Engineering Hope in Uncertain Times

How EWB-USA Is Engineering Hope Amid Global Uncertainty

When the world feels uncertain, Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB-USA) engineers turn to what they know best: designing hope through action.

National STEM Day is today and EWB-USA is celebrating the engineers and community partners who use their skills to build a better world. People like Chief Engineer Gerard Dalziel, who will retire at the end of 2025 after more than four decades in the field. His career reflects not just technical excellence, but the belief that engineering can, and does, change lives.

“During challenging times we turn to what has always been our greatest strength: our volunteers. They become even more motivated, more passionate about their work when they see the need for their work become ever more important, here at home and abroad. Our community partners are super resilient as well. I've said many times that they are tough, smart, and deeply deeply care about their communities. So between our volunteers and our partners, the work will not stop. It will move forward until these communities have the water, sanitation of other infrastructure they need. The learning and growing, both personally and professionally, of both our volunteers and our in-country partners is amazing to see, and we here at headquarters feel very privileged to work alongside these teams.”

Gerard’s own path to humanitarian engineering was decades in the making. He began his career as an intern with the U.S. Geological Survey in 1979 before moving into public service with Los Angeles County, where he worked from 1981 to 1985. For the next 30 years, he built a successful career in the private engineering sector where he led complex infrastructure projects from 1986 to 2016.

By 2017, however, Gerard was ready for a change. After years in the corporate world, he says

“I found myself too far from the real world of projects and the benefits projects create. I had also seen the need for engineering across the developing world and decided I could make the most difference in the development sector.”

Joining EWB-USA offered him a chance to bring that experience full circle and to make a tangible difference in communities that need it most.

Since then, Gerard has contributed to EWB-USA’s engineering programs around the world and across the United States. His tenure has strengthened the organization’s technical rigor while keeping its focus grounded in people. His work has helped ensure that every project, from clean water systems in Peru to flood recovery in Appalachia, reflects both engineering excellence and deep partnership with local leaders.

For our staff engineers like Gerard, hope at EWB-USA isn’t an abstract idea. It’s something measurable. It’s the clean water system that still functions a decade later because community members have the tools to maintain it. It’s the bridge that reconnects families to opportunity. It’s the student and professional volunteers who grow into more empathetic, capable engineers through hands-on collaboration.

Through challenges ranging from shifting global priorities to domestic funding cuts, EWB-USA’s volunteers and partners have continued to adapt, innovate, and deliver. Their persistence is what allows the organization to keep building momentum even in uncertain times.

As Gerard prepares to step away from his role, his career serves as a testament to the idea that engineering is, at its heart, an act of hope: a belief that the future can be improved through human ingenuity, collaboration, and compassion.

EWB-USA will celebrate Gerard’s retirement later this year, honoring his dedication to the organization and the countless communities his leadership has touched. His legacy will live on in every project that brings clean water, power, and opportunity to those who need it most.

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