A professional headshot of a person with short dark hair wearing glasses and a suit smiling at the cameraAdam Collins

Adam Collins grew up in Aurora, CO and attributes his interest in global engineering to the value of giving his family instilled in him. He carried that value with him during frequent trips to El Paso, TX and Juarez, Mexico with Casa Por Cristo to build homes for families in need. Adam’s experiences with Casa Por Cristo introduced him to the complexity of global engineering challenges.

Adam earned a B.S. in Architectural Engineering with a minor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. After graduating, Adam gained experience through the Navy ROTC, a mobile library project in Albania, and a sustainability group at Los Alamos National Lab, where he still works. Adam said he found the Mortenson Center through pure luck after coming across a class in the online course catalog that met all his interests: Household Energy Systems in the Global South.

Adam is now an Architectural Engineering master’s student at CU Boulder and is focusing on Building Systems Engineering. He is currently completing a remote practicum through the Mortenson Center with Pivot Clean Energy Co. He will focus on establishing a market case for the production, manufacturing, and distribution of bioethanol fuel, which is a cleaner and healthier alternative to conventional cooking fuels.

Outside of academia, Adam enjoys photography, hiking, traveling, and visiting museums. His favorite thing about the Mortenson Center is the community of considerate, intelligent and well-rounded individuals he has met.


A person with dark hair in a braid wearing a backpack smiling at the camera standing outside in front of cliffsEliza Fink

Eliza Fink grew up in Colorado and, through outdoor recreation, became interested in environmental work. She led outdoor youth education activities and her interest in public land advocacy, climate change, and the human aspect of the environmental fields grew.

She came to CU Boulder and earned a BS in Environmental Engineering and participated in Engineers Without Borders (EWB). She learned about the inequalities that exist in global public health and decided to pursue opportunities in global engineering. She found the Mortenson Center and liked the supportive culture around having difficult conversations on complex issues such as power, privilege and ethics. At CU, Eliza is a research assistant with the Sustainable WASH Systems Learning Partnership (SWS), and studies preventive maintenance approaches to sustaining rural water systems. She was also a member of this year's Colorado WASH Symposium planning committee.

Eliza will graduate with her Masters in Civil Engineering in May, 2022 and will earn the Certificate in Global Engineering from the Mortenson Center. To earn the Certificate, she is completing her Practicum working as a Resettlement Programs Intern at the African Community Center of Denver (ACC) where she helps resettle refugees and humanitarian parolees. Her work includes driving people to social security appointments, enrolling children in school, and helping families file paperwork for government assistance. She also assists with home WIFI installation that results in refugees having increased access to programs such as remote English classes. As an Intern, she has experienced the humanitarian side of processes within the U.S. and learned about the challenges individuals face when navigating them.

Her favorite aspect of the Mortenson Center is the community built around the human-centered nature of the program. After graduating, she plans to travel, improve her Spanish language skills, and find a job that balances technical and interpersonal skills with a focus on public health, the environment and equity.


A person with long dark hair wearing a black top smiling at the camera standing outside on a balcony in front of mountainsMelanie Holland

Melanie Holland earned her bachelor’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As an undergraduate, she was interested in international environmental justice issues and became involved in international projects, including Engineers Without Borders. She decided to pursue a career in global engineering and chose to apply to the Mortenson Center because of its unique program offerings.

Melanie is now a fourth year Ph.D. student in Civil Engineering at CU Boulder and working to earn a Certificate in Global Engineering from the Mortenson Center. She is also the Finance Lead on the planning committee for this year's Colorado WASH Symposium. Her research focuses on improved monitoring and management of water resources in the western United States. She works to address data limitations that may impact the ability of water users to comply with local or regional water policies. She is also interested in improving groundwater data in arid regions, which rely heavily on groundwater for agricultural needs.

During the summer of 2019, Melanie completed her Mortenson Center practicum working with iDE Ghana in Tamale, a city in the arid northern region of Ghana. Here, local farmers face difficulties growing vegetables and distributing their crops to other regions of the country. Melanie worked with local farmers to determine best practices for farming and distributing chili peppers, and piloted a non-water intensive mushroom farm to determine large-scale feasibility. She also contributed to a sanitation project designing a sanitation truck to transport waste to the local wastewater treatment facility.

When not in class or working on her research, Melanie enjoys rock climbing and going on long hikes with friends. She appreciates the network of well-rounded and dedicated people at the Mortenson Center. 


A person with long light brown hair smiling at the camera sitting on the ground outside in front of a red vintage carJessica Darby

Jessica Darby is an undergraduate student studying environmental engineering at CU Boulder who is interested in using science and technology to solve natural-world problems.

As a freshman and sophomore, Jessica was in the Global Engineering Resident Academic Program (RAP), which gave her a sense of belonging in the CU community. This inspired her to become a RAP Assistant this year and create that community for other students.

Jessica also conducts research with the Mortenson Center as an Undergraduate Research Assistant. She works alongside Mortenson Center students Emily Bedell and Olivia Harmon developing a low-cost fluorescence sensor for bacterial enumeration in water distribution systems in low- and middle-income countries. Jessica was previously involved in research for the CUSew project, studying COVID levels on campus via wastewater monitoring.
 
Outside of classes and research, Jessica enjoys learning the art of bonsai, Sudoku puzzles, and playing card and board games. Her favorite thing about the Mortenson Center is the close-knit community of engineers and the variety of ways to get involved. 


A person wearing a purple shirt and a white wide brimmed hat smiling at the cameraJanice Higuera

Janice Higuera is a PhD student in Construction Engineering Management pursuing a Certificate in Global Engineering. She earned her bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the United States Military Academy, a Master's in Public Policy from the University of Texas at Austin, a Master's in International Service from American University in Washington D.C., and a Master's in Global Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. Janice served in the Army for 26 years in the Engineer Branch. She left the military to work at a large construction management firm then returned as an Active Guard Reserve Officer to teach at the New Mexico Military Institute. Her primary role as an engineer was focused on facilities, program, and project management. She has worked extensively in the Middle East, Caribbean, and Central and South America managing environmental, disaster mitigation, and economic development infrastructure projects. Early in her career, she discovered the systemic roadblocks to successful engineer training and development projects - government policies, cross-cultural communication and a lack of local economic development. The opportunity to attend the Inter-American Defense College with leaders from all of the countries in the Western Hemisphere forced her to hear their thoughts and perceptions and to face her own biases.
 
Janice is interested in policy and data-driven process improvement solutions, specifically focused on military engineering construction partnerships with American Indian communities. As a member of the Mortenson Center, she is constantly inspired by her peers and their ideas for solving some of the overwhelming issues faced in this field. Janice is graduating with her masters degree from CU Boulder this semester. Her hope as she continues on in the PhD program is to leverage her experience, further develop her research capabilities, and ultimately contribute to educating and motivating future engineers to solve global issues.


A person with short dark hair wearing a red tshirt smiling at the camera standing outside in front of mountainsIlham Siddiq

Ilham Siddiq grew up in a remote village in Aceh, Indonesia. Growing up, he was fascinated by the outer world, amazed by the cityscape pictures on the wall calendar or some foreign language on a condensed milk can. Then, the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami happened and took away his home and countless family members, including his mother. During the aftermath of the event and the three-decade-long insurgency war it helped to end, Ilham met with a few of the thousands of humanitarian workers, both foreign and local, who came to help with the massive reconstruction project. He was fascinated by their demeanor and language and they sparked in him a relentless urge to learn English. As he grew older, Ilham realized that his home was devastated to such an extreme extent, not because of the scale of the tsunami, but because his community was not prepared for it. He also witnessed many reconstruction projects in Aceh failing or causing harm because of their misalignment with local needs and contexts. This made him realize that there is much more to post-disaster response and reconstruction than sound engineering calculations.

Ilham’s experiences set him on the path to study civil engineering in order to learn how to build more resilient communities. While working for the Tsunami and Disaster Mitigation Research Center, he met a Mortenson Center alum at an international conference on disaster risk reduction held in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Intrigued by his research, Ilham struck up a conversation with the alum during a lunch break. That three-hour conversation inspired him to become a part of the Mortenson Center. Today, he is a master's student in Civil Systems at the University of Colorado Boulder pursuing a Certificate in Global Engineering. He also holds a master's degree in Civil Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from Universitas Muhammadiyah Aceh, Indonesia. Ilham’s favorite thing about the Mortenson Center is how members of the Mortenson Center community are passionate about equitable and emancipatory global development.


A person with short light brown hair wearing a dark blue sweater over a light blue collared shirt and pink tie smiling at the cameraGordy Zak

Gordy Zak earned a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in 2019 and is now a second-year graduate student pursuing a Professional Master's in Global Environmental Engineering at CU Boulder. As an undergrad, Gordy sought a way to apply mechanical engineering to directly benefit people. His class, Water in the Global Environment introduced him to Engineers Without Borders (EWB). Gordy became co-leader of an EWB water distribution and treatment project for an indigenous community in the Manabí province of Ecuador that had lost its water infrastructure due to an earthquake. His work on the project included systems analysis, water quality testing, and coordinating with the local government and a local NGO. This project succeeded because a strong connection was made with the local partners, which left a strong impression on Gordy about the importance of stakeholder involvement throughout a project. Gordy’s EWB experience and passion for traveling prompted him to seek out a graduate program centered on environmental engineering that partnered with people in challenging contexts – the Mortenson Center was a perfect fit.

Gordy’s goal within Mortenson Center is to learn more about sustainable WASH systems; in particular, what decisions during planning and implementation distinguish successful projects from unsuccessful projects. His favorite thing about the Mortenson Center is how easy it is to make connections with both students and professor, whether through pickup soccer games, the myriad of organized activities, or just around the office. He also enjoys that the entire program, in and outside of the classroom, acts as an open forum for discussion on critical global issues. Gordy is an avid geography and history hobbyist who loves trivia and hopes to experience as many corners of the world as possible through travel. His love of geography and history come in handy, as he is a co-host for Cup of Current Events, a Mortenson Center student discussion group.