Washington in September 2018.
Eric's passion for providing clean water in Africa started during a backpacking trip where he visited several countries in southern Africa. During his adventures in the region, he was disheartened by the many interactions he had with local residents who lacked basic essentials that we in America take for granted. Such things as easily accessible clean water, reliable electricity, and quality education. Since that trip, he dreamed of leading a humanitarian project in this region of Africa. Due to a chance encounter while sitting on an airplane, he realized the skills he had developed from over 5 years of groundwater remediation projects could be used to make his dream a reality. As a professionally licensed civil engineer in the State of Washington, Eric felt it was the perfect time to partner with a local non-profit 501(c) organization in Seattle, Village Volunteers. Village Volunteers provided the perfect partnership for Eric because they have worked with the Maasai community in Kenya and a local leader Emmanuel for over 5 years. Together, Village Volunteers and Emmanuel established the Sirua Aulo Academy and Secondary School, sponsor students at the two schools, and empower women in the community. After talking with Emmanuel, Eric was convinced to start the Sirua Aulo Clean Water Project. Emmanuel demonstrated that the project would benefit over 3,000 people and that the funds raised would make it directly to the Maasai community.
Quinn Roesch, E.I.T., Lead Engineer
Quinn grew up playing in the trees, building forts out of moss and dead tree limbs and digging holes to China in the sandy beach. She spent her summers catching crayfish in the nearby stream and swimming in the then seemingly endless Lake Erie. Nature and all its beautiful gifts always played a compelling role in her life. Its what drew her to study environmental engineering at Sate University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF), with the hope that she could spend her career preserving the lands and running streams that curated the memories of my childhood and design a sustainable future for generations to come. Throughout her studies at SUNY ESF, she began to develop an understanding of the power clean water holds. A privilege she always had, but never acknowledged. Water has been a tool, used to power tools to grind and mill. It provides power, transportation, a critical resource with nearly no substitute. Since graduating college, Quinn has spent her career working to protect our environment. Through her work she has learned what is required to clean polluted water and that the real work lies within protecting our waters at the outset. Water should not be a privilege, it is a necessity, a human right. This is why Quinn has joined the Sirua Aulo Clean Water project team, because she believes that water should be readily available to all humans.
Quinn is a certified EIT with 4+ years of hands-on experience in environmental and civil engineering working on multi-disciplinary projects focused on site design, land restoration and remediation. She currently works for Studio A Landscape Architecture + Engineering, DPC where she focuses on hydrology & hydraulics, onsite wastewater treatment system design, site grading and stormwater management. She is excited to be a part of the Sirua Aulo Clean Water project and to be contributing towards the growth of the Sirua Aulo Academy.
Tom Heins, P.E., Engineering Support
Tom graduated from SUNY Buffalo. He received his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering 1984 and master's degree in Civil Engineering in 1990. Tom is a licensed professional engineer in the State of New York. He has 37 years of experience in projects involving water and ecosystem restoration. The Sirua Aulo Clean Water Project is most similar to a project Tom worked on for the New York State Office of General Services, where he designed a 500 gallon per minute well and pump to supply clean water to an existing prison. Tom looks forward to leveraging his engineering expertise to support his friends on this project!
Bob Nicol, P.E., Engineering and Geology Support, Kenyan Construction Specialist
Bob earned his undergraduate degree from Penn State University in 1972 and his master's degree from University of Houston in 1976. Both of his degrees are in Civil Engineering. Bob is a licensed professional engineer in the State of Texas. He has almost 50 years of experience working on water, wastewater, and environmental projects.
Bob visited the nearby Sirua Aulo Secondary School in 2016 to assist Emmanuel Leina Tasur with evaluating options for providing a submersible pump in the newly drilled water well there. To keep their operational costs down, and potential headaches that come with generated power (since there is no local power), he designed a solar pump system that worked on direct solar (DC) power, thereby eliminating expensive and maintenance-requiring batteries, as well. The system continues to work well, for the school and the community. Bob looks forward to using the lessons learned at the Sirua Aulo Secondary School and his almost 50 years of civil engineering expertise to provide guidance to the Clean Water Project at the Academy.
Bob volunteered to help with Clean Water Project for the opportunity to help Emmanuel, who he greatly admires for the amazing work he is doing – lovingly providing high quality education. But also, to have an opportunity to return to this beautiful part of Kenya, as needed, during the project design and development.
Other Team Members:
Emmanuel Leina Tasur - Maasai Community Leader, Academy Headmaster
Shana Greene - Village Volunteers Director
Kara Dunn - Village Volunteers Associate Director
Monika MacGuffie - Fundraising Support
Logan Montone - Fundraising Support
Julia Slusarz - Engineers Without Borders Project Coordinator
Rick Watt - Geology Support
Frank Willett - Construction and Implementation Support