2904 Rodeo Park Drive East, #100 Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505
505-473-9211 info@wefta.net

Board and Staff

Peter Fant, PE, President – Peter Fant, PE, president of a large engineering firm in New Mexico, is also a senior level engineer with more than 25 years of experience designing and supervising the construction of water, wastewater and solid waste facilities. Mr. Fant previously worked as a field engineer for the U.S. Public Health Service, designing and constructing water systems on the Navajo Indian Reservation.

Lou Harrington, Board Member – Lou Harrington is a landscape architect who has been involved in international development for the past 25 years. He was a volunteer at a Jesuit high school in Tacna, Peru for two years and served as the International Representative for Habitat for Humanity for six years in Peru, Colombia and Mexico. His expertise in project management, fluency in Spanish and familiarity with travel and customs in developing nations have made it possible to communicate and coordinate effectively with the local populations.

John Lincoln, PE, Board Member – John Lincoln recently retired after a 43 year career as a civil engineer, the last 35 years with the international consulting firm of CH2M HILL.  He has designed, managed, or performed senior review on a wide variety of projects, including streets and highways, water and wastewater transport, wastewater treatment, hydroelectric facilities, and mine site cleanups under the CERCLA program.  Mr. Lincoln has been involved with WEFTA in providing technical advice to the communities in the Urubamba Valley of Peru for wastewater treatment.

Jennifer McDowell, Board Member – Jennifer McDowell has a master’s degree in special education and is currently supporting  semi-independent housing for two young men with special needs.  She lives in Pittsburgh, Pa., where she recently launched Giving2Grow, a giving circle dedicated to improving childhood food security and nutrition in the area.  A long-time supporter of WEFTA, Jennifer has accompanied our volunteer engineers to visit projects in Latin America. In addition to WEFTA, Jennifer is actively involved with a variety of environmental, social justice and women’s issues, and socially responsible investing.

Scott Rogers, PE, Board Member – Scott Rogers, president of Aqua Engineering, Inc., of Utah, has been involved in several WEFTA projects. He has visited sites in Peru to assess the feasibility of projects and to design the wastewater treatment system for the sanitation project in Urubamba. Mr. Rogers has more than 30 years of experience designing and overseeing the construction of wastewater treatment facilities in the U.S. and Canada.

Blanca Surgeon, Board Member – Blanca Surgeon is a graduate of the University of New Mexico, holding a master’s degree in water resources administration. She has worked in the environmental field for more than 15 years and has extensive experience in a broad range of water-related and management issues. Mrs. Surgeon is a technical assistance provider for the Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) of New Mexico, a nonprofit agency providing technical assistance, training and funding to rural communities.

Jason Gehrig, PE, Board Member – Jason Gehrig worked for several years as an engineer on municipal water/wastewater projects in Texas before moving to the Bolivian Andes to serve for eight years with Maryknoll as an engineering adviser and capacity builder to the Bolivian NGO Suma Jayma. There he worked closely with the locals on the design and construction of several community water systems. He is currently an engineer with the Tarrant Regional Water District in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas.