Our Team
WaterPLUS features a talented and experienced team spanning three top-tier universities with backgrounds in fields from public health, mwater resources, medicine, engineering, law, and social entrepreneurship.
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Duke University
Nourish International
Stanford University
A M.D./Ph.D. student at the University of North Carolina, Naman specializes in infectious diseases and public health. Naman completed his undergraduate degree in environmental health from the School of Public Health at UNC. He has worked for the World Health Organization in polio eradication, conducting surveillance and supplementary immunization activities for a rural district in India.
Executive Director of the social enterprise Nourish International. With Nourish, Joel managed the development of several venture projects and project trips to over six countries on three different continents. He led the expansion of Nourish to more than five different universities and had Nourish win $25,000 from the Facebook Causes competition. Joel helped to establish a manufacturing facility for an open source, appropriate nut shelling technology in Uganda in 2007. He has co-authored two award winning business plans and serves as the team’s resident “M.B.A.”
In her master's program in environmental engineering at UNC, Kari is studying point-of-use technologies and their applicability to developing communities. She has worked as an engineering consultant in Denver, Colorado and later as a health research assistant for Costa Rica’s Ministry of Health. Since 2003, has been active in Engineers Without Borders and is president of the UNC chapter.
Currently studying mechanical engineering at Duke University, Will serves as president of Duke’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders. Will has worked with The Full Belly Project and Nourish International on the design and dissemination of nut shelling technology.
A law student at the University of North Carolina, Win has degrees in electrical engineering and computer engineering from NC State University, where he was a Park Scholar, design editor for the university newspaper, and completed the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program. He previously worked as a patent analyst and is preparing to practice intellectual property law upon graduation.
A master's student in electrical engineering at Stanford University, Saket received an electrical engineering degree at NC state University where he was a Park Scholar. Saket was actively involved with the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program, serving as the CEO of a virtual company overseeing both technical prototyping for senior design and business development. He also co-founded a benefit race that has raised over $30,000 in two years and has become a new university tradition.
Duane Dunk is Director of Global Drinking Water Markets at HaloSource, Inc. based in Bothell, Washington just outside Seattle. The WaterPLUS team was introduced to Dunk through the University of Washington's Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition. Dunk is an extraordinary mentor and resource, bringing over 14 years of experience with small-scale consumer drinking water systems and point-of-use purification technologies in global markets and developing countries. He provided invaluable advice and suggestion to our business plan and presentation, in addition to helping us better understand how to bring a purification device to market in our target markets.