Team

Evan Markiewicz
Executive director, Co-founder

Evan is the executive director of ViviendasLeón and is responsible for overseeing partnerships, 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 programs targeting the multiple needs of rural Nicaraguan communities.

Indiana Garcia
Leon director, Co-founder

Indiana Garcia is the full time director of ViviendasLeón in León. She is responsible for program development, administrative operations, coordinating travel groups and communications between San Francisco and León. She is fluent in English and Spanish and holds a degree in Tourism Administration from the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN) in León.
(505) 2311-3511

Martin Juarez
Global Education director

Martin holds undergraduate degrees in Latin American Studies and International Studies from the University of San Francisco. During his tenure at USF he was a senior government executive assistant for the USF Student Senate, and an Advocate for Community Engagement (ACE) paid intern at the ViviendasLeon offices in San Francisco. He was the president of Alpha Epsilon Omega, USF chapter in 2015-16.

Molly Molander
Project director, Guatemala

Molly is an architect and has beenliving and working in Panajachel, Guatemala since 1998. She manages Tierra Linda Architects and is responsible for numerous private and community design projects. Molly has been a friend of ViviendasLeón since 2005 and together with VL has worked toward supporting the development of an education and service travel program over the last 5 years. Molly is responsible for planning and managing the service projects we work on with rural communities.

Brian Tyler
Travel coordinator, Guatemala

Brian joined the Peace Corps in 2009 and served as a Youth Development Program Officer in Sololá. After serving for 2 years in a Kaqchikel town in the region, he decided to continue to live and work in Guatemala, facilitating intercultural exchanges and service learning projects. Brian coordinates on the ground logistics and manages the group in Guatemala for ViviendasLeon.

Lucila Baldizón
Program director, León

Lucila holds a degree in Tourism Business Management from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Nicaragua (UNAN) in Leon. She worked as a translator for 8 years with an organization traveling all over Central America and the United States. She lived in The Netherlands for 4 years where she earned a business management degree from the Kofi Annan Business School Foundation.She became our Program Officer for Global Education in February 2016.

Lesbia Alvarado
Program officer, Agroforestry

Brenda Bustamante
Program officer, Arts education

Brenda is the founding program director of the Youth Arts Program for ViviendasLeón in León. She has a degree from the Universidad Nacional Agraria (UNA) in Agronomy with a specialty in soils and water. She holds a license in pharmacy from the Universidad de Occidente (UDO) and has studied arts and crafts at the technical college, INATEC in Leon. Prior to her current position, she taught arts classes for vulnerable children at INPRU in Ocotal, Nicaragua.

Cristhian Rojas
Program officer, Social work

Cristhian is a recent graduate from the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua in Leon (UNAN) with a degree in Social Work and an emphasis on community development management. He is responsible for our human capacity training programs in León.

Brenda Acosta
Accounting and bookkeeping

Brenda Acosta holds a degree in Accounting, Finance and Computing. She has fifteen years of accounting experience. Her career includes work at AMOCSA, an insurance company, as an accounting and administrative assistant from 1998-1999, Reencaushadora Moderna as an accounting assistant from 1999-2000, Penelas y Sireras as a general accountant 2000-2004, and Sucesión Mantica Berio, S. A. as general accountant from 2005-2013. Brenda was hired as an accounting assistant in July 2013 and is responsible for our small business projects.

Rob Lawrence
Board member

Rob has extensive experience in non-profit organizations and board affiliations. He holds degrees from Harvard University and Pepperdine University. He has worked as a non-profit consultant, and for organizations with an environmental focus.

Annie Longsworth
Board member

Lise Shelton
Board member

Lise is the assistant head of school at The Bay School in San Francisco. She has a career in independent school education focusing on history and diversity. She holds a dual major, bachelors of arts degree from Wellesley College in Chinese Studies and History, with a minor in Political Science.

Will Robbins
Board member

William L. Robbins is an equity portfolio manager at Capital Group. He has 24 years of investment experience and has been with Capital Group for 22 years. Prior to joining Capital, he was a part of the investment team at Tiger Management Corp. in New York and a financial analyst with Morgan Stanley. Will has served on various finance and investment committees over the years (Little School, Katherine Burke’s School, etc.) and more recently served six years on Town School for Boys' Board as both Finance Chair (four years) and Development Chair (1 year). He currently serves on the Episcopal Impact Fund’s investment committee and chair Harvard’s Parents Committee. Will holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College graduating magna cum laude.

Dr. Sunil Parikh
Board member

Sunil Parikh is an assistant professor in the School of Public Health at Yale University. Sunil joined the board of ViviendasLeon while on faculty at the University of California, San Francisco He received his M.D. from John Hopkins University School of Medicine and his M.P.H. in epidemiology from the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. He has been working on studies of malaria and tropical infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa for over 10 years and currently has active projects in Uganda, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria. He also serves of a non-profit working to prevent strokes in Africa.