Paul is BDL’s Executive Director and President.  Prior to this, Paul served as Research and Testing Manager for several years.  Before joining BDL in 2012, he worked for Weyerhaeuser Company in a variety of positions, including R&D, Power Plant Manager, and Project and Process Engineering roles. Paul’s expertises include energy systems, power generation, wood drying, pelletization, and gasification technologies. Paul holds an MS in mechanical engineering and thoroughly enjoys cycling.

Trista brings a wide variety of work experience to the position of administration manager, including accounting for small businesses, grant writing for nonprofits, and teaching college-level writing.  She holds her BA from The Evergreen State College and an MFA in creative writing from Arizona State University. Trista has been raising her children on Vashon for the past six years and is happy to apply her skills to the mission of the Burn Design Lab.  By night, Trista is a professional playwright, and can also be found curating the reading series for the Vashon Repertory Theater. 

Katie McRoberts received her B.A. in International Relations from James Madison University and her M.A. in Comparative Religion from the University of Washington. She has worked for nonprofits in the Seattle area and abroad. Katie is excited to be a part of the BDL team and have the opportunity to work at the intersection of climate, health, and economic opportunity. She enjoys hiking, tennis, and spending time with her husband and son in her free time. 

Aaron Nyarkotey is a Green economy professional. He is passionate about development, promotion, and dissemination of low-carbon technologies. He aspires to become a cookstoves expert. Aaron has experience and expertise in project management, renewable energy enterprises development, and curating partnerships. He has previously worked with SNV Netherlands Development Organization as an Energy Advisor. Aaron made contact with Burn Design Lab during his time at SNV. After his time at SNV, he embarked on a knowledge brokerage visit to Burn Design Lab; during which time he developed interest in their work and impact. He has, subsequently, joined the BDL team as Project Manager & Business Development Associate. Aaron is an author, podcaster, and song writer and composer.

Sumeet Samra is the new Laboratory Researcher at Burn Design Lab. From Bellingham, WA, Sumeet received her B.S in Biomedical Science from the University of Washington Tacoma. At BDL, Sumeet manages the lab and tests a variety of projects, including fuel design and Round Bottom Pot project. In her free time, Sumeet enjoys puzzles, reading and embroidery!

Gary is a project engineer at Burn Design Lab. He believes his experience in the industrial heat transfer, commercial heating, and energy conservation fields will help him to contribute to the mission of developing cookstoves that make their users’ lives better. Outside of work, he likes to be outside on his mountain bike, hiking, skiing, or sailing. He also enjoys reading, baking, and a glass of wine with friends.

Jeremy Su is a project manager and engineer at Burn Design Lab. He hopes to use his engineering background to make a positive impact on the environment and the livelihoods of different communities he works with. Outside of work, Jeremy is passionate about cooking and baking, health and fitness, service, wood-working, and hiking/backpacking/camping/climbing. As a transplant from the East Coast, he looks forward to exploring the trails, lakes, and mountains in the PNW and becoming a part of the community on Vashon Island.

Cooper acquired his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with an innovation minor from the University of Portland. At BDL, he is designing the next generation of cookstoves for round-bottomed pots, which are popular in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and many other West African countries. He grew up in north-central Washington, where he developed an affinity for camping, hiking, skiing, and virtually any other outdoor activity. Cooper aims to incorporate his interests in sustainability and human-centered design into his work with clean-burning cookstoves.

Abdul-Fatawu Salifu holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Social Work from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi Ghana. He is from Fufulso in the Central Gonja District (Savanna Region), Ghana. Prior to working with Burn Design Lab, Abdul worked with Burro-USAID/NGR as an interpreter, Fidelity Bank as a Digital Sales Executive, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science Technology and Research(Eawag) as a field officer, Volunteer for Zurak Cancer foundation, and Youth Development Network as a Youth Mobilizer. 

Jonathan Posner is a Professor jointly in Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington. Jonathan earned his PhD in M.E. at University of California at Irvine. He did his post-doctoral research at Stanford University. Jonathan was the Primary Investigator for a $1,000,000 U.S. Dept. of Energy grant to develop an advanced natural draft biomass cookstove. Under this grant Jonathan lead a team from UW, Burn Design Lab, Burn Manufacturing Corp. (BMC) & Berkeley Air Monitoring Group to develop the Kuniokoa Cookstove, now under production at BMC. Jonathan leads the Posner Research Group.

Bob owns Meadow Creature LLC, a machine shop, that incubated BDL at its start.  MC uses abrasive waterjet machining for rapid prototyping and short run manufacturing of art, architectural and mechanical components, as well as its own product line of agricultural tools.  MC provides BDL a unique advantage in the stove world, enabling it to test and iterate stove designs within hours instead of weeks.  Following MC's charter of giving back, its services are donated to BDL.  Bob holds an EE degree from MIT and was an early Microsoft employee.

Arie joined BDL after a 36-year long career with an industrial combustion and boiler engineering firm. An MS degreed chemical engineer from The Netherlands, his expertise focused on process aspects of biomass and waste-fueled boiler combustion and operational performance, fuel economy, reliability, corrosion, and air emissions. Well known in various biomass and waste-fuel burning industries, at BDL Arie will help getting BDL’s name and mission out to larger audiences in order to raise awareness and funding.

Dr. Mikaela Alger is a family practice physician working for the Puyallup Tribal Health Authority in Tacoma. She recently completed her residency at Swedish Hospital in Seattle. Mikaela has spent a summer in Nicaragua and a month in Malawi providing medical

support to local people. Mikaela also participated in a cookstove installation project in the northern highlands of Guatemala. She has a passion for the work and has seen both the living conditions and adverse health effects of open fire cooking.

Jane is the former Director of Foundation and Corporate Relations at Seattle University. She is involved with 501Commons where she offers volunteer consulting services to nonprofit development and communications teams. 

Leslie has 30+ years of domestic and international experience in the clean energy, water, environment, and climate fields, with expertise in nonprofit program management, resource mobilization, strategic planning, policy, and regulatory work. She has helped launch the international Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (now Clean Cooking Alliance), the Municipal Network for Energy Efficiency, and the Asia Sustainable Energy Initiative. Leslie currently works at Ceres as Vice President for Programs where she manages the climate and energy, water, and food and forest teams. 

Her previous positions include VP of Programs and Operations at the Alliance for Justice, Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships and Interim Executive Director at the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, Senior Director for Partnership Development at the UN Foundation, and Branch Chief for Clean Energy Supply and Industry at the Environmental Protection Agency, where she had responsibility for the Climate Leaders, Green Power, and Combined Heat and Power Voluntary Partnerships. Leslie also served in senior roles at the Alliance to Save Energy, including positions as Acting Co-President, Vice President of Program Development, and Director for International Programs. She has also served as deputy director of the U.S. Agency for International Development's Energy Efficiency Program and as Professional Staff Member at the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Leslie has a bachelor's degree in Political Economics from UC Berkeley, and a master's degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. 

Meher Antia has a background in managing programs and strategic initiatives in biomedical research and translational science. She also has extensive experience in grantwriting and science communication. Meher spent several years at the Wellcome Trust, a global foundation based in London, where she had oversight of a broad portfolio of projects in medical engineering, drug discovery, structural biology and advanced microscopy. She holds undergraduate and master’s degrees in Physics and a PhD in bioengineering and is currently working on strategic initiatives in Population Health at the University of Washington in Seattle. 

Bryan received a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Computer Science from Iowa University and began his career as a programmer at Microsoft from 1984 to 2005. After retiring in 2005, Bryan took up metalworking as a hobby in support of a variety of personal and cookstove projects. Bryan provides invaluable machining, manufacturing and design support to our engineering team at BDL and has become an expert in metal cutting & forming as it pertains to cookstoves. Bryan actively supported the BMC team in designing the manufacturing methods for the Jikokoa.

Lou’s journey with Burn Design Lab (BDL) began in 2011 as a part-time volunteer, leading the cookstove design effort.  In 2013 Lou became a full-time employee of Burn Manufacturing Company (BMC), as Chief Technical Officer.  Lou played a crucial part designing and commissioning the production & maintenance operations of the BMC factory in Kenya.  Lou led the stove design and production tooling work for 4 generations of the infamous Jikokoa stove.  Lou retired from BMC last year and he now serves as a key volunteer for Burn Design Lab, providing mentor and guide to the engineering team at BDL.

Charlie has been active in development engineering for the last 12 years, following a successful career in new product development and manufacturing.  He is an accomplished inventor, and now applies his energies to improving supply chains, products, and manufacturing in emerging markets.  He is passionate about quality, and enthusiastic about the role of digital fabrication in bringing improved products to those who need them most.  He has been engaged on projects for the Gates Foundation, the Peace Corps, the Shell Foundation, Engineers without Boarders, and other institutions dedicated to making a positive difference in the world (like Burn Design Lab).  Charlie has been working with the ELS team at BDL to expand on the methodology for evaluating ceramics and refractories as candidates for combustion chamber materials.  With these materials, determining the best manufacturing process, whether for test samples, prototypes, or for full scale product production, is equally as important as selecting the right material. Charlie has a PhD in Material Science and Engineering, and lives with his wife in Geneva, Switzerland.

Richard has begun investigation into cleaner & more efficient institutional cookstoves in Ghana, primarily for large, >60 litre applications, for places like schools, hospitals and prisons. He builds on a full career of technical excellence in high volume product development with companies like Hewlett-Packard and Apple. His international work began in the Peace Corps in the middle east and has continued in Europe and Asia with over 10 years of overseas experience.

Ricardo is volunteering as an advisor on partnership and funding opportunities. He served in the Peace Corp in Kenya, and has worked in a number of industries, including oil and specialty chemicals, non-profits, telecom, railroads, airlines, and financial services. He holds a M.S. in chemical engineering and an MBA.

Allan is providing Computational Fluid Dynamic modeling for BDL after performing this function for industry for over 30 years, prior to retiring. This is an important augmentation to BDL's cookstove development process.  Allan has degrees in Forestry and Engineering and is interested in combustion, energy, and technology transfer. He is the author of over 30 publications and has been active in planning and organizing conferences globally. Allan lives in Kirkland and can often be found outdoors checking out the great Pacific Northwest.

As a retired software engineering manager, Max is volunteering at BDL to apply his testing methodology and management experience to BDL’s mission. He’s an avid cyclist, co-op farmer, woodworker, and volunteer for Vashon Island Fire and Rescue.

Tom is volunteering with Burn Design Lab to develop custom software for emissions testing. For the past 15 years, Tom has worked as an engineer in the industrial and automotive emissions and performance testing industry, and currently works as an independent data acquisition / LabView consultant specializing in renewable energy and vehicle testing. Tom lives on Vashon with his wife and two kids.

Brad serves as the voluntary Chief Financial Officer at Burn Design Lab. Brad has spent 30 years in various accounting, auditing, financial and computer systems positions at Weyerhaeuser Company. In addition to volunteering, Brad enjoys cycling (motor).