About Us
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.
Lindsey Walker, Program Director
Lindsey has experience planning and leading construction delegations in León, Nicaragua, and for two years during the 1990's lived in León as a rural coordinator for the New Haven/León Sister City Project. She has worked as an organizer in low-income communities in Springfield, Massachusetts. She is currently living in Michigan where she works developing recycling programs for her local sanitation district. Her passions include carpentry and teaching construction skills to other women. She speaks fluent Spanish and holds a Masters degree in International Development and Management from the School for International Training.
Raffaela Falchi, Program Coordinator for Universities
Raffaella 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. The curriculum focuses on community involvement, the role of architecture as a powerful medium to make change in the community and the architectural process from conception to building. Raffaella speaks Spanish in addition to Italian, Portuguese and English. She received a B.A. in Psychology and a Minor Art from UC Berkeley in 2001 and holds a Masters of Architecture from CCA.
Jill Gallagher, Financial Officer
Jill is responsible for overseeing the finances of the organization. Since 1979 she has worked as a bookkeeper for many bay area non-profit organizations including SF Clean City Coalition, The Family School/STRIVE, and New College of California as well as several CPA firms. She has also served as the Board Treasurer for Breast Cancer Action. She has an MA in English TESL from San Francisco State University.
Staff, Nicaragua
Evan Markiewicz, Executive Director
Evan is responsible for fiscal oversight and personnel. See Staff Bio, USA
Indiana Garcia, Program Director, Communications
Indiana is our full time program director in Leon. She is responsible for daily operations, coordinating travel groups and communication between San Francisco and Leon. 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.
Yaoska Otero, Bookkeeping
Yaoska oversees accounting of administrative and construction activity and prepares monthly activity reports. She holds a degree in Business Administration from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma Nicaragua in León.
Board of Directors, USA
Evan Markiewicz
See Staff Bio, USA
Veronica Sanchez
Veronica Sanchez is principal of Veronica Sanchez Consulting, a government relations and public affairs firm specializing in maritime, transportation and public infrastructure projects. She was born in León Nicaragua and immigrated to the United States at the age of three. She is co-founder and President of the Board of the Directors of the Nicaraguan Children's Friendship Committee (NCFC), a San Francisco Bay Area non-profit organization that provides health and educational programs for abandoned and poor children in Leon. Ms. Sanchez previous positions include Manager of Governmental Affairs for a regional ferry agency and the Port of San Francisco. While there, she coordinated the warehousing and shipping of goods to Nicaragua for the Hurricane Mitch Relief efforts. She worked for former Mayor Art Agnos and held several positions with the California Legislature. She has a law degree from UC Berkeley School of Law.
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 ViviendasLeon.
Steven Yoder
Steve, 51 is a 25-year veteran of the daily-news business. He is currentluy bureau cheif 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 transfered to the Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1989, returned to Tokyo in 1995 and took his present post in 1999. Steve grew uo 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 Piedmint Calif., with his wife and three sons.