Associate Course Director, Humanitarian Water Engineering; Technical Advisor, Safe Water Optimization Tool
Research Team

James is a water, sanitation, and public health engineering specialist with over ten years of experience in programme delivery, cluster coordination, research, policy development, and capacity building, supporting countries across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
His work has involved the set-up of community health centres in Sierra Leone during the Ebola outbreak, coordinating contingency planning ahead of the Mosul offensive in Iraq and designing water supply and sanitation programs in South Sudan, Myanmar, Liberia, Iraq, Ukraine, Nigeria and Lebanon.
Over the past few years, he has developed a professional focus on appropriate market-based approaches, quality assurance and accountability, and data science applications in the field of WASH. He has contributed to several projects in these focus areas and co-authored technical guidance on Market Based Approaches for WASH and Quality Assurance and Accountability.
Prior to his work in the humanitarian sector, James co-founded a social enterprise in the UK focused on developing products to address barriers to safe drinking water access for households in rural communities, using designs that can be manufactured locally.
He completed a Masters in Product Design Engineering, a program jointly delivered by the University of Glasgow and the Glasgow School of Art, in 2009, combining mechanical engineering with human-centred design.
You may also be interested in...
Recap — Navigating Your Life’s Work: An Inspired Conversation, with Don Simpson
On Wednesday, January 29, Dahdaleh senior fellow Don Simpson led an engaging and reflective conversation on preparing for one’s real life’s work. Moderated by Dahdaleh senior fellow Harvey Skinner, the session was a back-and-forth discussion, ...Read more about this Post
GEHLab Interns Present Oral Presentations at Undergraduate Summer Research Conference 2025 at York University
Global and Environmental Health Lab interns Hefot Ahmed and Amoian S. F. Kouatin, skillfully guided by Dr. Godfred Boateng at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, showcased their groundbreaking research at the 2025 Undergraduate ...Read more about this Post
Announcing the Winners of the 2023 Seed Grants in Critical Perspectives in Global Health Research
Following the fourth annual Critical Perspective for Global Health Research (CPGH) workshop in March, the CPGH Steering Committee is delighted to announce that the following York researchers have been awarded this year’s $5,000 seed grants ...Read more about this Post
