Rotarian Richard R. Allen
Co-Founder & Board Chairman
Richard co-founded Sustainable Cambodia with his wife Susan Mastin and with fellow director Bruce Lasky. Richard is a Rotarian with the Rotary Club of Gainesville, Florida (D-6970), where he serves on the International Service committee. Richard is the CEO of VOS Systems, a GPS/Mobile-IoT technology company located in the U.S. He is also a co-founder of Synogen, a private venture fund investing in the creation of tech and med-tech companies. Over his 30 year business career, Richard has co-founded RTI Surgical, Axogen , ViewRay , Chaologix, OrthoHelix, Xhale and other technology companies. A multiple Paul Harris (Rotary) Fellow, Richard holds two degrees from the University of Florida. In 2007 Richard received the Service Above Self award from Rotary International, the highest public service recognition award given by Rotary, for his work with Sustainable Cambodia.
Rotarian Susan J. Mastin
Co-Founder & Treasurer
Susan is a full-time volunteer with Sustainable Cambodia which she co-founded with her husband Richard Allen and fellow director Bruce Lasky. As Board Treasurer, she works with SC’s onsite Finance Team in Cambodia to maintain transparency, integrity and accuracy in SC’s financial statements and reporting. As an educator, Susan values working closely with SC’s Sponsorship and Scholarship Coordinator along with the Education Teams. Visiting SC every year is her chance to join classroom and village activities and to bring back stories for sponsors about spending time with their students and community families. Most importantly, she values connecting and learning side-by-side with the children, students, scholars, SC Teams, fellow visitors and Rotarians celebrating our shared lives in this world.
Rotarian PDG Gabor Karsai
Board President
Gabor was born in Budapest, Hungary and immigrated to the USA in 1988. He owns Landmark Realtors, Inc., a commercial / residential real estate brokerage firm. Gabor joined the Locust Valley, NY Rotary Club in 1999, and served as President of the Club in 2003-2004. He was elected as District Governor of D-7250 for the 2011-2012 Rotary year. Gabor’s work with Sustainable Cambodia began with a Save a Child project which targeted the children and families of the most at-risk children in very poor villages, aimed at ensuring that the children remained in school and avoided the poverty trap leading to child exploitation. The same elements of sustainability and targeting of the most at-risk children were then incorporated by him into two “Save a Village” programs, where the principles were applied across entire villages.
Rotarian PDG Jennifer Scott
Board Vice President
Jennifer has practiced as a lawyer since 1981 and since retiring has focused on providing facilitation and dispute resolution services to private and government organizations. She also provides training and coaching for organizations including Resolution Institute, Sydney Graduate School of Management, UTS, Chambers of Commerce, small to medium businesses, and voluntary organizations.
Jennifer is the chair of Varuna, the National Writers’ House, is on the board of Sustainable Cambodia, and served as Rotary District Governor in 2007-08. She is a founding member of “Women in Rotary” which is dedicated to achieving equity for women around the world. Jennifer has been the Australian training coordinator and an international trainer for Rotary leaders. In 2013 she was awarded the Rotary Foundation’s Citation for Meritorious Service.
Rotarian Emily Margulis
Board Secretary
Emily first visited Cambodia in 2013 on a mission trip with her pastor and fellow church members. In 2016 she returned, visiting a prison, an AIDS and Infants hospital, the dump and a red-light district in Phnom Penh. Her eyes and heart were opened by that “hands on” mission work, and in 2018 she returned for her third trip, a Rotary service trip to Sustainable Cambodia’s Village Development program and schools.
After the 2018 trip, Emily became a Rotarian, going on to serve as president of her first club, a dinner club, and later as secretary and co-president of Freeport Merrick Rotary Club in New York. She led her club in sponsoring water projects in three villages and became an SC student sponsor.
Moving from New York to Florida, Emily joined the Rotary Club of Madison, where her husband has recently become a Rotarian and her Madison club is getting involved with SC. Emily is a multiple Paul Harris Fellow. She has now visited Cambodia five times, currently sponsors three SC schoolgirls, and she is working on helping yet another village with the support of the Freeport Merrick and Madison, FL Clubs.
Rotarian PDG Ian Scott
Board Member
Ian joined Rotary in 2003 and has served as club president and district governor. He is the executive secretary and club foundation chair at Central Blue Mountains Rotary and is also the D9685 Council on Legislation rep for 2020-2023. Ian enjoyed a long career in the Royal Australian Air Force flying and in operations for the RAAF and the Australian Defense Force. He has held command at Squadron, Wing and Group levels and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1996 for his service as Commanding Officer of No 37 Squadron. Ian is married to Jennifer, also a past district governor of Rotary, and they have two adult daughters and three grandchildren. Hobbies include bushwalking, cryptic crosswords and readings.
Julie Johnson
Volunteer Education Chair & Board Member
Julie began with Sustainable Cambodia through consultations and a pen-pal exchange directly from her Kindergarten classroom. In 2014 she had the opportunity to begin volunteering onsite and currently provides annual SC Education Team training as well as weekly Zoom mentoring sessions. Julie is an Emeritus University of Florida College of Education Professor, teaching and training at UF/P.K.Yonge Developmental Research School,. She received a UF Faculty Engagement Award in recognition of her Early Reading First national grant project involvement and is a Paul Harris (Rotary) Fellow. She earned a National Board Teacher Certification and maintains state Certifications in Early Childhood, Elementary and Art Education. Julie graduated with honors from her undergraduate and graduate education programs, and continues to be a passionate educator after over 40 years of teaching students of all ages.
Rotarian Elena Fraser
Volunteer Marketing Consultant & Board Member
Elena has traveled to Cambodia on numerous trips to assist with SC’s ongoing projects, and she has worked in coordination with the Rotary Club of Gainesville and the Rotary Club of Pursat to obtain multiple Rotary Grants, including the first Rotary Grant ever received by Sustainable Cambodia. Over the years, she and her team have raised more than $200,000 through Rotary auctions and she was also the leader on the Rotary International 3H Grant for $330,000. A multiple Paul Harris Fellow, she is also a world-class photographer, and many of the photographs which appear in SC’s literature are taken by Elena.
Rotarian Paul Stringham
Board Member
Paul is a board member of the Rotary Club of Salt Lake City, Utah and chairman of the club’s International Committee. In 2006, Paul founded with his son a nonprofit organization, Care for Cambodia, which helped fund Sustainable Cambodia’s water-related projects. Paul has been involved with Sustainable Cambodia for 14 years and has been engaged in numerous water, educational and village empowerment projects. Also, Paul served on the board of directors of Youthlinc. Youthlinc annually engages 60 + youth from the Salt Lake City area in Sustainable Cambodia’s projects. Paul graduated from the University of Utah. He is a commercial real estate developer primarily developing shopping centers and self-storage projects. He is actively involved in church, and many civic activities. Paul is married with 6 children, 12 grandchildren and lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Wendy Morrish
Board Member
Wendy lived onsite at the SC Pursat campus in early 2006 volunteering in a number of SC projects. Wendy, who is situated in Southeast Asia, has been visiting and helping the SC team and volunteers on a regular basis ever since.
Wendy is a co-founder and co-director of BABSEACLE, an Access to Justice International Non-Profit Organization. Through her work with BABSEACLE, she has championed the way in creating programs that provide people with greater access to justice, an understanding of the rule of law, and the introduction of collaborative pro bono initiatives, in Asia and beyond.
Wendy also serves on the board of the Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE).
Rotarian Dennise Herrick
Board Member
Dennise has been a Rotarian since 2015, serving on both Club and District Boards. When she had the opportunity in January 2020 to visit Cambodia and meet the amazing staff of Sustainable Cambodia, she was awestruck by their professionalism and the work they were doing. She completely fell in love with the children of Pursat and came home with a passion to assist where she could. In 2022 she was asked to help with the Australian (Kangaroo) sponsorships and she quickly agreed without hesitation. Dennise became a member of the Sustainable Cambodia Board in 2023. Apart from SC, Dennise has been heavily involved in the Days for Girls program, conducting and supervising distributions in several Asian countries. Prior to her Rotary life, Dennise worked in the property industry. She was N.S.W. General Manager, Company Secretary, and Principal Executive Officer of a major Australasian real estate group as well as owning her own successful real estate office. She is a certified adult trainer and assessor and ran a training and consultancy business for the property industry.
Rotarian Mike Orbin
Board Member
Mike Orbin is a Rotarian with the Bethlehem Morning Star Rotary Club in Pennsylvania, USA. He is retired from Avago Systems (Broadcom). His wife of 44 years, Alicia Ruiz-Orbin, is a long-time Rotarian and member of the Emmaus Rotary Club. They have two children and four grandchildren.
Since joining Rotary, Mike has been active in local and international projects, facilitating the startup of the Rotary District 7430 STEM YEA program (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics Youth Explorer Academy) for underserved middle school students, chairing the STEM YEA team during the development phase and its first year’s implementation.
He is a firm believer in Rotarians being involved in international projects and fellowships and is a supporter of the Rotary International Foundation, and a member of the Paul Harris Society. He has successfully advocated for his club’s involvement in several international projects, including personally supporting and leading his club’s support of sustainable education, safe water, health care, food security, and income-generating programs in rural Cambodia with the Rotary Club of Pursat and Sustainable Cambodia.
Rotarian Ryan Kern
Volunteer Webmaster & Board Member
Ryan is a relatively new Rotarian with the Rotary Club of Gainesville, Florida. He is a pediatrician-turned-entrepreneur who currently serves as the CEO of technology company that makes equipment used in neuroscience research. In addition to his medical background, Ryan has an unusual combination of skills and interests including IT, software engineering, and business operations. He tends to dive into complex technical projects in both his professional and volunteer work. Ryan and his wonderful wife of 19 years, Martha Kern, had the opportunity to travel onsite with SC in 2023. After falling in love with the Sustainable Cambodia Team and Cambodian people, Ryan and Martha have been pitching in to help SC whenever opportunities present. When they are not busy working and volunteering, they keep active chasing after their household full of rambunctious dogs and cats.
Rotarian Vicki Greenberg
Board Member
Vicki has been a Rotarian of D7255 for over 12 years. She was the Glen Cove Club president, a 6-year Assistant District Governor and a GSE team leader. Vicki enjoys visiting different countries through the Rotary program and has been involved in helping many projects. For the last 6 years, Vicki has been active in SC projects through the lead of PDG Gabor Karsai. She has traveled on several trips to SC to visit different schools, villages, and learn about Cambodian culture. She enjoys traveling with different groups from Australia, Hungary, Florida on these trips and built many friendships along the way. VIcki is a Licensed Real Estate Salesperson and has two grown sons.
Bruce A. Lasky
Co-Founder & Board Member
Bruce is an attorney and a graduate of the University of Florida College of Law. After practicing as a public defender in Florida, he earned a Masters in International Human Rights Law in 2002 from Central European University in Budapest. Currently a Partner and the Pro Bono Head of the Thailand Law Firm Lanna Lawyers, Bruce has worked as a leader in developing programs and providing access to justice services and assistance throughout Asia and elsewhere. In addition to co-founding Sustainable Cambodia, Bruce is co-founder and co-director of the International Access to Justice Organization, BABSEACLE, and he serves on the boards for the Southeast Asia Legal Aid Network (SEALAW) and the Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE).
Sharon Sykora
Associate Director
Sharon’s career was spent in health care, as a nurse, then a Nurse Practitioner, then a Nursing Instructor at Grossmont College in San Diego. A lifelong commitment to volunteerism means that she always had a “side job” of some sort. Upon retirement, she became involved in the non-profit San Diego Fine Woodworking Association, where she served as Director of Operations for their 400-member workshop.
Sharon’s introduction to Cambodia was a tourist trip to Siem Reap in 2007. She was instantly touched by the country and its people and knew that she wanted to do more. Research led her to Sustainable Cambodia, through which she was involved in purchasing a village well and sponsoring several students. She knew that once she retired, she wanted to do more hands-on volunteering in Cambodia and spent several months on the SC campus in 2015. This was followed by several subsequent visits, each of which reinforced her commitment to SC’s work, making it personal. She looks forward to helping out in whatever way is needed and further strengthening her bonds to SC.
In Memorium
Rotarian Walter Haessel
Walter served on the SC Board for many years, and was a long-standing member of the Rotary Club of Calgary, Canada. Walter was an engineer at heart, introduced SC to designs for biosand filters (BSF), and through his efforts thousands of Cambodian children and families now have access to safe drinking water. Walter will forever be part of SC family, and we miss him terribly.
Rotarian Allan Lewins
Allan was instrumental in founding Sustainable Cambodia Australia (SCA), a group formed with the support of the Rotary District Governors in Western Australia. Through Allan’s efforts, SCA works with Sustainable Cambodia’s education and village development programs. Allan is sorely missed, but his impact on thousands of lives will lives on beyond him.