DEBORAH WALTERS, Ph.D. – President Deb is a neuroscientist, a retired Provost and Senior Vice President of Unity College, a Professor Emeritus at University at Buffalo, and a member of the Unity Rotary Club in Maine. She was honored at the United Nations by Rotary International as a Global Woman of Action based on her humanitarian work in Guatemala. She has held many Rotary International leadership positions and is a former board president of Safe Passage. She is the crazy grandmother who kayaked alone from Maine to Guatemala to raise funds and awareness.
LILYANNA THOMPSON, M.P.H. – Vice-President
Lily holds a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health with a concentration in Tropical Medicine. She works in global market development for Thermo Fisher Scientific, helping to democratize access to precision medicine technologies. Visiting the rural Guatemalan highlands and the Behrhorst Clinic as an Arizona State University undergraduate researcher, she became passionate about health and development in Guatemala and has since worked on several projects addressing health and well-being in indigenous Maya communities. Lily served as an inaugural member of the ALDEA Young Professionals Council for 1.5 years before joining the Board of Directors in 2022.
C.J. SULTZ, M.B.A. – Secretary
C.J. retired after working for 25 years in brand management, customer marketing, and business insights, for such companies as Unilever, Kellogg’s, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s. When she’s not otherwise occupied with non-profit endeavors, she runs her own marketing firm, Glen Vista Consulting. She received her M.B.A. from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Marketing and Sociology from Indiana University, and resides in Glenview, Illinois. Her interest in ALDEA stems from her board participation with Feed the Dream, a Chicago area-based non-profit which provided funding to ALDEA before dissolving in 2018. C.J. joined the ALDEA board in January 2019 and is also the board chair for Heartland Animal Shelter.
MARTHA TRESSLER, M.M. – Treasurer Martha is an accountant (CPA) with a Master of Management from Northwestern University. She moved to the United Kingdom in 1980, and
worked in the accounting and corporate finance fields until starting her own financial services consultancy business in 2000. Her first contact
with what is now ALDEA and ABPD was through the Freedom From Hunger Foundation Walks for Development (1969-1972) when the Behrhorst Clinic was one of the funding beneficiaries, and she has followed the development of the organization closely over the years. Now retired, she has more time to devote to volunteer activities and is delighted to serve on the board and support the valuable work ALDEA and ABPD are doing.
NARRA COX, Ph.D.
Narra is a professor emerita of Continuing Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she served as a Professor and Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs in the Division of Continuing Studies. Her area of interest was school and community health and she was the founder and director of the HIV Outreach Project, a partnership with the State of Wisconsin to facilitate training and community planning for HIV prevention and care. Narra became familiar with the work of Dr. Carroll Behrhorst in the 1970’s through the Walks for Development and as a participant in the School for International Training’s program in Guatemala. Many years later she was a participant on a BPD (now ALDEA) Guatemala tour and subsequently served on the board for 7 years. Following her retirement from UW-Madison Narra returned to the board in 2020 to support the important work of ALDEA in reducing chronic childhood malnutrition in rural Guatemala.
MARYPAT ENGLISH, M.B.A.
Marypat has enjoyed an extensive career in the financial services industry and has spent the last 16 years at Wells Fargo as Head of Midwest Institutional Equity Sales. Although a native New Yorker, she has called Chicago her home since 1993. Marypat holds a B.A. in English from Manhattan College and received her M.B.A. from Boston College. She is Dare to Lead™ trained and has had a lifelong passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Marypat has three children and her son (Luke) is from Mazatenango, Guatemala.
WAYNE GILBERT, M.A., J.D., LL.M.
Wayne is certified as a specialist in estate planning, trust, and probate law by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. In 1978 he received a J.D. degree from the UCLA School of Law and an M.A. in Economics from the UCLA Department of Economics. Wayne received an LL.M in Taxation from New York University in 1986. Wayne has taught estate planning and tax related courses at McGeorge School of Law, University of San Francisco School of Law, and Hastings College of the Law, and has been a frequent speaker on estate planning related topics. Wayne has served on ALDEA’s board since 2014 and has led ALDEA tours since 2016.
CARY HILL, M.D.
Cary graduated from UC Davis Medical School in 1983 and completed his Residency in obstetrics and gynecology in 1987. His practice is located at Palo Alto Medical Foundation where he has also held numerous administrative positions. His role in administration started shortly after joining the group in 1990. Currently, he is on the Sutter Health Bay Area Board of Directors and is the Vice President of Capstone Insurance, a medical malpractice insurance company. He has also served on the Palo Alto Foundation Medical Group Board, started a high-risk pregnancy department, and coordinated the incorporation of infertility and gynecological oncology into the group while he was the ob/gyn department chairman.
JONATHAN MAUPIN, Ph.D.
Dr. Maupin is an Associate Professor of Anthropology in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. His research focuses on community participation in health and development programs in Guatemala as well as variation and change in health-related beliefs and practices. He has conducted research in Guatemala since 2002 focusing on healthcare reform, community health worker and midwifery training programs, and community health. As a part of his work, he leads a field school on community health and medical anthropology through ASU which focuses on a specific health-related research project each year.
BRUCE ROBBINS, M.D.
Bruce worked for 36 years as a pathologist in the Scripps Hospital system in San Diego. His work included sub-specialty expertise in immunology and leukemia/lymphoma diagnosis as well as multiple administrative roles including Medical Director of the Scripps Mercy Hospital clinical laboratory, and president of a private pathology laboratory business. He attended Stanford University as an undergraduate, and then UC San Diego Medical School. While in medical school, Bruce spent the summer of 1978 studying Spanish in Antigua, Guatemala and tropical medicine in Costa Rica. He returned to Guatemala in the summer of 1979 to volunteer at the Behrhorst Clinic in Chimaltenango. In 2016, he and his wife Elaine participated in the ALDEA Guatemala tour. This experience rekindled his passion and commitment to ALDEA’s mission, and he joined the board in June 2016. Bruce retired from medical practice in 2017, and now has more time for ALDEA and his other passions.
THOMAS A. SHARPE, JR., M.B.A.
Tom is Co-Founder of Onetegrity, LLC, a professional services firm advising thought leaders on bringing innovation to bear on public missions. He retired in June 2017 as the Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, where he led the federal government’s large scale centralized procurement organization. Prior, Tom was a consulting principal with IBM Global Services. He holds an M.B.A. from Marywood University and a B.S. from the University of Scranton. Tom resides in Washington, DC and New York City. He joined the ALDEA board in January 2018.
GORDON STARKEBAUM, M.D.
Gordon graduated from Columbia University Medical School in 1970. He spent three months working with Dr. Behrhorst in the spring of 1970 which left an indelible mark on his approach to the practice of medicine. He was trained as a rheumatologist at the University of Washington and was at the UW-affiliated VA Puget Sound Health Care System for over 35 years where he was Chief of the Arthritis Section, then Chief of Staff. He is now mostly retired. He was appointed Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and Masters of the American College of Rheumatology.
OSCAR TORRES, M.B.A.
Oscar has been an active Rotarian for 23 years and now lives in Antigua Guatemala where he is the Rotary Foundation chair for the Rotary Club of Antigua Guatemala. He has beenthe primary contact for many Global Grants for Water and Sanitation, Maternal and Childhood Care, and Economic and Community Development. He was born in Guatemala, studied Systems Engineering and an MBA. He spends much of his time supporting the construction of houses in Antigua but is also very passionate about helping others, which has led him to deepen his commitment to ALDEA’s work.
JOHNNY WALKER, M.S.
Johnny is honorary consul for Guatemala serving South Carolina, USA. He serves on the Rotary District 7750 Global Grants Committee, and is a member and past-president of the Rotary Club of Aiken Sunrise. He is a member of La Red, supporting families in zones 3 & 7 of Guatemala City. Professionally he is Senior Fellow Engineer (Ret.) for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC, and was Chief Information Security Officer for Process Engineering. He loves visiting Guatemala and working on maternal and child health projects. He currently teaches Yoga at an assisted living facility in South Carolina.
PAMELA E. WINTHROP
Pamela is a seasoned fundraiser with 23 years experience working in independent schools in the United States and Denmark. Pam currently serves as the Director of Institutional Advancement at Chinese American International School, in San Francisco, CA. As a fundraising consultant with Graham-Pelton, Pam partners with institutional leaders and boards of trustees to fulfill their fundraising goals. She takes great pleasure in helping institutions build fundraising capacity, apply best practices, assess programmatic effectiveness, lead and interpret the results of feasibility studies, and coach leaders and volunteers through the various phases of capital campaigns to achieve success. Pam received her bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College. Her love of Guatemala was sparked 16 years ago, when she adopted her Guatemalan-born son. She previously served on the board of Mayan Families. Pam joined the ALDEA board in January 2019.
