Maurice L. Albertson, Ph.D., P.E.
President and Founder

For over 50 years Maury has been Professor at Colorado State University. He served as Director of the Research Foundation, Director of International Programs and Professor of Civil Engineering. His professional fields are environmental engineering, the hydrogen economy, water resources engineering, irrigation engineering, hydropower engineering, low-cost and low-energy sustainable wastewater treatment, constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment, and international development, specializing in sustainable village-based development.

As co-founder of the Peace Corps, he has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the UNDP, AID, UNESCO, the Peace Corps and other agencies on projects and programs dealing with environmental engineering, water and sanitation, water resource development, on-farm water management, appropriate technology, village development, small industry development, and research and education. His list of honors include: American Society of Civil Engineers, J. C. Stevens Award, Emil Hilgard Prize, Croes Medal, Colo. State Univ. Centennial Professor and Public Service Award, Peshawar Univ. of Pakistan Honorary Doctor of Laws, Asian Institute of Technology Honorary Doctor of Technology, Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Lowell Univ.; Colorado Governor’s Award of Merit for Science and Technology, National Society of Professional Engineers Engineer of the Year, Iowa State Univ. Professional Achievement Award. Dr. Albertson has published more than 200 publications.

Jerry Kenel, Board Chair

Edwin F. Shinn, Ph.D.

Ed has worked in the field of community development for 30 years. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology, a Master's degree in Group Dynamics, and a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy. His expertise includes organizational development, planning and management methods, training design and implementation, technology generation, project monitoring and survey research.

His work as an organizer and trainer has taken him to the villages of India, Kenya, Peru, Guatemala, Wounded Knee, rural California, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Egypt. He developed and managed a mobile school for community development where indigenous people in each area in which it was held were trained to be faculty. In Egypt he helped to develop an Irrigation Advisory Service and trained its personnel to work with farmers in setting up water user organizations to improve irrigated agriculture.

Miriam Shinn, M.S.

Miriam (Mimi) has worked in the field of community and village development for 30 years. She received her M.S. in Agricultural Economics. She has worked has worked with and lived as a community developer in India, Australia, and Africa. Her specialty is group facilitation, women in development, communication for development, and micro-finance.

Related Information:

The president and co-founder of Village Earth, Dr. Maurice Albertson, was instrumental in the development of the U.S. Peace Corps in the 1960's. To learn more Click Here!

Read more about the Village Earth's approach to Village-Based Development.

Click Here! to Download the Complete Village Earth Model.