Our Team
EXECUTIVE BOARD
David Grossman, Board President
David served as Director, Global Programs for the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) from 2008 – 2019 managing U.S. and international consulting engagements. From 1977 – 2008 he served in overseas and domestic positions at the Agency for International Development (USAID) including assignments in Central America and COO positions focused on urban finance, capital markets and environmental issues. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University.
Louise Meyer, Vice President
Louise, a Co-Founder of SHE, was the organization’s Project Manager for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Partnership for Clean Indoor Air’s project in Mexico researching solar cookers and smoke inhalation. Ms. Meyer also managed the World Bank’s Development Marketplace grant for the SHE “HotPot Initiative” in Mexico. Her interest in solar cooking began 20 years ago developing small business enterprises in Ivory Coast for the International Labor Organization. She later gained field experience as a volunteer trainer for Solar Cookers International in refugee camps. Ms. Meyer holds an MA in French and German Language and Literature and spent many years teaching. She obtained a graduate degree in International Development from the African Institute in Geneva, Switzerland.
Paul Arveson, Director of Research and Treasurer
Paul’s first career was as a research physicist in the civilian Navy where he managed projects in acoustics, oceanography, signal processing, and analysis. In 1998 Paul co-founded the Balanced Scorecard Institute, which provides consulting services to all kinds of organizations. He served as a Senior Associate at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He has a Master’s degree in Computer System Management from the University of Maryland, is a Fellow of the American Scientific Affiliation and is currently a member of the Board of Managers of the Washington Academy of Sciences. Paul has been conducting solar cooker research since 2005.
Roger Haines is the owner of Haines Solar Cookers, LLC, in San Diego, and has designed several solar cookers for distribution and sale in developing countries. He is on the Board of the Alliance for African Assistance, a refugee resettlement organization, and is an active Rotarian who has made several trips to Africa to promote solar cookers. He is focused on developing better materials for solar cookers at the lowest possible cost. Roger obtained his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and was an Assistant United States Attorney in San Diego for 29 years. He is the author of the best-selling treatise on the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and continues to write law books and act as a legal consultant.
Margarita Battle has been closely involved with the efforts of various non-governmental organizations in Mexico in the areas of youth development and clean energy. A Mexican and U.S. national, she has been a resident of Queretaro, Mexico since 2007 where she worked closely with the U.S. Peace Corps efforts to promote solar cooking methods in poor rural communities, participating in the distribution of Hot Pots. She is a founding member of the organization.
Richard Stolz. Richard began his association with Solar Household Energy in 2002. He has served SHE in the roles of consultant, executive director, and most recently, a Board member. In addition to his nonprofit management experience, he has held corporate management positions focusing on finance and communication services. For work and pleasure he has traveled extensively in three continents.
Odile Brock has three decades of living overseas with the U.S. Department of State, including Mexico, Benin, Cape Verde and Congo-Kinshasa. Volunteering with the International Women’s Club, religious communities’ and other NGO’s development projects, contract work in translation and interpretation (French), or administrative support for DOS, IRS, or USAID competed with raising four children and adapting to local cultures. Other experience/training includes work as life actuary in Jamaica and Washington, DC, and a certificate in nutritional therapy. She holds a Master’s degree in Mathematics from Georgetown University, an Associateship in the American Society of Actuaries, and is a member of Sigma Xi, the scientific research honor society.
Arline J. Lederman, Ph.D, lived in Afghanistan for more than six years. While there she taught Art History and developed an art curriculum for Kabul University. Awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, she travelled throughout the country photo documenting the traditional crafts of the country. She also initiated the concept of a “living museum” for crafts in the old bazaar of Kabul and gained endorsement from the Kabul and national governments of Afghanistan as well as dedication of the land and the establishment of the Char Chatta Bazaar.
In her travels, AJ learned that the low grade of fuel utilized throughout the country was degrading to the environment, dangerous to the health of women and children and extremely expensive to use.
Returning to the US, AJ joined Solar Cookers International and served as a Board Member, Vice President and UN representative for SCI. At the UN she advocated for Solar Cooking by demonstrating and lecturing on the process wherever and whenever it would inform the community of the process and benefits of solar based cooking. The UN DPINGO is largely focused on development goals. Environmentally sound processes are essential, but not well understood by the representatives and administrators of their programs. With the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, AJ was on the founding committee of The Afghanistan Relief Committee which represented all living ambassadors of the UN to Kabul as well as many experienced and committed international development organizations and individuals. We successfully petitioned President Regan to support the Afghan people against the USSR invasion. AJ was also a founding Board Member of Women for Afghan Women. AJ has been a professor of Fine Art, trainer of Art Educators, exhibited Artist. She holds degrees from Cooper Union and New York University, in Fine Art, Political Science and Philosophy. During her stays in Afghanistan AJ had one son born in Kabul and one in Teheran. Both are active contributors to the betterment of our world.
COMPLETING THE SHE TEAM
Executive Director Sophie Brock Lyman is responsible for Solar Household Energy’s varied initiatives to carry out its mission. She works closely with SHE’s Board of Directors and oversees the efforts of SHE’s associates and volunteers. Sophie has been working in environmental and international development since 2005 with Greenpeace, USAID, and local NGOs in Democratic Republic of Congo, India, and Haiti, where she also introduced solar cookers. She began her association with SHE as a Research Associate in 2010 and later became Senior Program Manager before being promoted to Executive Director in October 2014. During her ten-year association with SHE, Sophie has assisted SHE in many capacities, including analyzing field project impact evaluations, researching large solar cooker projects in Asia, and leading a solar cooking advocacy effort aimed at the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. She is currently managing SHE’s field projects in Chad, Haiti, and Mexico, as well as SHE’s education, fundraising, and research activities.
Tom Sponheim, who lives in Seattle, Washington, is the founder of the Solar Cooking Wiki. Tom has been involved in the international solar cooking movement since 1989, and is the co-inventor of the Collapsible Solar Box Cooker and Easy Lid Cooker.
Tom also spent a decade as a web developer at Microsoft where he was awarded numerous patents. He is also the author of the book “Flex Thinking – A Step-by-Step Guide to Thinking Outside the Box.”
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic Tom realized that the lockdown would especially affect the poor, who would have nothing saved for such emergencies. He then initiated the 100 Families Project, (100-families.org), which provided money to 100 families for groceries and helped these families reduce the money they spent on cooking fuel through the use of thermoses, bean sprouting, and solar cookers. Ten months into the project, more than half of the families had been assisted in starting their own small businesses.
John Nash Web Developer provides SHE with IT support and guidance.
SHE draws upon the services of professional bookkeeper Lynn Patton of Accountable Bookkeeping and CPA Geoffrey Fenner of the Brooks-Harrison public accounting firm to manage its financial administration.
FIELD PROJECT MANAGERS
Lorena Harp, Degree in Special Education, with diploma and experience in Ecotourism projects in rural areas of the state from Oaxaca with World Wildlife Fund. Eighteen years of experience in rural and urban communities as consultant in solar cooker projects for Fondo Mexicano para la Conservacion de la Naturaleza, SHE, ILS (Integrated Logistic Solutions), SolarSpar, Globosol (with Michael Götz) and FAHHO (Alfredo Harp Helú Foundation).Coordinator of ecological projects and organic gardens for the FAHHO, elaboration of soaps and organic creams based on medicinal plants, rural and urban workshops on the same topics. Excellent cook with a passion for solar cooking and working in communities. Lorena Harp has been a tireless advocate and field promoter for solar cooking since 2004 when she began her association with SHE as a consultant for the HotPot project in Mexico. She has served as SHE field project manager for the “Oaxaca solar cooking ambassador program” since 2017.
Onel Joseph – Onel Joseph implemented the second phase of the integrated cooking project in Tilori, from 2012 to 2014 with 85 Sun and Ice parabolic solar cooker and 177 StoveTec fuel-efficient stoves, as TNC consultant. He then implemented the third phase with 25 SolSource parabolic solar cookers in 2015 as a consultant for SHE. With his personal and detailed knowledge and experience of the projects, people and location, and his creole language skills, he was an important and necessary player in shaping and carrying out the 2017 clean cookstove evaluation with Solar Household Energy. In 2018, he led his team leaders from Tilori to participate in a science fair organized by Notre Dame University in Hinche, the Centre Department capital to introduce for the first time in the region the Sun and Ice parabolic solar cooker. Later that year, solar cooking was integrated into the university curriculum. He was one of the first lecturers for that first science program cohort. He has also initiated discussions with the university head on the necessity to have a solar cooker workshop on-campus as part of SHE’s goals to foster more affordable solar cookers manufactured in Haiti. Indeed, he has visited several suitable sites for such potential project as well. He has since continued to contribute his expertise to several other organizations in the environment protection sector.
BOARD OF ADVISORS
Beverly Blum
A founder of Solar Cookers International, designer of a foldable box cooker and involved in creating the CooKit.
Dr. Thomas E. Bowman, Ph.D
Associate Vice President For Academic Affairs, Florida Institute of Technology and pioneer in solar cooking research.
Paul Funk
An expert on testing standards for and designer of solar cookers, including the SOS Sport and the Solar Wall Oven.
Amory Lovins
Physicist, environmental scientist, writer, and Chairman/Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute
Patricia Mcardle
Editor of the Solar Cooker Review and previously a board member for Solar Household Energy and Solar Cookers International.
Lorenzo Rosenzweig
Director, Fondo Mexicano para la Conservacion de la Naturaleza, and partner of SHE, Inc. in HotPot realization.
Neville Williams
Founder and ex-CEO of Solar Electric Light Company; founder and chairman emeritus of Standard Solar, Inc. which had installed over 40,000 solar home systems by the end of 2008.
VOLUNTEER TEAM
Our volunteers give freely of their time to advance the use of solar cooking. They bring a wide range of skills and experience and a willingness to help SHE succeed.
Longtime volunteer and super solar baker Michaela Borghese.
Our key person on Facebook Esperanza Sanz Escudero
Volunteer and Summer Intern Hannah Rolland
Volunteers and members of the SHE Team
FOUNDERS
Louise Meyer
Ms. Meyer was the SHE Project Manager for EPA’s Partnership for Clean Indoor Air’s pilot project in Mexico researching solar cookers and smoke inhalation. Ms. Meyer also managed the World Bank’s Development Marketplace grant for the SHE “HotPotTM Initiative” in Mexico. Her interest in solar cooking began 20 years ago developing small business enterprises in Ivory Coast for the International Labor Organization. She later gained field experience as a volunteer trainer for Solar Cookers International in refugee camps. She co-designed and launched the website AfricanCraft.com. Ms. Meyer holds an MA in French and German Language and Literature and spent many years teaching. She obtained a graduate degree in International Development from the African Institute in Geneva, Switzerland.
Darwin Curtis
The late (1926-2020) Darwin Curtis was Founder and Director of SHE. He resigned his position as President in 2012 and stepped down from the Board in September 2013. He advised and shared his expertise and skills with Solar Household Energy as well as working on select projects up to his last days. Mr. Curtis was a native of Illinois and served in the U.S. Merchant Marine in World War II. During his post-war career in foreign service, he resided in both Asia and Africa where he acquired insight into the problems of the developing world. Subsequently, he was introduced to solar cooking and recognized its importance to economic development, public health, and environmental protection. He saw it as the most promising alternative household energy for much of a world in urgent need. He became a volunteer advocate and, in 1991, published a watershed global analysis of the technology’s potential. Afterwards, he was committed to advocacy. He held an AB in Politics and History from Princeton.
Barbara Knudson
The late (1926-2015) Dr. Barbara Knudson was a sociologist who specialized in international women’s issues. Her career highlights and appointments include: Chairperson for Education Professor; Special Assistant to President, Director, Master’s Program in Education; Institute of International Studies, University of Minnesota; Dean, University College, University of Minnesota; Professor, Women’s Studies, and Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota.
