FSM6 Conference Committee
Meet our amazing conference committee.
Dr. Konstantina Velkushanova
FSM6 Conference Chair
Track lead: applied research
Dr Konstantina (Tina) Velkushanova is an Environmental Engineer and an expert in WASH and Sanitary Engineering with 15+ years of professional experience. She holds a PhD degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Southampton, UK. Tina has been with the Pollution Research Group in Durban, South Africa since 2012 and has been actively involved in a number of research projects in the field of water and sanitation in developing countries, particularly focused on non-sewered sanitation, improved faecal sludge management and the development and evaluation of innovative sanitation technologies. These projects are conducted in collaboration with local and international partnering organisations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Water Research Commission in South Africa and eThekwini Water and Sanitation.
Website: washcentre.ukzn.ac.za/
Mei Yee Chan
Track lead: gender, equality, and inclusive sanitation service level
Mei Yee Chan is the Senior Programme Manager for Sustainability and Sanitation Services at TÜV SÜD Singapore. She has been leading the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation project on non-sewered sanitation standards development work since 2006. Besides being part of FSMA planning committee member, she is also in the planning committee of Women in Water and Sanitation Networking Group (WWSN) and is the co-chair for International Water Association (IWA) Specialist Group (SG) on Non-Sewered Sanitation Systems (NSSS). Prior to joining TÜV SÜD, Mei Yee worked at the World Toilet Organization (WTO) as a Programme Manager and spearheaded the Rainbow School Toilet Project in China – Rural toilets for Rural Schools.
Website: tuvsud.com
Hiral Jariwala
Track lead: Applied Research
Hiral has over 2 years of experience working in water and sanitation projects. He is a Ph.D. student in Environmental Engineering at the University of Guelph. He holds MEng in Environmental Management and BEng in Environmental Engineering. His research area focuses on carbon sequestration, waste valorization, wastewater treatment and resource recovery.
Website: https://hiraljariwala.weebly.com/
Prof. Thammarat Koottatep
Prof. Thammarat Koottatep is a Professor at the Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate, School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. He lectures in Environmental Engineering and Management Program and currently, is the Academic Chair of the newly launched Marine Plastics Abatement Program.
Website: eecc.ait.ac.th
Dr. Christoph Luthi
Dr. Christoph Lüthi is an urban infrastructure planner with over 20 years of experience in planning and design of urban infrastructure in middle and low-income countries. He has conducted research on urban planning and infrastructure issues in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In 2005 he joined Sandec as Leader of the Strategic Environmental Sanitation Planning Group. Since 2015 he heads the research department for Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development (Sandec) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Research and Technology (Eawag).
Website: eawag.ch
Comfort Musaka
Track lead: gender, equality, and inclusive sanitation service level
Comfort Hajra Mukasa, a holder of Bachelors of Environmental Health Science and MPH from Makerere University in Uganda. Comfort is a public Health specialist with a bias to sanitation and hygiene promotion for the past 15 years. She is currently a WASH program manager who provides technical leadership to the WASH programs of Amref Health Africa Uganda to realise the organisation vision of a lasting health change in Africa. Riding on her 15 years’ experience, Comfort invented the Sanitation Digital Solutions system (SaniDigS) that brings sanitation and hygiene stakeholders and beneficiaries together by just a click of a button for better planning and coordination.
Website: amref.org
Dr. Miriam Otoo
CO-Track lead: role of fsm actors in sanitation
Dr. Miriam Otoo is an Economist with 15+ years of experience in research, policy and project implementation in WASH and natural resources (water and land) management. She holds a PhD degree in Applied Economics from Purdue University, USA. Miriam is a senior associate with the Water, Resources and Infrastructure sector at Tetra Tech, ARD. She specialises in urban sanitation, business innovations in wastewater and faecal sludge management, economics of water, energy and nutrient recovery, and solid waste management. She has worked extensively in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and previously led the International Water Management Institute’s research program on Circular Economy and Pollution (previously named Resource Recovery and Reuse).
Website: www.tetratech.com/intdev/WASH
John Sauer
Track lead: role of fsm actors in sanitation
John Sauer is senior technical advisor for PSI’s water, sanitation, and hygiene programs. John supports PSI through its government and private sector partners to develop and execute market systems development programs to improve the sustainable delivery of WASH products and services for under-reached market segments. John has over 20 years of program implementation, advocacy, and strategy development experience in the WASH sector. Before joining PSI, John worked for Water For People, Water Advocates, and Action Against Hunger with a recent focus on sanitation as a business in rural and urban contexts.
Website: psi.org
Shobana Srinivasan
Track lead: Service delivery in Low Income communities
Shobana Srinivasan is currently based in Germany and working in global sanitation knowledge management and on improving the SuSanA (Sustainable Sanitation Alliance) platform. After completing her masters in Environmental Engineering, Shobana focussed on sanitation in developing countries and has experience in Europe, Asia and East Africa. Her expertise includes knowledge management, capacity building, sanitation workers and WinS ( WASH in schools)
Website: susana.org
Lourdes Valenzuela
Lourdes Valenzuela is a Communications Director at Aguatuya, and the Latin America Coordinator of Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA). She holds a degree in architecture with a master’s degree in integral water resources management. Over the years , Lourdes has developed skills in sustainability and development issues such as behaviour change and gender equity through communication and environmental education.
Lourdes is committed to the environment and for the improving the quality of life of people. She has been working in the water & sanitation sector for the last 17 years and working with solid waste for the past 6 years. Lourdes believes that avoiding pollution and improving environmental services is everybody’s job.
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lourdes-valenzuela-9a101636/
Prof. Juliet Willetts
Track lead: Service delivery in Low Income communities
Juliet Willetts is a Professor and Research Director at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF). She leads applied research to inform water and sanitation policy and practice in Asia and the Pacific. Her work covers technical, institutional and governance aspects, climate change, gender equality, participation, entrepreneurship and sector monitoring. Her urban sanitation research addresses investment decision-making, public health risks and city-wide inclusive sanitation approaches.
Website: uts.edu.au
