Who We Are

Malcolm Siegel, PhD, MPH serves as Executive Director of WRAP and has been a Board Member since 2012. Dr. Siegel’s connection to Israel goes back to the 1970’s. He studied and conducted research at Tel Aviv University and was a marine chemist at the Israel Oceanographic and Limnologic Institute in Haifa. Before becoming WRAP’s Executive
Director, he served as Director of Operations and Education from 2013-2019. He is also the current Chair of the Albuquerque-Rechovot Sister City program.

After receiving his PhD in Geological Sciences from Harvard University, Dr. Siegel worked as an environmental scientist for 30 years at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM until 2011. He is currently Vice President of LJS, Consulting, and an adjunct faculty member in the School of Medicine at the University of New Mexico. He
is the Chair of the Geology and Health Scientific Division of the Geological Society of America, and author of over 65 professional papers and book chapters.

Dr. Siegel is active in several non-profit organizations focused on science education, citizen science and engineering programs that support underserved communities. He has been a volunteer at the Explora Science Museum in Albuquerque and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Environmental Educators Association of New Mexico.
He served as Albuquerque Professionals Chapter President and the New Mexico representative to Engineers Without Borders-USA. At the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, he is past-President of the Volunteers Association and is currently a Museum tour guide docent and Chair of the Continuing Education Committee.

Leonard Miller is a founding member of WRAP and has served on the organization’s Board since its creation in 2009. He was the driving force behind the establishment of the group and continues to lead its overarching efforts.

Mr. Miller is also of counsel to Sullivan & Worcester LLP, a member of the Environmental, Energy & Natural Resources Group and the International Group in the firm’s Washington, DC office. He is a pioneer in the environmental field as one of the first environmental lawyers in the U.S. government, working for the National Air Pollution Control Administration and then as part of the group of federal employees who started the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While at EPA, he created the structures of the modern-day regulation of air and water pollution, and designed the framework for all of the EPA permit programs. In particular, he headed the EPA effort, which established permit regulations for underground injection wells. He headed the national water enforcement effort and handled ground-breaking and controversial enforcement cases from Alaska to Idaho to the Caribbean.

In private practice since 1980, Mr. Miller has represented some of the largest corporations in the world in solving their environmental, health and safety issues, and championed the cause of new companies from the United States, China, Korea and India entering the U.S. agricultural chemical market. He has also represented several industry groups and associations, notably the nylon industry and the asphalt pavement industry in matters requiring innovative solutions to complex environmental, health and safety issues. Mr. Miller has handled cases involving aldrin/dieldrin, PCBs, dioxins, lead and asbestos. He also has pursued patent infringement actions against some of the largest companies in the telecom industry.

Mr. Miller is an alumna of Brandeis University with a Bachelors of Art and law degree from Harvard Law School.

Brendan P. McGinnis is a Founder and Board Advisor of the Water Resources Action Project (WRAP). He served as WRAP’s Executive Director from 2009-2019, where he led the organization’s efforts to fund and construct rainwater harvesting systems at schools throughout Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, increasing their water security, while promoting cross-cultural exchange through environmental education.

Mr. McGinnis routinely visits the region to build and maintain critical partnerships with the Ministries of Education and Environment, schools, NGOs and local businesses. In 2015, he was nominated to serve on the Executive Committee of the Rotary Hands Across Waters Program, the largest Rotary International global grant awarded in Israel’s
history.

Elizabeth (Beth) Pitrolo was nominated to WRAP’s Board in 2013. In addition to sharing her rich environmental background and expertise on the Board, she will support the organization’s efforts to identify and advance key partnerships, while enhancing its communications and messaging.

Ms. Pitrolo is also an Assistant District Counsel for the Albuquerque District of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. She has been involved in a variety of environmental programs, including Hurricane Katrina remedial response, Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act litigation, CERCLA cleanup activities associated with radioactive waste from the Manhattan Project, and issues related to construction projects in Europe and the Middle East. She serves as an instructor for the Corps’ PROSPECT courses.

Previously, Ms. Pitrolo was an Assistant Attorney General in the Environmental Bureau of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office where she litigated environmental enforcement and compliance actions. She has also been employed as an attorney for a private law firm and managed her own environmental consulting firm in Australia.

Ms. Pitrolo received a Bachelors of Science in forestry and wildlife management from West Virginia University, Masters of Science in biological sciences from Marshall University, and law degree from the University of Houston.

Leora Jaeger contributes her expertise in grant writing, program development, partner relationships, and collaborative projects to WRAP. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from the University of California at Los Angeles, a Master’s in City and Regional Planning from Harvard University, and training in community empowerment and in Community Based Participatory Research from the University of New Mexico Master’s in Public Health Program. She is President of LJS Consulting, Inc. and has taken lead roles in numerous public health planning and evaluation projects including many surveys and focus groups designed to assess perceptions and impacts of a wide range of public health and educational programs.

Randa Masri joined WRAP in 2016 as a Board Advisor. Ms. Masri is the founder and CEO of ConnectME, a social enterprise established to support the development of a sustainable, prosperous economy in Palestine and of the economies in transition across the wider Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region.

Prior to establishing ConnectME, Ms. Masri worked in Washington as an independent consultant to projects focused on Palestinian economic development and private sector engagement across the MENA region. During this time, she engaged partners in the private and public sectors, such as the U.S. State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Aspen Institute and Middle East Investment Initiative. She also serves as a consultant to the President of AMIDEAST, a U.S. non-profit engaged in education, training and development activities in the MENA region, and she co-chairs the US-Palestinian Partnership.

Ms. Masri was born in New York to Palestinian parents and shortly thereafter moved to Palestine where she spent her childhood in Nablus. After graduating from the University of Jordan with degrees in Economics & Statistics as well as Public Administration, Ms. Masri returned to the United States. She has lived and worked in the Washington D.C. area for the last 30 years where she continued her education at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute.
She served as the Franklin Fellow at the Office of Commercial and Business Affairs at the State Department from 2014 – 2015 and was Senior Advisor on Entrepreneurship and Economic Development. In this capacity, Ms. Masri was part of the core State Team at the 2014 Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), held in Marrakech, Morocco. She also supported the State’s efforts organizing GES 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya with special focus on Finance Panels.
She remains an active member of the Palestinian-American Diaspora and has led outreach efforts to this community, particularly in the area of economic support for the MENA region.

Ms. Masri is an active and vocal advocate for a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and for an economically prosperous Middle East. She serves on the board of the non profit organization Our Generation Speaks (OGS), which works in partnership with Brandeis University and Mass Challenge Accelerator, toward building a shared future for Israelis and Palestinians through Social Enterprise.

Amir Yechieli is renowned for designing, constructing, and managing rainwater harvesting and gray water recycling systems in 160 schools around Israel. The projects have resulted in improved savings for each school, as well as demonstrating for the students a sustainable use of resources, allowing for an in-depth exploration of fundamental and ethical questions regarding the relationship of humans to their surroundings. The practical management of the system permits students to assess the efficiency of the model and calculate the amount of water and funds the system has saved their school.

Financed and mediated by the U.S. Geological Survey and the EEU, Mr. Yechieli led the multilateral “Rain Catcher” project with Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority as partners. Currently, he is working with schools in Africa, and Central America on projects to provide students with sufficient water for drinking and personal hygiene, thus allowing more students, especially girls, to attend and study effectively.

Zoubaida Salman serves as WRAP’s in-country school coordinator and environmental educator for its partner schools in East Jerusalem. She also serves as a Science Teacher and Environment and Health Coordinator at the Sur Baher Girls School in East Jerusalem for the past 22 years. Ms. Salman has led the school’s involvement in WRAP’s Plant4Peace blog and For My Earth e-book, One Raindrop at a Time.

Within the Sur Baher community, she continues to inspire other schools to develop advanced environment, health and science studies, especially for adolescent girls. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology/Chemistry and Master’s in Science Teaching Methods, both from Al-Quds University. She has a High Diploma in Education from Bethlehem University.

Liad Amir serves as WRAP’s in-country school coordinator and environmental educator, coordinating joint projects involving the Arab students at Mekif Tuba High School in the Bedouin village of Tuba Zangaria and Jewish students at the Eynot Yarden High School in Kibbutz Amir.

Mr Amir studied Environmental Science at Tel Hai college and completed his Masters of Education at Haifa University.

Batool Rjoub Salman, BSc, MS, is a Sustainability Education Consultant, serving as an Advisor to WRAP in Jerusalem. Born in Jerusalem, she earned honors in Applied Earth Science and Environment at Al-Quds University in her BSc degree and graduated from the Environmental and Water Studies program at Birzeit University with an MS degree in Water Technology and Environmental Science. She has worked as a research assistant at Al Quds University, then with the Canadian NGO CIDA, and with the PWA (Palestinian Water Authority) on a number of hydrogeological projects. She then worked with the Jerusalem Municipality as project manager for schools in East Jerusalem. In addition to WRAP, Batool works with the science education organizations GreenNet and Hi Teach, and with the Israeli educational office on twining projects between Jewish and Arab schools in Jerusalem.

According to Batool, there weren’t many well-known Arab Muslim females working on any type of environmental sustainability projects while she was growing up, but she didn’t let that stop her from pursuing her goals. Today, she encourages young women and girls to study and follow their dreams. She hopes that her life example teaches others how a working mother can follow her dream, no matter how grand.

Lujain Subhi joined the WRAP team in 2019 to support development, management, student engagement and translation of the WRAP trilingual (Arabic, Hebrew, English) student environmental WebApp. Lujain has worked as community development worker in Beit Safafa Women’s Society in south Jerusalem, where she was responsible for managing projects that aim to empower the youth in the village. She also managed the library at the Women’s Society, and strived to provide more useful and enjoyable experiences for children living in conditions of socio-economic deprivation.

Gonen Sagy serves as a Project Evaluator for WRAP, developing research tools in a holistic-collaborative method with WRAP’s Lead Educators and grassroots staff. Born and raised in Israel, Dr. Sagy studies at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES), which was named among the top 100 environmental think-tanks in the world. At AIES, he focused on collaborative cross-border research initiatives between Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian students.

Dr. Sagy took part in an AIES team that led the first national mapping of the levels of environmental literacy in Israel’s education system. After completing a Ph.D. on multicultural aspects of Environmental Education in Israel, he led the founding of the Youth Environmental Education Peace Initiative (YEEPI) on behalf of AIES, which was the largest peace program in Israeli high schools at the time, operating in ten Arabic and Hebrew speaking schools throughout Israel, collaborating closely with Israel’s Ministry of Education.

Dr. Sagy immigrated to Canada in recent years, where he has founded the Caring Hearts program, an initiative designed to provide schools and communities with a platform for building relationships and paths of reconciliation between indigenous and non- indigenous Canadians in the National Capital Region. Dr. Sagy also serves as a youth meeting facilitator and Board Member at Young Voices Can, an Ottawa-based non-profit dedicated to reducing Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism.

Mary Alexander has been a dedicated volunteer for WRAP since 2010. She closely coordinates many of the group’s partnerships, most notably with Friends of the Earth Middle East, where she also devotes her time as a U.S. Representative.

Before her retirement, she worked for 20 years in public policy for Panasonic Corporation of North America. As Director of Government Relations, she monitored and lobbied on federal legislative and regulatory activities affecting the company’s operations, focusing on international trade, tax, environment, and general corporate affairs issues. She was a founding member of the Association of Women in International Trade, which honored her in 2005 with its first annual Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ms. Alexander has a particular interest in finding peace in the Middle East as a result of her work with the U.S. State Department in Damascus, Syria, in the late 1970s. She has lobbied state legislatures on environmental issues and recently received a Virginia Master Naturalist certificate and a graduate certificate in Natural History Field Studies, provided by the Audubon Naturalist Society/USDA Graduate School.

Ms. Alexander holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania and a minor in Education.

Kate Courtin oversees the Marketing and Communications for WRAP, raising awareness and visibility for the organization’s efforts, domestically and internationally. She has been a volunteer with WRAP since 2012.

Ms. Courtin also serves as a Climate Program Manager at The Nature Conservancy where she offers project management, research and analytical support for TNC’s U.S. climate portfolio and related corporate engagement strategy. Prior to TNC, she spent over four years as a Project Manager with The Horinko Group, assisting with the company’s research efforts, development of white papers and case studies, and event coordination. Prior to joining The Horinko Group, she served as a Student Contractor for the Science Communication team in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development.

Ms. Courtin received her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service where she studied Science, Technology and International Affairs with a concentration in Energy & the Environment.

Rachel Hertzman provides support with grant application development and coordination. She has Master’s Degrees in Water Resources, Middle Eastern and North African Studies, and Community and Regional Planning and has completed extensive volunteer work with refugees.

Ms. Hertzman has experience with water-quality monitoring and stormwater management practices and research. She currently works as a planner for the public schools in New Mexico.

Water Resources Action Project (WRAP) proudly recognizes founding member, Robert (Bob) T. Cole, for his vast contributions to the formation and establishment of the group. Since WRAP’s creation in 2009, he served as a Board Member and President, instrumental in cultivating critical partnerships between WRAP, Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), and Only Green Environmental Center.

As a tireless advocate for WRAP, Bob frequently traveled to the Middle East to coordinate the group’s efforts, maintaining close relationships with its grassroots partners and community leaders. In November 2012, at the age of 81, he made his last trip to the region, finalizing plans for WRAP’s inaugural West Bank project. He peacefully passed on May 15, 2013.

In partnership with WRAP and FoEME, the cistern rainwater harvesting system that Bob pursued so relentlessly was successfully completed on June 26, 2013 at the Battir Girls High School, near Bethlehem in the West Bank. In remembrance of Bob Cole, the project was formally memorialized at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in November 2013. The joint effort will build a greater awareness and appreciation for water conservation and environment that will honor Bob’s legacy for generations to come.

In addition to his volunteer efforts with WRAP and FoEME, Bob enjoyed a full career as an International Tax Attorney. After serving as International Tax Counsel of the U.S. Treasury and heading his own law firm, he joined Alston & Bird in 1997 where he founded the firm’s International Tax Group. He was the editor and principal author of the Practical Guide to U.S. Transfer Pricing. Bob was also a co-owner of several successful locations of The Little Gym. He was a mentor to many and a devoted Grand Canyon enthusiast. He was a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School, and was a volunteer for the U.S. Air Force.