Our Team
Staff USA
Evan Markiewicz, Executive Director
Evan is the Founder and Executive Director of ViviendasLeón. He is responsible for overseeing program development, communications, and financial management. Until 2003, Mr. Markiewicz worked under the auspices of the New Haven/León Sister City Project, an internationally recognized non-governmental organization, where he developed ViviendasLeón and other construction programs targeting the needs of rural Nicaraguan communities. Mr. Markiewicz graduated from the University of Southern California in Architecture and holds a Master of Architecture degree from Yale University.
Lise Shelton, Global education programs consultant
Lise Shelton is an educational consultant and coach who has worked in secondary education for 25 years. She began her career as a classroom teacher, athletic coach, and dorm parent; for over fifteen years, she worked at the senior management level in the areas of diversity, curriculum development, teacher training and student assessment. She brings her expertise in these areas as well as in strategic planning, change management, and communication to her work with educators, schools and non-profit organizations. She received her B.A from Wellesley College and her training in integral coaching from New Ventures West in San Francisco. Lise has been working with ViviendasLeón since 2006.
Steve Vezeris, Accountant
Steve worked in the railroad and technology industries for close to 20 years. Since 2004, he has operated as an independent consultant, bookkeeper and tax preparer counting a number of Bay Area non-profits as his clients. He currently is serving as a member of the Board of Directors for GroundSpark. He earned his BA from The Johns Hopkins University and his MS from Northwestern University.
Travel Coordinators
Lindsey Walker
Lindsey has fifteen years experience planning and leading construction delegations in León. She lived in León for two years during the 1990's working as a rural coordinator. Since that time, she has worked as an organizer in low-income communities in Springfield, MA. She currently lives and works in Michigan. She speaks fluent Spanish and holds a Masters degree in International Development and Management from the School for International Training.
Raffaela Falchi
Raffaella received a B.A. in Psychology and a Minor Art from UC Berkeley in 2001 and holds a Masters of Architecture from CCA. She has experience as an educator in architecture and design. She worked as lead instructor for the Cornerstone architectural workshop CFEA Program offered to at-risk youth who have been through the juvenile hall system. She has also taught architecture classes to San Francisco high school youth through Out of Site/ Center for Arts and Education. Raffaella speaks Spanish in addition to Italian, Portuguese and English.
Rebecca Klein
Rebecca is a high school Spanish teacher in Seattle. She has led students on a variety of international and domestic trips to destinations including, India, Nicaragua, Taos, NM, and many Washington State wilderness areas. She has experience as an intern at the US Embassy in Mexico City. Rebecca earned her Master in Spanish Language at Middlebury College in Madrid, Spain. She holds a Master in Teaching from Seattle Pacific University and a BA in Spanish and Economics from Amherst College.
Volunteers
Tam Nguyen
Tam contributed to the marketing strategy and website layout of ViviendasLeón. She has worked for four years with School of the Americas Watch, and has experience communicating the value of immersion trips, service, and activism to high school and college students through the use of personal narrative and social media. She is currently going to school for her Business Administration degree and joint Master of Global Entrepreneurship and Management at the University of San Francisco through the 3+1 and Business Honors Program.
Nicaragua Staff
Indiana Garcia, Program Director, Communications
Indiana is our full time program director in León. She is responsible for daily operations, coordinating travel groups and communication between San Francisco and León. Indiana has been working with ViviendasLeón since 2003. She is fluent in English and Spanish and holds a degree in Tourism Administration from UNAN in León.
Tomás Donaire Juárez, Project Manager
Tomás is responsible for permits, project management and fiscal oversight of construction projects. He has been involved in numerous infrastructural and housing projects during the course of his career throughout the León region. He was mayor of León from 1984-1988. Mr. Donaire holds a degree in architecture from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma UNAN in Managua.
Carolina Galo, Accounting, travel coordinator
Born in León on April 23, 1971, Carolina is the mother of two children. Carolina lived in Austin, Texas for four years where she attended high school. She holds a degree in Tourism Business Management from the University of Commercial Science of León and owns an internet cafe business. Beginning in 2008 she worked as a translator for various organizations including ViviendasLeón. She joined VL as a full time bookkeeper, and travel coordinator in 2009.
Lesbia Alvarado, Program Coordinator
Born in León on September 18, 1975, Lesbia is married with one son. She holds a degree in Tourism Business Management from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Nicaragua (UNAN-LEON). Lesbia has experience as a tour operator and has worked as a bookkeeper for an appliance business. She has worked for ViviendasLeón since November 2007.
Board of Directors
Evan Markiewicz
See Staff Bio, USA
Tim Culvahouse, FAIA
Tim is an architect specializing in the communication of design ideas.
His writing has appeared in a wide range of journals, including 306090, ANY, Architect's Newspaper, Art Papers, Design Book Review, Harvard Design Magazine, Modulus, Perspecta, Residential Architect, and World Architecture. He is the originator and editor of The Tennessee Valley Authority: Design and Persuasion, a study of the early design work of the TVA (NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007). Since 2000, he has edited arcCA (Architecture California), the quarterly journal of the AIA California Council.
Tim has served as head of the Department of Architecture, Rhode Island School of Design, associate dean for Design and Architectural Studies, California College of the Arts, and distinguished visiting professor at Tulane University, Carleton University in Ottawa, and UC Berkeley. He is principal of Culvahouse Consulting, www.culvahouse.net, and chair of the board of Public Architecture.
Linda Dallin
Linda is a Spanish bilingual reading specialist with 28 years experience in the San Francisco Unified School District. She graduated from Harvard University in anthropology and received her Masters degree from Claremont Graduate School. Linda and her family spent a year living in a small town in Mexico. Her daughter has been a participant in ViviendasLeón.
Steven Yoder
Steve, 51, is a 25-year veteran of the daily-news business. He is currently bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal in San Francisco, where he oversees a group of reporters and editors covering science, technology, venture capital, the environment and regional issues in northern California and the Pacific Northwest. Steve started his career with the Journal as a reporter in Tokyo in 1984. He transferred to the Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1989, returned to Tokyo as bureau chief in 1995 and took his present post in 1999. Steve grew up on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, where his parents were Mennonite missionaries. He graduated from Goshen College, Goshen, Ind., with a bachelor's degree in English and currently lives in Piedmont, Calif., with his wife and three sons.