Two Careers, One Legacy: Reflections from EWB-USA's Clare and Gerard as They Step Into New Chapters

After decades of combined service at Engineers Without Borders USA, two of our most respected leaders are preparing for new chapters.

Clare Haas Claveau, Managing Director of the Community Engineering Corps (CECorps) — who has also worn the hats of COO, interim CEO, and head of HR at EWB-USA — will step away at the end of the year.

Gerard Dalziel, EWB-USA’s Chief Engineer, is retiring after a career defined by learning , courage, and technical excellence.

Individually, their stories span continents, disciplines, and eras of humanitarian engineering. Together, they have shaped the organization we are today: community-centered, volunteer-powered, and deeply committed to engineering solutions that endure.

This is a look at their journeys and the advice they hope will guide the next generation of engineers, volunteers, and changemakers.

“Start by Listening”: Clare on Partnership, Purpose, and the Power of Small Communities

Clare’s path to humanitarian engineering wasn’t linear. She began in mechanical engineering, worked in manufacturing & HVAC, and then, feeling pulled toward work with deeper purpose, backpacked around the world and eventually joined the Peace Corps serving in Chad. That experience, she reflected, changed something fundamental.

She began to see a key truth: real impact starts with listening, not telling. And communities, whether in Chad or Ohio or Colorado, thrive when they lead the way in defining solutions.

When Clare first heard about the opportunity to help launch a new domestic program at EWB-USA, she described it as an almost perfect alignment of her experience and values. After years working with the smallest U.S. water and wastewater systems, she immediately recognized the need, and the potential, behind the nascent Community Engineering Corps program.

As she put it, she was already deeply invested in supporting small communities, so “when the opportunity… to really launch this nascent Community Engineering Corps program came up, it was just a really exciting opportunity because I was already working in those [types of] communities. I understood the need, and the thought that other people would want to volunteer in this arena was just really exciting.”

The Communities She’ll Never Forget

Two projects remain vivid in Clare’s memory.

In Grover Hill, Ohio, a failing wastewater system left residents facing sewage backups. With little to no tax base to fund the engineering work required just to access state or federal support. When volunteers stepped in to complete the preliminary engineering, the town was able to secure more than $2 million for improvements.

“By the time a community comes to us, they recognize the need and they understand how critical infrastructure is to a thriving community,” Clare said. “They just need a partner to help them get unstuck.”

The other story comes from Queens, New York, where neighbors transformed a vacant concrete lot into an accessible community garden and gathering space.

“It sounds simple, but it wasn’t,” Clare shared. “Removing concrete, testing soil, planning for accessibility — that takes technical guidance. But the ideas came from the community. We just helped them bring those ideas to life.”

These are the kinds of partnerships she believes define the future of engineering in the United States.

Her Hope for CECorps — and the Sector She Helped Build

Despite 2025 being a difficult year for funding and policy stability, Clare is optimistic.

She points to the national momentum around infrastructure equity, growing coalitions of technical assistance providers, and renewed appreciation for pre-engineering and planning support, a space CECorps has quietly strengthened for years.

“When people start working together and realize there’s a movement forming, that doesn’t go away easily,” she said. “I mean, ultimately, I would love to see us go out of business. Right? That would be the idea that there are no more communities that are left behind.”

Her Advice to Young Engineers — and to Anyone Trying to Make a Difference

Clare knows firsthand what it’s like to be the only woman in the room, and even to be called “the token.” But she also knows how far the field has come.

“We still lose too many women early in their engineering careers,” she said. “Work-life balance is part of that. Supporting people, all people, to bring their best selves to the work is how we’ll keep them.”

To early-career engineers, she offers this:

• Seek community. Find mentors and colleagues who will support you when the work gets hard.
• Stick with it. Engineering is challenging in the beginning, but deeply rewarding.
• Remember why you chose this path. “If you like your job more than half the time,” she quotes her father saying, “you’ve got a good job.”

And to EWB-USA volunteers?

“You are the heart of this organization. We simply couldn’t do any of this without you.”

“Never Stop Learning”: Gerard on Growth, Courage, and a Lifetime of Engineering for Good

Most people know Gerard as EWB-USA’s Chief Engineer, the person volunteers count on when a question is too complex, a risk too uncertain, or a design too unconventional.

But his journey began much more simply: he just wanted a job.

“I went to engineering school because it provided a stable job,” he laughed. “But then I took a few water design classes, got hooked, and everything changed.”

A Career Shaped by Water … and by Asking ‘What Else Can I Learn?’

Gerard’s career took him from the U.S. Geological Survey to flood management in Los Angeles to the private sector, where he eventually “burned out.”

Then came a path-altering sabbatical to India.

“I just showed up,” he said. “No plan, no assignment … just a belief that if I was willing to learn and help… I’d find something meaningful to do.”

That sabbatical turned into wide-ranging roles, from teaching Tibetan monks English, to repairing Himalayan roads with the Border Roads Organization, all leading to a deepening commitment to global development.

From there, he went on to complete eight volunteer missions with Water for People and, later, to serve in Sierra Leone during the Ebola epidemic, where he helped build:

• An oxygen factory
• A tuberculosis and HIV clinic
• A triage hut
• A new Ebola holding unit

That oxygen factory alone is estimated to have saved more than 1,500 lives over the past decade.

His Most Unforgettable EWB-USA Project

Without hesitation, Gerard points to the Kasese Bridge in Uganda.

“It connects people … to school, to healthcare, to markets. It’s striking, it’s safe, and it’s an engine of economic growth. Projects like that operate on so many levels.”

He still marvels at the stories of vendors selling handmade goods at each end of the bridge, turning a piece of infrastructure into a source of hope and opportunity.

What He Wants Engineers to Understand About Climate Change

Climate change, he says, “it’s here, and it’s not going away.”

“Carbon doesn’t disappear quickly. Everything we emit is still up there. That means the world is changing, and engineering has to change with it.”

He believes agriculture, particularly in countries like Peru where EWB-USA is expanding it’s Purposeful Partnership Model, is where engineering support will become most critical.

“Helping farmers adapt to unpredictable rainfall is going to be one of the most important things we do.”

His Advice for the Next Generation

If Gerard could offer one message to young engineers, it’s this:

“Never stop learning, and never assume someone else should solve the problem before you try.”

He encourages engineers to:

• Try to solve problems yourself first. Delegation has its place, but true mastery comes from a commitment to learn.
• Travel if you can. “The insights, perspective, and growth that come from seeing the world — you can't match it.”
• Downturns are inevitable. What carries you through—at work and in life—is planning, resilience, and community.
• Recognize your impact. “There’s a lot of voluntourism out there… but truly applying your engineering skills toward something like building a water system that lasts ten plus years? That’s real impact.”

A Shared Legacy: Building Tomorrow, Together

Across their stories, one theme emerges again and again: engineering is ultimately about people.

About neighbors in Ohio working toward a healthier future.
About farmers in Peru adapting to a changing climate.
About a grandmother in Bolivia walking fewer miles each day for water.
About volunteers, students, professionals, and retirees alike, choosing to give their time and talent to communities they may never meet again.

Clare and Gerard have embodied the best of what EWB-USA strives to be: technically rigorous, community-centered, endlessly optimistic.

As they move into their next chapters, their impact continues, in the thousands of volunteers they’ve mentored, the countless communities strengthened by their leadership, and the future humanitarian engineers they’ve inspired.

Their legacy is all around us: in the bridges that stand, the water that flows, and the leaders rising to take their place.

Help ensure the legacy of their work lives on here at EWB-USA for generations to come by contributing to our year-end fundraiser: ewb-usa.org/donate.