Tech Topics - Winter 2008 - (Page 35)

BURDELL & FRIENDS Elizabeth Morgan Wheeler, IntA 94, and Bobby Wheeler, ME 92, announce the birth of a son, Ethan Samuel, on April 3. Ethan joins sisters Sarah Elizabeth, 2; Emily Faith, 7; and India Grace, 10, at the family’s home in Acworth, Ga. Elizabeth works part time as an estate planning, estate administration and elder law attorney. Bobby is a manufacturing manager with the Clorox Co. Leigh Miller Whitfield, MS ME 93, and W. Warren Whitfield, MS EE 92, vice president of operations for Cerex Advanced Fabrics Inc., have been married for 15 years. They have lived in Pace, Fla., since 2000. Developing Safe Water for Kenya’s Schoolchildren W ith memories of the bumper-to-bumper traffic of Atlanta still fresh in her mind, Shadi Saboori delights in her daily commute to and from her office in Kenya. Biking to work, she feels a cool breeze on her back as she passes Lake Victoria. Saboori, EAS 04, is beginning year three of a five-year project based in Kisumu, Kenya. A senior research project coordinator with the Center for Global Safe Water at Emory University, she is working on the Sustaining and Scaling School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Plus Community Impact Project, funded by the Gates Foundation. The government of Kenya in 2003 eliminated school fees for primary education, resulting in an increase in the primary school population by about 1.3 million students. Saboori said the sudden increase created an urgent need for improved sanitation and hygiene practices. According to the Global Water Challenge, more than 90 percent of rural primary schools do not have safe water for their students. Of the 4,117 primary schools in the Nyanza province, the second poorest in Kenya, more than 3,700 need improvements in infrastructure to meet government-recommended standards. The SWASH+ project has introduced a variety of water, sanitation and hygiene interventions into 185 primary schools in four districts in Nyanza to monitor and evaluate their impact on the health of students and community members. Saboori said the interventions include point-ofuse water treatment and hygiene education, rainwater harvesting tanks, latrines and boreholes. Though researchers are implementing changes in the classroom, they hope the interventions also will promote healthy habits at home. “We are also looking at how far reaching school interventions may be to the communities at large,” Saboori said. “Is knowledge and uptake of the water treatment technology intervention reaching parents via schoolchildren? How many households within our communities are choosing to treat their water as a result?” Saboori’s team monitors and evaluates the interventions to identify areas for improvement and to collect data that can be presented to other researchers through publications and conferences. She became interested in water-related issues while working on groundwater remediation projects in Georgia as an environmental scientist with Golder Associates, which she joined after graduating from Tech. With a desire to become involved in water on a global scale, she left Golder to volunteer at CARE International headquarters in Atlanta in the HIV/AIDS unit. Saboori said she learned more about development work and became interested in health issues there. When Saboori heard about the posting for the position with Emory’s Center for Global Safe Water, she thought it 2000s Britton Alexander, ME 05, married Katie Allardyce on Sept. 13. Alexander works as a power train calibration engineer at General Motors, where he is responsible for the Chevrolet Corvette, Chevrolet Camaro, Cadillac CTS-V and GM’s line of hybrid trucks. The couple live in Novi, Mich. Heather Greenlee Alexander, IE 00, and Dan Alexander, ChE 98, announce the birth of a daughter, Haylee Elizabeth, on April 7. She joins brothers Braden, 3, and Ryan, 5, at the family’s home in Florence, Ky. Heather is a full-time mother, and Dan is a senior engineer at Procter & Gamble. Subina Banerjee, BME 07, and Chris Garyet, EE 07, were married May 25. The couple live in Austin, Texas, where Banerjee works in research and development for Rules-Based Medicine, an immunoassay development and biomarker testing company. Garyet is an applications engineer for National Instruments. Gina Barrios, MBA 03, and Guillermo Barrios, MBA 03, announce the birth of a daughter, Jessica Ann, on June 2. She joins her sister, Nicole Marie, 3, at the family’s home in Atlanta. Juan Bonilla, MS MoT 03, has joined dunnhumbyUSA as director of client services. Bonilla is responsible for directing the development of data solutions for clients served by the company’s Atlanta office. He previously worked for The Home Depot as a senior manager of database marketing and for Daugherty Business Solutions as a systems architect. He lives in Marietta, Ga. Brian Emfinger, CS 04, a third-year student at Chicago-Kent College of Law, has been awarded the Dolores K. Hanna Trademark Prize. Emfinger, a juris doctor candidate in Chicago-Kent’s certificate program in intellectual property law, currently serves as associate editor and Web master of the Journal of Intellectual Property. Shadi Saboori’s research will improve water and sanitation practices in the schools of one of the poorest parts of Kenya. would be a perfect fit, allowing her to work on the technical side of health issues but within the development sphere. “I have been working with the Center for Global Safe Water for over two years now and am absolutely awed by how much this job has helped me grow both personally and professionally,” Saboori said. Born in Iran, Saboori moved to the United States at the age of 7 and grew up in Marietta, Ga. Her parents encouraged her to apply to Tech, and Saboori said she’s glad she took their advice. It was there that she met her husband, Brooks Keene, IntAML 03, MS IntA 05. Keene is in Kenya doing consulting work for CARE USA on various projects, including working with CARE Kenya on policy change related to water, sanitation and hygiene in schools. Working six days a week, Saboori said she has very little free time but has been able to squeeze in some visits to nearby getaways in between data-collection periods. She especially enjoys hiking in the Kakamega rainforest. “Like every place, Kenya has its ups and downs, but it has overall been a very positive experience for me,” Saboori said. “What the average Kenyan living in Kisumu finds ordinary, I tend to find extraordinary.” TechTopics | Winter 2008 35

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Tech Topics - Winter 2008 Contents Letters Buzz Around Town Alumni House Rockin’ Good Time State of the Institute The Hill Presidential Search Going Airborne Student Life An Architect’s Eyes Weight Coach Robot Burdell & Friends Ramblin’ Roll Rural Readers Leading Ladies Yellow Jackets Beyond His Years Leading Change Real World

Tech Topics - Winter 2008

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