Speakers' Biographies

 

TOFAYEL AHMED, Country Representative, Japan Association of Drainage & Environment (JADE), Bangladesh

Mr. Ahmed Tofayel joined the Japan Association of Drainage & Environment after 4 years as a Project manager, Project & Training Coordinator, Co-investigator & Program Officer for the Environment and Population Research Centre (EPRC), a water and sanitation focused organization in Dhaka. His current responsibility is to maintain liaison with working government organizations as well as non-government organizations in Bangladesh through the supervision of various developmental projects.

Mr. Tofayel is also the co-author of a publication on the demand based water option for arsenic mitigation in rural Bangladesh as well as a book on human excreta as a complementary source of soil nutrients to be published by the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD), a leading government agency in the field of rural development by the end of 2006.

KATHRYN H. ANTHONY, Ph.D., Professor, University of Illinois, USA 

 

Kathryn Anthony is Professor and Past Chair of the Design Program Faculty at the School of Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Professor is one of the first women in architecture at her school to receive tenure and promotion to Full Professor. She is on the Board of Directors of the newly formed American Restroom Association. Her media interviews include the Chicago Tribune, Kansas City Star, Los Angeles Times, U.S. News & World Report, and the Wall Street Journal.

Kathryn has taught a seminar on gender and race in architecture for the past decade that addresses gender issues in restroom design which has been featured on a news segment on WICD television in Champaign, Illinois.  She received the 1992 Creative Achievement Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, the 2003 Collaborative Achievement Award from the American Institute of Architects, and the 2005 Achievement Award from the Environmental Design Research Association.

JOHANNES BERGMANN, Project Manager, Ströer Out-of-Home Media, Germany 

 

Johannes Bergmann (Dipl. Ing. Architekt) is Project Manager at Ströer Out-of-Home Media AG, Research and Development. He is responsible for the restoration and construction of public toilet facilities all over Germany. After studying architecture he worked in several architectural practices. In 1999 he started at Deutsche-Städte Medien DSM GmbH, which became the Ströer Out-of-Home Media AG in 2004. Since 1999 Johannes has been working on improving the situation of toilets in the public sector,

specialising in barrier free facilities. He cooperates with town councils and takes into consideration town planning aspects.

 

He is also Project Manager for the development of fully automatic toilet facilities.

ISABEL BLACKETT, Senior Sanitation Specialist, Water and Sanitation Program - East Asia & The Pacific World Bank, Indonesia

After studying for an M.Sc. in Water and Waste Engineering for Developing Countries at WEDC, Loughborough University, UK Isabel worked for five years in the African country of Lesotho developing and managing urban sanitation programs, with a focus on non-sewered areas. She then moved to Ethiopia and developed the sanitation components of the Addis Ababa 25 Year Sewerage Masterplan, focusing on the majority low-income areas.  In the mid 1990’s she worked on sanitation assignments for consulting companies, World Bank, UN

agencies and several bi-lateral donors across East and Southern Africa. Between 1996 and 2000 she worked for the British Department for International Development (DFID) as sanitation advisor to the Department of Water affairs and Forestry in South Africa. Since 2000, she has been working in East Asia, and in 2005 took up her current position as regional Senior Sanitation Specialist for the Water and Sanitation Program - East Asia and the Pacific (WSP-EAP).  She and her family now live in Jakarta, Indonesia and her work involves Philippines, Lao PDR, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia.

MARY C. COAKLEY, Project Manager/Consultant La Jolla, California, USA 

 

Mary Coakley holds a B.S. in Health and Physical Education from Ohio State University.  She has taught physical education and served as chair of the La Jolla Shores Association Parks & Beaches Committee which is currently using the unisex prototype to renovate the restroom facility at the local youth ballpark. She is a member of the City of San Diego’s Committee on Standardization of Comfort Stations for Public Parks & Beaches under the auspices of the City Council’s Natural Resources & Culture Committee. Mary’s unlikely interest in toilets has led to the design and construction of the “state of the art”

unisex restroom. This initiative has resulted in a cost effective prototype for parks and beaches that provides maximum function in minimum space with ease of maintenance, reduces vandalism and vagrancy, meets today’s changing societal needs and adheres to current legislative requirements for persons with disabilities.

USCHI EID, Acting Chair, United Nations Secretary General Advisory Board on Water & Sanitation, Germany 

 

Uschi Eid is Acting Chair of the United Nations Secretary Generals Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation.   Uschi is Member of the German Parliament and member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the German Bundestag. She is also spokesperson for foreign Cultural Diplomacy for the German Green Party.   She has been Deputy Minister in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

in Germany from October 1998 to November 2005. Between October 2001 and November 2005 she served as G8-Personal Representative for Africa of the Federal Chancellor.

 

From 1994 to 1998 she was Vice Chair of the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development of the German Bundestag. Prior to her election to the German Parliament in 1985 for the German Green Party, she is a scientist at the University of Hohenheim, Department for Household and Consumer Economics. For three years she worked for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) in Eritrea, East Africa.

INA JURGA, Engineer, Institute for Energy and Environment Protection (EPP), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Engineering (CAAE), China

Ina-Patricia Jurga, graduated as civil engineer in the fields of waste management and urban water management from University GH Duisburg-Essen, Germany. After consultation for GTZ ecosan project, she is working since April 2005 as a CIM expert at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Engineering (CAAE), Institute for Energy and Environmental Protection in Beijing, China. Her expertise is in the field of ecological sanitation, including biogas-sanitation. She is engaged in capacity building, project and national and international networking. The Institute has a vital cooperation with the World Toilet Organization (WTO) and LIEN AID for a project on Happy School Sanitation in China.

LEE YUAN KUN, Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology, Yong Loo Ling School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 

 

After obtaining his postdoctorate at Queen Elizabeth Collage University of London UK, Prof Lee Yuan Kun has went on to win numerous prizes & awards in lieu of his contribution towards the Medical Sciences. These include the BP Energy Research Prize Award, French Academic Exchange Fellowship 1983 and the Israel academy of Science & Humanities Fellowship 1987. Professor Lee has also lent his expertise into reviewing several international papers on Microbiology, Bioengineering as well as Biotechnology as well as a book proposal on Prebiotics.

He has been recognised for his advisory roles in numerous institutional, national or international scientific boards and societies like the World Scientific in Life Sciences and Medicine International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), the Technical Committee for Chemical and Biological Testing and, the Singapore Productivity and Standard Boards

JIANG LIN, Secretary General Jiu San Society, Guangxi Committee, China 

 

Associate professor, Jiang Lin, has been working in water and sanitation field since 1980s. Currently, he is Secretary General of the Jiu San Society in Guangxi, China, a party and semi-government organisation. Jiang Lin is a senior consultant of Jiu San Central Committee on Ecosan Act. He was educated in Public Health College of Guangxi Medical University from 1977 to 1983, after which, he had worked at Guangxi Disease Control Center for more than 15 years. He was the head

of Environment Health Sector before he left in 1999.

 

He participated in several researches between environment factors and human health. One of the successful cases he mastered was a project on typhoid control in a poor multi-nationality area, where he initiated the change of drinking water sources, lavatories renovation and health education.

He also introduced the Ecosan system from Sweden to China in 1997. This pilot project was so successful that it led to the holding of the first international Ecosan conference in Nanning, Guangxi, China in 2001.

LO WING-LOK, Vice President, Hong Kong Toilet Association, Hong Kong

Lo Wing-Lok graduated from the University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Medicine in 1979. He holds specialty accreditation in the areas of internal medicine and infectious diseases. Wing-Lok was the physician in charge of the Infectious Diseases Unit. He was the tutor for post-graduate training in infectious diseases of the New Territories West Region of the then Medical and Health Department where he initiated the training for the sub-specialty of infectious diseases. Apart from the work in the Infectious Diseases Unit, Wing-Lok also had general medical duties

which included looking after unselected emergency patients admitted to the general medical wards, taking medical consultations from teams of other specialties and attending the medical outpatients' clinic.

JOE MADIATH, Executive Director Gram Vikas, India

Joe Madiath completed his studies in English literature from Madras University. As a student, he was elected President of Madras University Students’ Union and founded the Young Students’ Movement for Development (YSMD) to harness positively the student disenchantment prevailing during the period. Established in 1979, Gram Vikas is one of the largest NGOs in Orissa, reaching out to about 25,000 indigenous and poor families living in 450 rural habitations. Since its inception, Joe has been the

Executive Director of Gram Vikas.

Joe is also a founder member of the Voluntary Association Network of India and the Orissa Development Action Forum.  He currently serves on the Governing Board of several institutions including Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technologies, Society for Participatory Research in Asia and.BASIX.  He has been part of various consultative committees of the central and state governments.

KATY OWEN, BSc (Psychology & Criminology), MSc (Criminology), United Kingdom     

Since 2003, Katy Owen has been employed by Perpetuity Research and Consultancy International (PRCI) as a Researcher specialising in the area of designing out crime. She has worked in a variety of towns and cities across the UK. She has just finished evaluating the Safer Schools and Hospitals Project on behalf of the Home Office Scientific Development Branch and is currently working on a variety of projects in the crime reduction and community safety arena. Katy is also a Visiting Lecturer for The Department of Criminology at The University of Leicester

where she is involved with a number of  Master courses. She is also a lead member of DOCA, the leading professional body for Design Out Crime specialists in the UK.

ASIAH ABDUL RAHIM, Department of Architecture, Kulliyah of Architecture & Environmental Design, International Islamic University Malaysia, Malaysia 

Dr. Asiah  was the first Deputy Dean (Academic Affairs) of the Department of Architecture, Kulliyah of Architecture and Environmental Design, International Islamic University Malaysia. She currently serves as a member of Board of Architect Malaysia and the principal of Dasar architect, extensively engaged in architectural practices covering housing, institutions, small medium industries, interior works and research and development.     A council member of the Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM) members for ten years, Dr. Asiah’s

last post was as Honorary Treasurer of PAM. The associate professor also chaired for 6 Malaysian Standards – 2 for code of practice for the disabled and the other four for the public toilets.  

In 2003, Dr. Asiah was awarded the best researcher at the university level (IIUM), This was followed by an award at the national level for her design work of the Institute Social Malaysia under the category of accessible public building for the disabled persons 2005 by Ministry of Women and Human Development, Malaysia in February 2006.

 

COLIN SEE, Executive Director, Restroom Association of Singapore, Singapore

 

Colin See is the Executive Director of Restroom Association (Singapore).  Since 2003, he has been responsible for the overall operations and staff functions.  He has also initiated the HTSE programme, and expanded the scope for activities like the Happy Toilet Rating Programme, redesigning the job of the restroom cleaner, helped generate publicity and worked with the media etc. Colin has a MSc. in International Marketing, from the University of Strathclyde, UK.  He brings to RAS

nearly 20 years of experience in marketing and communications from the private sector.

JACK SIM, Founder, World Toilet Organization, Singapore    
 

Jack Sim is the founder and first president of the Restroom Association of Singapore (RAS).  He established the Restroom Association of Singapore (RAS) in 1998. He is responsible for overseeing RAS's regional operations and the expansion of the association's presence in Asia Pacific and around the world. Through the RAS he communicates the need for better toilet standards taking into account health and cultural issues, as well as professional concerns in the areas of design, construction and daily maintenance.  In the same year in 2001, Jack founded the World Toilet Organisation (WTO), which currently

comprises 52 members. Through his involvement with both the RAS and the WTO, Jack manages worldwide events such as the World Toilet Summit and the World Toilet Expo & Forum Series. He also oversaw the production of a series of Toilet Pantomime Acts and was responsible for the declaration of 19 November being named "World Toilet Day".

MICHAEL SIU, President and Founding Member, Hong Kong Toilet Association, Hong Kong

Michael Siu is President and Founder Member Hong Kong Toilet Association and Associate Professor School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His esoteric knowledge and expertise related to public space design, street furniture, design and culture has been outlined in numerous publications of designing public space and toilet facilities for the elderly as well as densely populated areas architecture. His passion in this aspect has also been demonstrated in more than 100 international conference papers (including about 10 keynote papers) related to design and human behaviour, including plenary papers in World Toilet Summits in Beijing and Belfast.

His numerous accolades include Faculty Award for Outstanding Performance and Achievement 2004/2005 (Outstanding Performance and Achievement in Services), Faculty of Communication, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2005, International Prize, Paper for the First International Design and Technology Association Research Conference, and DATA Annual Conference, Design and Technology Association, UK, 2002.

SUN YUAN HAI, Senior Engineer, Shanghai City Appearance & Environmental Sanitation Administrative Bureau, China

Sun Yuanhai graduated from Steel & Iron Smelting Specialty, Metallurgy Faculty, Shanghai Industry University with a Bachelor of Technology (Engineer). Since 1999, Yuanhai engaged in building and management of public toilets in the Department of Environmental Sanitation Management, Shanghai City Appearance & Environmental Sanitation Administrative Bureau. Yuanhai has possess extensive experience in planning, building design and daily maintenance of public toilets.

TAI JI CHOONG, Head South-East Regional Office, National Environment Agency, Singapore

Tai Ji Choong is the Head of the South East Regional Office of the National Environment Agency in Singapore.  As an environmental health officer, his role is to safeguard public health in the south east district of Singapore. This includes ensuring good food hygiene in food establishments, high standards of public sanitation, control of vectors and vector-borne diseases, and resolving public health complaints. His work also involves fostering partnerships with the private, people and public sectors to implement public health projects and programmes for the community.  He obtained his first degree in Microbiology from the National University of Singapore and

postgraduate degree in Environmental Epidemiology and Policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

CHRISTINE WERNER, Civil Engineer, Project Team Leader, German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), Germany

Ms. Christine Werner is an avid advocate of ecological sanitation, spearheading the movement throughout her 8 years as a project engineer in a German consulting company and 8 years as a head, planning officer and project team leader in the Germen Technical Cooperation Agency GTZ. Ms. Werner ‘s specialisation in this sustainable system stems from 20 years of professional experience in water supply, solid waste management and sanitation, hereof 5 years in Bujumbura, as a laboratory engineer at the University of Burundi.