About Us

Collaboration, transparency, accountability, diversity, and environmental integrity.

Mission

Partners in Progress works with rural based organizations to strengthen local cultural, social, and environmental assets for building sustainable community.

Vision

Rural communities are places where people want to live and raise a family; where neighbors all have responsibility to ensure the health and well-being of people and the environment and to continuously imagine and shape a prosperous, hope-filled future.

Our History

Update coming soon…

Values

Our core values and beliefs guide everything we do, large and small. We:

For PIP, sustainable community development is that which:

  • Takes an integrated approach to meeting basic needs that also works to address systemic challenges facing rural communities
  • Is inclusive and promotes equity and social justice
  • Improves the health of the environment (soil, plant and animal life, air, water) for future generations
  • Generates local wealth, while promoting equitable distribution of resources
  • Depends and builds on local knowledge, resources, and innovation to the greatest extent possible
  • Builds community capacity for self organizing, imagining, and developing the resources needed to realize a shared vision of the future
  • Fosters resiliency and self-reliance

What does sustainable community look like?

  • Believe in the inherent right of all peoples to clean air, water, land and other resources necessary to meet their basic needs and live with dignity;
  • Work to reclaim and revitalize the knowledge, values, and traditions of our ancestors that can lead to more sustainable outcomes;
  • Trust in the power of communities to create innovative solutions to the problems they face;
  • Believe that we should be “inclusive” in our work and that everyone has something to contribute and teach;
  • Consider the implications of our decisions on future generations; and
  • Recognize our inter-dependency with each other and the rest of creation.

Meet the Team

Passionate and dedicated to improving conditions for rural Haiti, our core team brings with them an enormous range of talent, with diverse backgrounds and skill sets to help make a lasting, positive impact. Additionally, we work with some of the best and brightest leaders in the sustainable development field. Meet the people who work as Partners in Progress staff and associates, serve on the Board of Directors, or otherwise represent some of our partners in progress.

Staff and Consultants

Elizabeth-Harbist

Elizabeth Harbist

Administrative Specialist
Mongesly Clervil

Mongesly Clervil

Program Advisor
Genel_Gira

Genel Gira

Construction Foreman, Haiti
Jim-Hallock

Jim Hallock

SCEB Consultant
Josue_Antenor_Jean

Josue Antenor Jean

Construction Design and Engineer, Haiti
Shannon Kearney

Shannon Kearney

Development and Outreach Coordinator
Michael Neumann

Michael Neumann

Executive Director
Catherine-Twohig

Catherine Twohig

Program and Evaluation Assistant
Claudy-Vital

Claudy Vital

Agroecology Program Consultant

Board of Directors

Joseph Hoover

President

 

Financial Planner and Investment Advisor

Harriet Oyera

Vice President

 

Social Worker, Refugee Services, MN Council of Churches

Mary McIntyre

Secretary

 

Served as Assistant to the President, The Assistant to the Provost, Retired Adjunct Professor, Duquesne University

John Newell

Treasurer

 

Senior Consultant, Highmark

Matthew Slaughter

CEO of Earthfort

Board Members

Ruben Berrios

Economist, Lockhaven University

Pat Carew

President and Owner, Enerstar

Barbara Finch

Prison Ministry, Allegheny County Jail

Agathe Dumay

Accounting Manager in Laval, Quebec

Michael Kenstowicz

Associate, Jones Day Law Firm

Kathleen Mullaney

Director of Research, Dominican University

Joyce Rothermel

Former CEO, Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank

Kefale Bogale

Pharmacist, PharmD, Walgreens

Interested in becoming a member of the team?

We look for individuals who exhibit leadership, vision and passion for work in Haiti to serve on our Board of Directors, or work as a partner. Experience in fundraising, community organizing, and international development are preferred. If you are interested in learning more about this service opportunity, please reach out to us.

Our work in rural Haiti is fueled by generous contributions from loyal donors like you. Please consider becoming a MONTHLY sponsor of Partners in Progress today.

All donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.

Join us for our First Ever Funder Briefing on November 14, 2024

I invite you to join me, virtually, on Thursday, November 14 at 7 pm ET for a first ever donor briefing and discussion to learn about the innovation happening in our partners’ communities, emerging development opportunities, and ways you can contribute to this exciting change taking place in Haiti and Uganda.

I will also provide an update about our work as an organization, current happenings on the ground with our partners, and be available to answer questions about our work.

Registration is required so we can provide you a personal link to our meeting. You are welcome to invite a friend or two to join us.

Michael Neumann
Executive Director

Jim Hallock

Jim Hallock

SCEB Consultant

I graduated from Knox College in Illinois in 1969 and struck out immediately for San Francisco. In the 1970s and ‘80s I supported my Western States wanderings through conventional construction jobs in concrete, drywall, roofing, and carpentry. “Back in the day”, there were unions, and I was first a journeyman roofer and then a journeyman carpenter. I used “journeyman” to its literal meaning.

In the early to mid ‘80s and into the ‘90s, I was involved with rehabilitation of distressed properties and real estate development and acquisition. During that era, I came to learn the truth of conventional building materials. They are hazardous to health. This fact came home personally. My wife, Nora, was employed by a large medical center in California as a psychologist. The hospital received a brand new building for the mental health department. “Brand new building”….new carpet, sheetrock, paint, upholstery, caulking, new everything, combined with windows that didn’t open, in order to allow the mechanically “managed” air to function without interference. She began a downward health spiral shortly after relocating to her new office.

We decided to leave California for rural Colorado, and I began my search for a healthier, non-toxic, building material. I attended seminars on various “green” systems. I found the answer beneath my feet in a presentation outside of Durango. I leased a machine from New Mexico and built what we now refer to as Earth Block One….my first anyway. Following the completion of our home in 1995, I founded Earth Block Inc. and, for ten years, built many homes of earth in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.

In 2004, I was presented an opportunity in Mexico to be the Director of Earth Block Manufacturing for the Loreto Bay Company. I was there from April 2004 until November 2006. We manufactured 1.5 million lime-stabilized earth blocks for the development. An unforeseen benefit of that adventure was an appreciation for Mexico that I continue to carry, for the people, their history, and culture. Departing Baja, my friend and soon-to-be partner, Jeff, and I drove to San Miguel de Allende and with our Mexican partner, Monica, founded Instituto Tierra y Cal A.C. on 20 acres outside of SMA. We were off to a pretty good start, having conducted several well-attended workshops with international students and professors and, in fact, had merged with Mexico’s branch of Engineers Without Borders when the Great Financial Debacle of ’08 decimated our real estate in the U.S. and the gringos stopped coming to Mexico.

I came back across the Rio Grande to Texas. Texas?? Over the course of the previous five or six years, we had conducted about a dozen workshops in San Antonio with Lawrence Jetter of AECT, our machine manufacturer. I met a lot of Texans. One of them, Carson, still my friend and coach, convinced me to have a look at Fredericksburg. Nora and I are still here and have been, primarily, since 2011.

Recently (2017 to 2019), I’m proud to have spent the better parts of two + years (no winters!) co-founding Colorado Earth with Lisa Morey. I have returned to Texas and continue to conduct my earthen building career through Earth Block Texas (U.S. projects) and Earth Block International (over the border). Lisa carries on as the sole owner of Colorado Earth. Lisa and I continue to collaborate on various projects and look forward to continuing to support each other in our mutual missions.

Reaching back to 2006, Nora and I were fortunate to purchase a home in San Miguel de Allende.

We enjoy it as much as we can and plan for a more equal division of our time between Texas and Mexico….a truly Tex-Mex existence.
Throughout this story I have been blessed with travel inspired by my mission for earth blocks: Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Ethiopia, South Africa, Zambia, but, most importantly, Haiti. During these travels I have also had the opportunity to meet, and be mentored by, many of the giants in our field and worked with some great partners and employees. I’ve tried to mention and honor most of them in the “Mentors and Heroes” photo folder.

Haiti: the poorest country in the Western hemisphere…abundant in need and good people. My experience there has been one of resilient and hard-working people, eager to learn and work. They aren’t in need of a hand out, but rather, a leg up. I met Mike Neumann at a conference in Detroit in about 2006. Through Mike’s efforts and belief in our earthen system, we have been working together for Partners in Progress, Pittsburgh, in Haiti, since 2009 and continue to the present. Mike is currently the Executive Director of PIP and has long served as the driver of their successful agro-ecology project in Haiti. Currently, while continuing our efforts in Haiti for earth block schools and housing, and agro-ecology advancements, Mike and I are exploring opportunities in Uganda and Egypt. Food and Shelter are just below Air and Water on the “needs list” for survival.

My mission is to help as many people as possible understand the benefits of earthen construction and to help them into an earthen structure. “Services” is a category stop on this website tour.

This is a narrative auto-biography covering my time in the CEB world.

The Earth has the answers.

Jim

Catherine Twohig

Catherine Twohig

Program and Evaluation Assistant

Catherine began working with Partners in Progress as a volunteer in 2015, working with farmers of the Konbit Vanyan Kapab Agroecology Project to begin conceptualizing an initiative to build the skills of farmers so that they can share knowledge with other farmers in Haiti about agroecology. She has travelled to Haiti a number of times, and she developed and delivered workshops for farmers in Deslandes to become adult educators and thereby conduct hands-on workshops for other farmers throughout Haiti in sustainable agroecology farming. She has degrees from the University of Minnesota in Adult Education and Workforce Development. She recently retired from teaching in the graduate program of Adult Education at the University. Beginning in January, 2020 Catherine became a part-time staff member with PIP in the role of Program Development and Evaluation Assistant. She works in the areas of training, education and evaluation as well as administrative activities. Early in 2020 she and a literacy consultant/teacher began development of a literacy program for farmer educators in Deslandes to begin in Summer, 2021. Catherine resides in St. Paul, MN and her favorite things to do are spending time with nieces and nephews and travel to Haiti and Ireland.

Shannon Kearney

Shannon Kearney

Development and Outreach Coordinator

Shannon has been working with the Partners in Progress team since 2016. She is the marketing director at Mullaney’s Harp and Fiddle and has been working cooperatively with Partners in Progress since 2011. Shannon is passionate about the non-profit community in Pittsburgh and has helped to coordinate fundraising initiatives instrumental in raising funds that support earth block construction training in Haiti that have built three school buildings in Deslandes. Shannon received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Bethany College and Masters in Administration and Supervision from Duquesne University.

Michael Neumann

Michael Neumann

Executive Director

A great friend and ally of Partners in Progress for several years, Michael served first as a board member, later as a consultant, and most recently as Interim Associate Director with former Executive Director, Dr. Richard Gosser. He assumed the Executive Director role in early 2015. Mike brings over 12 years of non-profit management experience and 15 years of experience managing community-led, asset-based development and education programs. This work has focused on agriculture, environmental restoration, health education, supportive housing, and green building efforts, mainly in Native American and low-income communities in Minnesota and rural Haiti. Since 2011, Michael has coordinated PIP’s earth-block construction project (the EGD Project) and its agro-ecology (the KVK, or Konbit Vanyan Kapab) project, both in Deslandes, Haiti. Mike studied political science and psychology at the University of Houston, holds a J.D. from Hamline University School of Law and M.Ed. Agriculture from University of Minnesota.