Meet the Team

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

Don and Lana Roe

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

Don has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, 35 years in R&D at the Procter & Gamble Co., and more than 335 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

Principal Investigator

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)

Tommy has more than 13 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

Fili has 15 years experience with missions projects in Guatemala. Nidia leads (with Fili) a 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 and West Chester churches of the Nazarene in the Cincinnati, OH area).

Eduardo Caal

El Puente site manager and maintenance

Eduardo has spent 14 years building and maintaining the El Puente missions and research station and helps run the "work" of our agriculture projects.

Byron and Ancelmo

El Puente staff

Byron and Ancelmo are an integral part of keeping the El Puente site going.