Alumni Gala & Food Festival 2025

Uma Lakshman is a Roadway Designer at H&H's New York City office. She graduated from NYU's Tandon School of Engineering with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. Uma’s interests lie in highway and roadway design that promotes sidewalks, bike lanes, and other multimodal connections. She has worked on several notable projects, such as the Hunts Point Interchange, Terminal 6 at JFK Airport, and most recently, the Cross Bronx Expressway.  Uma's passions include creating sustainable and equitable infrastructure for all, as she serves as President of the Engineers without Borders' New York Professionals Chapter. Since her presidency, the chapter has successfully completed projects in Kenya and locally, started new projects, and has helped raise over $100,000. Uma’s greatest achievement has been connecting with 10 student chapters around the region to support them as a mentor. Uma hopes to pave the road for young engineers, as her mentors did for her.

Alex is a field engineer with Stacy Witbeck in Baltimore, Maryland, where he works on Amtrak’s $6 billion B&P Tunnel Replacement Program. Through the variety of scopes that he oversees, Alex gets to balance office-side project management and field-side work coordination in order to help Amtrak make critical improvements to a major choke point along the Northeast Corridor.

Alex graduated from Columbia University in 2023 with a B.S. Civil Engineering and in 2024 with an M.S. Construction Management. During college, Alex was deeply involved in CU-EWB. In technical leadership roles and as a co-president of the organization, he supported the Morocco, Ghana, and Uganda projects in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on improving the program's impact while sustainably transitioning to new projects. Upon graduation, he was honored to receive the Columbia Alumni Association’s Campbell award.

Annie Delgadillo is a Renewable Energy Developer at DESRI, where she helps manage over 700 MW of solar projects and 2,800 MWh of battery storage systems across the United States. Annie is a 2023 graduate of Columbia University with a degree in Sustainable Development and is passionate about advancing clean energy in ways that strengthen local communities. Although she works in private project development, she always works to integrate community engagement and sustainable practices in her projects. Outside of work, Annie volunteers with Transportation Alternatives and cycles through hobbies every couple of months ranging from learning ASL to line dancing.

Martha Escobedo is a Project Manager at Mace Consult in NYC. She graduated from Columbia University’s with a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering in 2021. She currently manages corporate real estate projects as an owner’s representative. During her time at Mace, Martha has managed the construction of Leonessa, a rooftop bar at the Conrad Hotel in Battery Park City, and various office fit-outs across the USA and Canada. She is currently working on a renovation of an Auditorium and Conferencing Center at the global headquarters of a Fortune 500 Financial Services Firm. Martha traveled to Uganda twice during her time at Columbia on the first and second implementation trips for the Otubet Solar Microgrid System. In 2023, Martha traveled to Uganda with CU-EWB as a travel mentor to close out the project that she started in 2018. Throughout her time in EWB and in her professional life, Martha has focused on stakeholder management to ensure successful delivery of projects. 

Nimat is a civil engineer at Sherwood Design Engineers, focused on delivering stormwater management and resilience solutions for a wide range of project types. In her time with CU-EWB, Nimat was involved with the Uganda program and served as a chapter co-president. Following graduation, she joined the Regional Steering Committee as the NYC liaison, and later served as Vice President for the NY Professional Chapter and was an active member of the Rubaya project team.

Matt Sisul is Vice President of Sustainable Infrastructure at Green Powered Technology, where he leads international engineering programs that support resilient, locally led infrastructure across Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe. A 2004 graduate of Columbia University’s Civil Engineering program, Matt has spent two decades working at the intersection of structural design, construction oversight, and international development. He began his involvement with Engineers Without Borders through the New York Professional Chapter in 2005, as a volunteer on a project in Kenya and later as chapter President launching projects in Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. Matt remains passionate about applying engineering expertise to strengthen communities and build the next generation of globally minded professionals.He also taught Engineering for Developing Communities in the Civil Engineering Department as an Adjunct Professor from 2016 to 2020.