Staff and Board of Directors

About US - Staff Board - Top

Operations

We maintain a headquarters building in Pignon, Haiti that includes offices and areas for mechanical repairs and storage. We have three well drilling rigs, two water trucks, a variety of pick up trucks, motorcycles, and other vehicles that are used by our staff in our community development work. Except for our Country Director, all of our employees in Haiti are citizens of that country.  In the U.S., the executive director and his part-time assistant have an office in donated space in Minnetonka, MN.

Key Staff

Neil Van Dine, Haiti Outreach Country Director: Neil has been the Country Director for Haiti Outreach since 1997. Originally from New York state with a B.A. in mathematics and a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering with a concentration on water, he has lived in Haiti for 20 years. Before working for Haiti Outreach, he was managing projects for the World Christian Relief Fund and the U.N.’s International Office of Migration in Haiti. As Country Director, Neil is responsible for managing all of our programs in Haiti and supervises our staff of 26 Haitian employees.

Dale Snyder, Haiti Outreach Executive Director: Dale has been involved in Haiti since 1990. He helped found the nonprofit organization in 1990 that was renamed and reorganized as Haiti Outreach in 1997. He has been on the board of directors of that organization until he resigned to take up the position of Executive Director seven years ago. A former business owner, Dale has an MBA from the Carlson School of Business at the University of Minnesota. He manages all the activities of Haiti Outreach, including fundraising, from the office in Minnetonka, MN. He also leads groups of people to Haiti.

Roge Michel, Haiti Outreach Community Development Manager: Roge was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and grew up in the town of Hinche, where he still resides. Before working for Haiti Outreach, Roge worked as an animator for ADRA, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency in Haiti. Roge has been working as an animator (the Haitian name for project manager) and Project Supervisor for Haiti Outreach for ten years. He supervises the other Haiti Outreach animators, who work directly with community members to organize them as partners to help build the project and maintain it after it is completed.

Henry Bigelow, Haiti Outreach Operations Manager: Henry joined Haiti Outreach in 2010, just after the earthquake hit Haiti. He is from Salt Lake City, Utah and has a Masters in Public Administration. Henry uses his management, planning and problem-solving skills along with hands-on mechanical experience to head up Haiti Outreach’s Operations Division. Some of the areas he handles include the managing and scheduling the well-drilling crews, inventory management, and vehicle and machine maintenance and repair.

Dalencier Dalegrand, Haiti Outreach (Haiti) Office Manager: Dalencier was born in Pignon, Haiti where Haiti Outreach’s headquarters is located. He joined Haiti Outreach in 2009 and is the Office Manager in Pignon, supervising the office personnel. He is responsible for the organization’s finances in Haiti and financial reporting to the US office. He received a degree in Administrative Services at the University of Notre Dame in Cap-Haitian, Haiti and worked several years as a volunteer at another non-profit before working with the Customs Office in Cap-Haitian.

About Us - Board and Staff Lower

Haiti Outreach Board of Directors

The work of Haiti Outreach is overseen by its Board of Directors, currently consisting of twelve people, with a variety of backgrounds and skills. The executive director was a founding member of Haiti Outreach, as was our Country Director in Haiti. Our current board members are:

Lin Branson – Attorney-Gray, Plant, Mooty
Brenda Beniek Fagley – Attorney, Retired
Wally Faster – Retired VP General Mills Inc., Board of Directors Volunteers of America MN, American Dehydrated Foods Inc, Past Board Chair Volunteers of America Inc.
Jewelie Grape – Associate General Counsel –ELCA Board of Pensions
Jim Gresham - Owner – Blackfin Marketing Company
Mark Hoiseth – Owner-Stonehouse Designs
Kevin Keenan – Owner – Keenan and Sveiven, Landscape Architects
Peg Keenan – Retired Operations Manager – Gelco Payment Systems: Board Member of Teens Alone for homeless teens, Tonka Cares, and WCA Foundation
Jim Kirzeder – Owner – Kirzeder Construction
Lyle Meyer – Retired Civil Engineer – Opus Corp.; Board of Directors for Volunteers of America – MN, Division of Indian Work, Mpls., and Oglala Sioux Tribe: Partnership for Housing, Pine Ridge, SD.
Pam Prosser – Private Practice – Homeopathic Services
Rachel Thibault – Business Manager-Stonehouse Designs