Meet the Team

A collection of unique callings, called to build bridges...

Don and Lana Roe

Managing Director/CEO (Don), President (Lana), board members

Don has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, 35 years in R&D at the Procter & Gamble Co., and more than 340 U.S. Patents. Lana has a B.S. in Psychology and is our primary hospitality coordinator for mission trips. Don and Lana previously led or hosted about 50 mission teams in conjunction with the Church of the Nazarene.

Dr. Kirsten Roe

Chief Science Officer, Principal Investigator, board member

Kirsten has a B.S. in Biology, M.S. degrees in Agriculture Economics and Entomology, and a PhD in Aquaculture (Purdue University). She is our agriculture and water SME (subject matter expert) and is involved in our agriculture research efforts.

Tommy and Katie Matthews

Construction/project manager (Tommy), Healthcare leader (Katie), board members

Tommy has more than 15 years experience as a missionary in Guatemala and has a strong background in construction. Katie is a Registered Nurse and has an M.S. in Nursing Education.

Dr. Eric Johnson

Science Advisor

Eric has a PhD in Organic Chemistry and over 25 years of R&D experience in a Fortune 50 company. He provides scientific advisory perspective in addition to being the primary contact with our student engineering projects.

Fili and Nidia Yat

Guatemalan program leaders, Life Center Directors, board members

Fili has 15 years experience with missions projects in Guatemala. Fili and Nidia lead the Life Center ministries (children's education and feeding program) in the villages of La Planada (sponsored by the Refinery Church in Columbus, OH) and Chinaboquil (sponsored by the Springdale Church of the Nazarene in the Cincinnati, OH area), Se'Cuachil (sponsored by the West Chester Church of the Nazarene in the Cincinnati area), and Belen (sponsored by the Amplify Church of the Nazarene (in Raleigh, NC). They will be opening two additional Life Centers in 2026 in the villages of El Porvenir and Sechinapemech (sponsored by the Center Pointe Community Church of the Nazarene in Orlando, FL, and the Southside Methodist Church in Jacksonville, FL).

Juan Carlos

El Puente grounds manager

Carlos is in charge of keeping the El Puente physical site going and leads the buildings and grounds team at the site.

Carla

El Puente staff

Carla works in Hospitality as part of Fili and Nidia's team, cleaning and preparing the dormitory rooms and cleaning the kitchen and dining spaces