Tanzanian Staff

Peter Mwakatundu is married and the proud father of three daughters.   Peter graduated from Advanced Level at Highland Secondary in Iringa and obtained a diploma in Tourism at Capricorn College of Tourism.  He has worked at a Truck workshop and as a Mechanical Technician as well as a driver and tour guide for Tatanca Safari Tours where he escorted many Bega Kwa Bega groups including many of the SPP board members.  His work for SPP includes driving, field project supervisor, and pump repair.
Onno Mella – I was born in Iringa and graduated my first degree of Community development at Tumaini University, currently Iringa University. Am working with St. Paul Partners in a water project since 2017 and I feel so proud and happy to serve the communities with safe and clean water.  Many experiences have been gained since I chose to be the part of SPP family.  Out of SPP staff, I have different hobbies the best one is singing, I am alto singer in my Parish Choir and I love the talent within me.
Eng Amos Byemerwa retired as the Iringa Region Water Engineer after a 40 year career working all over Tanzania. He attended University of Dar es Salam and received a Master’s degree from Delft University in the Nederlands. He consults with us, and other organizations, and his expertise has been invaluable for guiding successful projects. He also assists with the University of Minnesota Engineering program.

St Paul Board Members

Bo Skillman, Board Chairman – Bo’s passion began in 2001 after traveling to Tanzania with his wife, 2 kids and 4 others from his Lakeville MN church. This 3-week trip away from his business was a stretch for Bo having never taken more than a couple consecutive days off prior, but it created a deep drive to do more in life than build a larger business and grow profits. Immediately after returning from that trip, the Skillman family started developing plans to spend 3 months in Tanzania in 2004 and prove to themselves – if you just put it on the calendar and trust God, the seemingly impossible can be done. Bo has not missed a year volunteering in Tanzania since that 2004 trip!

Attributes helping Bo lead Saint Paul Partners include: Strong faith upbringing, farm work during high school/college years, adrenalin junky loving adventure, commercial rated pilot (really helps for navigating through the bush), ownership of several businesses (leadership skills and fantastic employees who “carried the load”), being surrounded by incredibly talented and dedicated SPP board members/supporters and a wonderful wife!  Bo has also volunteered as a coordinator in several capacities for the ELCA – Saint Paul Area Synod in its companion relationship with Tanzania and has been on the synod task force and/or executive committee for 15 years. Bo finds it to be an absolute privilege representing our many supporters (prayer, encouragement, participation and financial) in this quest of supplying clean & safe water to brothers/sisters/friends in the Iringa region of Tanzania Africa.
Dr. Ken Smith has served on the board of St. Paul Partners (SPP) since 2007 and is currently the Vice Chairman. A trained mechanical engineer, Ken received his Bachelor, Master and PhD from MIT before starting a product development position at 3M Co. in 1982. He is currently a corporate scientist, the highest technical position at 3M. Ken first traveled to the Iringa region of Tanzania with his family in 2001 and fell in love with the people. After traveling there more than 20 times he considers many of his friends there to be part of his extended family. Ken coordinates day to day operations of the SPP staff in Iringa. He was also a cofounder (with Prof. Paul Strykowski) of the Design for Life class at the University of Minnesota and assists with water system design. He is shown below with a goat purchased after a church service in Lukani village (it was immediately donated to the church women’s group).
  Becky Nelson has served on the Board of St. Paul Partners as of 2021. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a degree in mechanical engineering. Becky attended the University of Minnesota’s Design for Life seminar in 2018 and returned to Tanzania for an extended stay in the summer of 2019 to volunteer with the Iringa team, assisting with land surveying, design work and sustainability initiatives. Becky is currently working in Minneapolis in the medical device industry.

Steve Theesfeld is a cum laude graduate of the University of Wisconsin where he earned his BBA and JD.  He began his career at the accounting firm of  PriceWaterhhouseCoopers and currently is an attorney, Partner and Shareholder in the law firm of Yost & Baill, with offices in: Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Chicago. Steve is a nationally recognized speaker, having taught Constitutional Law and related subjects at several schools and national legal conferences.

He is a member of the NASP Amicus Committee and the published author of: Appleman on Insurance Subrogation and the Third Edition NASP-CSRP Course Text.   Steve is a member of the US 7th and 8th Circuit Courts of Appeal, as well as the US Supreme Court. He handles cases throughout the United States.

Steve is active in the Lutheran Church community and engages in several charitable initiatives through his church, Grace of God Lutheran in Oakdale Minnesota. Steve is a professional vocalist, having sung with: the Florentine Opera, the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, MacPhail Center for Music, the Exultate Orchestra and Chorus and several bands.

Steve and his wife have three sons and lot of dogs
  John Courneya  has served on the board of St. Paul Partners (SPP) as Treasurer since 2007.  A 1972 graduate in finance from St John’s University, Collegeville, MN, John retired in 2018. John’s first water related trip to Africa was when he visited Kenya and Ethiopia as part of a World Vision sponsored trip during the 5th year of West Africa’s 1981-86 drought and has since travelled twice to the Iringa Region of Tanzania.
Dr. Vic Thalacker has served on the Board of St Paul Partners since 2005. He was Board secretary from 2005-2020 and is currently financial assistant to the treasurer. Vic was trained as an Organic Chemist and received his degrees from the U of Wis.-Stevens Point (BS), and the U. of Ariz. (PhD). He spent 35 years at 3M Company in product development and new process research, retiring in 2002 as Sr Laboratory Manager in the Corporate Research Laboratories. In addition to volunteering with SPP (5 trips to TZ), Vic works with Habitat for Humanity, Global Health Ministries, and his church. He likes to garden, plant trees, conduct handyman projects, and enjoys outdoor activities.
  Jim Wolf has served on the Board of St. Paul Partners since 2003. Jim’s niche on the Board is serving as the coordinator of the annual fundraising dinners since they began in 2007. Also Jim serves as the liaison with H2O for Life, a fundraising partner. Jim has a Masters in Physics and an MBA in Finance from the University of Minnesota. Jim has worked in the field of corporate finance for 45 years with Burlington Northern, Target, The May Department Stores Company, Tires Plus and Robert Half Management Resources, retiring in 2018. He is the Mission Coordinator for St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in North St. Paul and has traveled to Tanzania 7 times on mission trips. He serves as the BKB Cluster Leader for the East Central Cluster and sits on the Iringa Committee in that capacity. His hobbies include birdwatching and volunteering at Carpenter Nature Center in MN and WI. In 2019, Jim became a WI Master Naturalist after completing the required course and field work.
Dallas Erdahl has served on the Board of St. Paul Partners since 2019, and is currently the board secretary. A graduate of the University of Minnesota and an alumni of the Design for Life seminar, Dallas has traveled to Tanzania twice with SPP. He is currently a mechanical engineer, working in the medical device industry.
Chris Catlin, PE has served on the Board of St Paul Partners since 2005. Chris has worked in the municipal drinking water field for over 35 years as a certified operator and licensed professional engineer (IA, MN).  Work history includes design and operations / management of municipal drinking water systems.  Chris has completed several trips to Tanzania to assist with system construction and staff training.
 

Matt Anderson, PhD. has served on the Board of St. Paul Partners since 2022.  Matt is a faculty member in the Mechanical Engineering department (since 2018) and teaches in the areas of fluid mechanics, numerical methods and thermodynamics.  Prior to that he worked as a principal engineer at Donaldson company (filtration) and a faculty member at Milwaukee School of Engineering.  He first traveled to Tanzania in 2006 and has been back many times as an instructor of the UMN Mechanical Engineering course, “Design for Life, Water in Tanzania” and believes that access to safe, clean and reliable water is a human right.

 
Paul Strykowski has served on the board of St. Paul Partners since 2015. He completed his B.S. Degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin, and M.S. and Ph.D. Degrees in mechanical engineering from Yale University. Paul has been a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota since 1988 and since 2007 also serves as associate dean for undergraduate programs. On a hot and dusty bus trip across Tanzania in 2013, Paul and Ken Smith discussed the possibility of bringing university students to the Iringa region to work with local communities to design potable water distribution systems. In January of 2014, the first cohort of 12 students arrived and University of Minnesota students have been coming back ever since. To date, nearly 100 undergraduate science and engineering students have worked shoulder-to-shoulder with rural communities in the Southern Highlands region of Tanzania.
Dr. Dan McIntyre has served on the board of St. Paul Partners (SPP) since about 2008. Dan has a PhD in Chemistry from Caltech and a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota. Dan worked at 3M company as a research chemist and as a software engineer before retiring in 2009 to go to Tanzania to teach Computer Science at the University of Iringa. He spent two six month terms there living in Iringa with his wife and taught 80 students. Dan had travelled to Tanzania every year since 2006 until Covid broke this streak in 2020.