On the Road to Dakar, Recruiting the Voices of Youth for the World Water Forum

Nalat Phanit Black is the Sustainable Development Goals Director at the United Nations Association of USA, Atlanta Chapter. She was the Chapter’s President (2015-2017) and has been a member of the UNA network for over ten years. Nalat has over a decade of nonprofit leadership and project management experience, working in communications, nuclear nonproliferation, human rights, and environmental sustainability. She believes that when human development and the natural environment work in harmony, basic human needs would be met by all, lessening the potential for human rights violations, and creating a more peaceful world. She was featured in VoyageATL Hidden Gems in April 2020 for her work with UNA-Atlanta. Nalat holds a Master of Environmental Studies degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Business Administration in marketing from City University of New York: Baruch College and Macaulay Honors College.

Dr. Arun Deb has more than 60 years’ experience in teaching, research and consultancy in water and wastewater management. During the last 30 years, while working for Weston Solutions, Inc., Dr.  Deb started his volunteering activities with a goal to help poor people of developing countries in providing them safe drinking water and good sanitation. Many of those projects tie into volunteer activities for Water For People (WFP). In the early 1990s, Deb initiated WFP projects to bring safe drinking water to about 10 schools with nearly 1,000 students each. Deb, who has served two terms on the Water For People board, is the man behind the project in India to remove arsenic from drinking water. Deb spends several months each year in Kolkata, India. During the last twenty years, he initiated and completed sustainable Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects in about 50 schools in West Bengal.

Arun Deb demonstrated his passion for delivering safe drinking water and improving the quality of life. At present, as a Board Member of GWA, Dr. Deb is involved in a safe drinking water supply project for many schools in West Bengal and involved in improving education and health of students. 

Christa received a bachelors degree in civil engineering from Louisiana State University. After working as a civil engineer in the private sector then joining the Peace Corps in Peru, she went on to complete her a masters degree in sustainable engineering from Villanova. She later co-founded Solidarity Engineering, an humanitarian NGO focused on applying community-driven engineering projects in emergency and displacement settings. Christa has focused her career on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and the integration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and drone technology into WASH work. 

Linda Bui is currently a Government Relations Specialist with the Council of Ontario Universities in Toronto, Canada, on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples. Active in global and local sustainability issues, Linda served as a North American representative at the World Youth Parliament for Water from 2014-2018, a youth network advocating for young people’s participation in the water sector globally, and on the leadership team at the North American Youth Parliament for Water. During her tenure, she was a selected youth delegate to attend the World Water Forum (2015) in South Korea and World Water Week (2017) in Stockholm. Linda has also served on her local municipality, the City of Brampton’s Environmental Advisory Committee and the Grow Green Network, advising local council on environmental planning policy and sustainability initiatives of strategic importance. She continues to volunteer to share advice to younger youth as an alumnus ‘Trailblazer’ with her local watershed conservation authority, the Credit Valley Conservation. Linda holds a B.A. in International Development Studies from the University of Toronto Scarborough specializing in gender, health, and public policy.

Jordan Ermilio has been directly involved with the engineering design and implementation of community development projects in countries throughout Southeast Asia, Central America, and Africa. He served as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines and has worked with Oxfam International in East Timor. He is the co-founder of the Villanova Engineering Service-Learning Program and is currently the director of the Center for Humanitarian Engineering and International Development. He has degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Water Resources Engineering from Villanova University, and he completed his Ph.D. with the Water Engineering Development Center at Loughborough University in the UK. His current research includes developing metrics to evaluate the sustainable management of water infrastructure and he is a strong advocate for participatory research that includes water utility operators in developing communities. He is happily married and has two children, a boy (age 12) and a girl (age 10).

Program Description
The Center for Humanitarian Engineering and International Development engages students and faculty in unique learning opportunities that reinforces engineering fundamentals, a commitment to life-long learning, and service to society. Built on the success of the Villanova Engineering Service-Learning program, this new center integrates curriculum, research and outreach within the college and creates interdisciplinary opportunities within the university.