Research Director
Vera is the Research Director and co-lead of KDI Kenya. She has dedicated her career to learning from, supporting and scaling community-led initiatives related to water, sanitation, waste and sustainability. Vera oversees KDI’s research projects with a practical focus on marrying environmental risk mitigation with economic and social community priorities. A civil engineer and certified project manager, Vera’s experience includes eight years of water engineering and project management of infrastructure development in consultancy and the nonprofit sector. She previously worked with the engineering consulting firm Arup and taught engineering at University College London. She has worked in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, St. Lucia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Maldives, South Sudan, Sudan, Bangladesh and Australia. Vera holds an undergraduate degree in civil and structural engineering from University of Bradford UK and is completing her PhD in Environmental Engineering at University College London.