The Design Outreach Team Is Growing!

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This year has been a year of growth for the DO Team. We added two new full-time engineers—Malawi Field Engineering Director Hugo van der Walt and R&D Project Engineer Naja Robinson. We are so thankful for the friends and family who support these engineering missionaries making their work at DO possible. 

Like co-founders Abe Wright and Greg Bixler, Hugo van der Walt knew he wanted to use his engineering degrees to benefit others. Hugo met Design Outreach CEO Dr. Greg Bixler during his time at The Ohio State University, where he earned his master’s degree in mechanical engineering. At that time, he was struggling to see how he could use his passion for engineering to serve others and impact their lives. After short-term mission trips to Honduras, Haiti and Malawi, he knew the answer to his questions and joined DO full-time as the Malawi Field Engineering Director. He will be serving at our Malawi Field Office with his new wife Bre. Hugo is excited to use his teaching and engineering design experiences to directly impact people in the field.

Naja Robinson comes with a long list of accomplishments including earning her BS in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Virginia. She spent 10 years at GE Healthcare designing medical imaging devices, including MRI & CT machines, and she holds two patents in remote data monitoring. Naja is Six Sigma Black Belt certified and has extensive experience in project and team management. 


DO’s Super Summer Interns Contribute to Updated Field Manual for LifePump Installations and Preparation of Malawi Shipment
DO staff, interns, and volunteers collaborating on the
LifePump Installation Manual.
From left: Tara, Aubrey, Nate, Jeff, and Naja

In addition, three talented interns have been working this summer to provide support in a number of areas, including LifePump shipment preparation and LifePump installation manual updates. We are grateful for our super summer interns Josh Blankenship, Aubrey Carson, and Tara Maynard.  

Under the supervision of Naja Robinson, Aubrey and Tara have been working alongside Nate Patrick, a volunteer from Chemical Abstracts (CAS) to perfect this important document that provides LifePump installation instructions using step-by-step visual instructions. All three of our summer interns are students at The Ohio State University, where they met CEO & Co-founder Dr. Greg Bixler. They have been a blessing to us this summer, and we appreciate their hard work and dedication. They have a bright future ahead of them! 

Design Outreach Field Programs, R&D team members and interns support raise for their salaries and benefits, which means that friends, family, and churches provide the necessary funds for them to be able to serve as engineering missionaries. We are thrilled to have these talented individuals on our team and are grateful for their supporters. Thank you! 


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