Team Member Pictures and Biographies


Enzo

I was born in Rome, Italy and graduated in Economics in Milan. I was a banker my entire life. In 1980, when still in Italy, a major US Bank asked me to join the International Division of their NY City Headquarters. Consequently I emigrated to the US with my family that included my wife and three children. A few years later I changed my job, established the branch of an Italian Bank in NY City and worked there until I retired in 2000. The following year I made my first Global Village trip to Kenya. Since then, and up to the present year 2008, I have led 11 teams to Africa, South East Asia, and the South Pacific.
To those who wonder how a former banker can successfully get involved into construction I answer that amateurs built the ark, while the professionals built the Titanic. When not spending time on Habitat projects, I fix my house, work in my garden, draw, paint, read (my favorite topic is modern history). I like nature, primitive art, the simple life, good books, good music, and Habitat trips. Not necessarily in that order.





Michelle

I am the mother of a 20 year old son who is on his third year of university, and a 16 year old daughter who thinks she is in the third year at university. I am presently a stay home mom who does volunteer work in Mississauga, Ontario (20 minutes from Toronto).
I work on a number of boards that involve children and camping. Before my “retirement” I took young offenders out to the wildness, camping with project DARE and worked as both a correctional officer and a probation officer. In my spare time I enjoy skiing, snowboarding, working out, reading and knitting. Because of Enzo, I have caught “Habititis”: this will be my fourth trip with him. I was fortunate to accompany him to Uganda, Thailand, and Vietnam. Before I joined his team, I participated in a trip to Guyana and I will be leaving shortly for Jordan with a Canadian Habitat team.
Looking forward to meeting you all.





Chris

I currently live in Grimsby, Ontario, Canada, where I work as a family and ER physician. This will be my third project with Habitat, having been involved in previous builds in Uganda and in Thailand. My last Habitat project was with Enzo in Lampang and I am thrilled to be part of his team again. Thanks to my travel for HFH, I have had the opportunity to climb the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, go on my first safari, swim in the Nile and learn meditation techniques in a Buddhist center. And, of course, meet some wonderful people, from other volunteers, to the fantastic people of the communities in which we worked. Looking forward to another great adventure next spring in Papua New Guinea.







Toshihiko (Toshi)

In 2008 I participated a HFH trip to Vietnam and another to Malysia on Enzo’s teams. I made eight time the HFH trips, six of which (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia) with Enzo.
I was born and raised in Tokyo, and I have worked in Japan for 34 years with the same company (Hitachi). My main hobby is Sunday carpenter but I did not make anything recently. I like to make repairs to my house and to those of others. At present I enjoy diving and traveling foreign countries (South Pacific). I am just back (October 2008)from a Camino de Santiago walk in Spain. It was a 26 day walk for 860 Km ( 533 miles).
My spoken English is not good but I can but I can have nice conversations with you in PNG by way of body language.






Doug

Hello to everyone.
I feel a bit out of place here since I am just a bald, 69yo who happens to be slightly free-spirited. I am a retired engineer department manager from aerospace and a widower since 2002. After my wife passed away I decided that I wanted to travel as much as possible. I spent three weeks in the Cook Islands shortly after my wife’s death. I’ve also traveled to Europe four times, bungee-jumping in New Zealand, 4WD trekking in Western Australia (alone), explored the north slope of Alaska, etc. I do love to find remote places with a little adventure. Last spring I was in Siedlce, Poland (a small city near Belarus) and spent two weeks teaching conversational English with Global Volunteers. That was a defining moment in which I decided to spend all future travel doing volunteer work.
So here I am and looking forward to meeting all of you.





Jeannette

Hi Everyone!
I’m very excited to be going on my first HFH global build. I have long wanted to do a trip like this. With my youngest daughter now in college I’m feeling a bit footloose and fancy free and thought, “What am I waiting for?” I am a mother of three wonderful, beautiful girls and work at the veterinary school at University of Wisconsin in Madison in distance education. I enjoy biking, kayaking, and skiing, and try to participate in at least one triathlon each year. I’m also in a Sweet Adeline chorus and taking clogging lessons. I have traveled a fair bit, having lived in Italy, Denmark, Australia, The Netherlands, and Chile. I much prefer seeing the “real” country from the inside out than being a tourist, therefore I’ll always choose the road less traveled. I love learning about other cultures and learning new languages. I am a firm believer in “whole body learning”. What a better way to “get inside” a country than to live and work with the local people, making a difference. I can’t wait to know you all and start our adventure!





Kelly

Hi everyone! My name is Kelly, I’m 28 years old and I am from North Carolina. I am a family nurse practitioner in the Medical ICU at a local trauma center. I love traveling and working with people, which draws me to GV. I have worked extensively with HFH during high school and college, particularly on the east coast, and internationally in Haiti, Fiji, Uganda, Thailand, and Vietnam. This is my 5th trip with Enzo. I cannot wait to meet everyone!





Cassandra (a.k.a. KC)

I am called KC mostly. I am an electrician with 30 years experience as a journeyman, which has afforded me the ability to travel and work. Right now (November 2008) I work in San Francisco for Federal Housing in the city. It is a challenge and never a dull moment. I am also a grandmother with a granddaughter who was named after me.
This is my 4th Habitat for Humanity build project and the 2nd trip to Papua New Guinea. I really enjoyed it there but had to cut my time due to prior obligations. This time I will be participating from start to finish. I look forward to meeting everyone in April.





Glennis and John

Glennis
My name is Glennis. My husband John, and I are both on the PNG team. I primarily grew up in California and graduated from the University of Cal at Berkeley. After graduation I taught school, mostly 6th grade, for ten years. Upon having two children I choose to be a stay at home Mom, but spent most of my spare time volunteering at my kids’ schools, and as they grew older, working for local Bay Area & Tahoe charities, from community foundations to the San Francisco Fine Arts Museums. Our children are now 25 and 28, and John is recently retired, so we have now time to embark on new journeys. We split our time between the SF Bay Area and the Lake Tahoe region, both of which are rich in outdoor beauty and resources. I love to hike, ski, play golf, and even fly fish. The highlights of the last few years are hiking the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu in Peru and climbing, on the eve of a big birthday, Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa with John.
I belong to several groups which keep me focused on other interests such as reading, movies, investing, playing bridge. I am starting to read about Papua New Guinea and I am excited about the opportunity to be immersed in their community. I know I will come away a richer person and hope that I can contribute something meaningful to Papua New Guinea in return.

John
Hi, I’m John, but some of my old acquaintances call me JJ.
After college at the University of Oregon, I made a quick stop at one of the Big 8 accounting firms before joining IBM for 15 years. Two more stops at competitors to IBM gave me the background to marry my accounting and computer backgrounds for a career on Wall Street. I become Wall Street Security Analyst following the computer industry, which I did for 20 years. I retired three years ago, although I have stayed connected with the computer industry by participating as a board member for a couple of small computer companies. In the 1960’s I met and married my wife Glennis, who is also joining the PNG team. We have two great adult children, Tripp and Kayley.
I now spend much of my time pursuing those activities that were superceded by family and work over the last 30 years. I play a lot of golf but I still can’t get it right. Both my children and I ski a lot. I’ve resurrected an interest in fly fishing that I started as a young boy. I also do quite a bit of bird and deer hunting. I learned to fly airplanes before we had children and then gave it up when my children were very young. I got back into flying about 6 years ago and spend about 125 hours a year in a small Cessna.
I’m looking forward to meeting all of you in Port Moresby on our way into the interior of PNG.







Jen and Larry

Jen
HI PNG group members,
My name is Jen and this is my husband Larry. We have been married for an adventurous four years and are currently living in Lynchburg, VA. I am originally from Ellwood City, PA, an hour north of Pittsburgh. I am a psychiatric nurse and enjoy working with children and adolescents in an acute inpatient setting. I have worked on several Habitat for Humanity alternative springs breaks in Tampa and Hartford as well as worked in Pittsburgh, PA and Morgantown, WV. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Chad, Africa before we were evacuated after a short while. I am passionate about travel and learning about people and their cultures. I love when I have the opportunity to connect volunteering with my other passions. I am looking forward to this incredible opportunity.

Larry
Hello Team. I am Larry and I am originally from western Minnesota. I am blessed to be married to Jen for those past 4-plus years. We enjoy the outdoor, hiking, camping, and just enjoying God’s creation. We keep busy with yard and house projects at the home we moved into in July, 2007. I am a managing attorney at Virginia Legal Aid Society. We provide free legal services to low-income and disadvantaged residents in southern and central Virginia. I have previously worked with legal aid programs in Minnesota and North Dakota. I also taught in a paralegal program at a Minnesota State University for 16 years. I have done volunteer work with housing rehabilitation for resale to first-time low-income home buyers, Rebuilding Together, food banks, homeless shelters, and other community services. Jen and I were part of a Globe Aware team near Brasov, Romania, in May 2008, where we finished building a home for a beautiful family in an impoverished Roma village. I am looking forward to combining our interest in immersion in other cultures with our calling to serve God’s people in Papua New Guinea.





Nancy

Hello to Everyone-My name is Nancy. I am a US citizen, but have been living outside the US for most of the last 20 years: in Singapore, Switzerland, and I currently live in Hong Kong. I am an attorney (please don’t hold that against me, some of us actually have quite human-like characteristics!) and work for Marriott; which permits me combine both my vocation (law) and avocation (travel) quite nicely in that it allowed me to live in and travel to many wonderful places. This will be my first trip with Habitat. In the picture above, I am on the right, my intrepid travel companion on the left is my sister (who I am still working on to join us, but only have faint hope at this point). I have been involved for a number of years with various charities, but that involvement has mostly been limited to fund-raising activities; and I was feeling the need for more hands-on experience in order to see more tangible results for my efforts. I have absolutely no carpentry, plumbing, electrical or other helpful skills, but if one of you slips or falls,-I’m the gal you want to know!! I am looking forward to meeting all of you in PNG!





Carole

Hi everyone! I’m Carole. I’ve lived in Toronto, Ontario, for many years, but I was born in Melbourne, Australia where I lived until I started trekking around the world as young adult, through Africa, Asia, N&S America, and Europe. I have a dual Australian and Canadian citizenship. I am married, with 2 daughters, aged 17 and 20, both of whom are in college. I work full-time as a lawyer (labor, employment, human & equity rights). My first experiences with HFH were working on 2 builds in Toronto. I have one HFHI experience, working in Mongolia in July 2008. With that fantastic experience, as well as an interest in experiencing life in less developed countries and personal family connection to PNG, I am excited to join this build. I look forward to meeting everyone and sharing this experience with you.




Hervey

This will be my first Global Village trip, which I am delighted to be doing with two of my friends, John and Glennis. The idea was prompted by an enthusiastic past participant John and I met while fly-fishing in Belize, and it was reinforced by my conversation with Enzo and by reading about the team he had already invited for this trip. My wife and I live an hour north of NYC, and we have a daughter living and working in Boston. While my wife is still working at IBM, I retired from IBM several years ago. I had a terrific job dealing with the investment community, but it left no time for a growing list of amateur sports I wanted to try, perhaps the most notable being vintage car racing as well as opportunities for adventure and contribution like this in Papua New Guinea. I am very much looking forward to April and to meeting you all.
{The picture includes my daughter Kerry on the right when we were in Istanbul in October visiting a wonderful woman who lived with my family for a year as exchange student 50 years ago (yikes!)}