WaterTrust Team


Walter A. Foskett, Legal Counsel Walter A. Foskett is legal counsel for WaterTrust/Microbe Detectives and is Of Counsel with Duncan and Allen, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm serving the U.S. domestic energy and international natural resource communities since 1970. Walter has maintained a corporate and securities law practice specializing in the energy and electric utility arenas for over thirty years. He has significant corporate and transactional expertise including stockholder and operating agreements, executive employment agreements, mergers and acquisitions, asset purchase and sales, etc. Walter holds a JD from Boston University Law School; an MBA from Babson College; and a BA from Boston College.

Melissa Nyssen, VP of Marketing Melissa Nyssen has run her own marketing agency for over 25 years building winning brands for tech startups, small and medium sized business. She excels at creating fully integrated marketing strategies that win mind share and credibility. Melissa attended Columbia College, Chicago.
WaterTrust Advisors

John Baker is a VP of Business Development for WaterTrust and President of Allen Environmental. Mr. Baker has over 40 years’ experience involved in compliance, permitting, and assessing environmental impacts of landfills and wastewater treatment facilities. He is a recognized expert in bioreactor landfills, waste density and compaction optimization, landfill gas, innovative wastewater and leachate treatment, surface water quality management, and alternative waste management technologies. Mr. Baker previously worked 23 years for Waste Management, Inc. most recently as the Director of New Technology. John holds a B.S. in Chemistry and Biology and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois – Champaign.

David Geltner has over thirty-years experience as a leader in high tech with a focus building leading Internet-of-Things, M2M solutions and winning teams. He has served as the CTO and VP of Engineering with firms such as nPhase, Qualcomm, Verizon, Numerex, Computer Associates, and Tibco. His experience ranges from startups to enterprise software and wireless technologies. Dave was the CTO for IoT pioneer nPhase, acquired by Qualcomm and Verizon and holds 5 IoT related patents. Mr. Geltner has been an executive colleague and trusted advisor of John Tillotson’s for over fifteen years.

Trevor Ghylin, Ph.D., P.E., is Founder of Microbe Detectives, and Sales Engineer for Energenecs, an environmental engineering company. Dr. Ghylin is a leading water process engineer and a pioneer in applying DNA technologies to conduct surveillance of microbiomes in wastewater processes, natural water resources and potable water distribution systems. He speaks frequently at conferences as a thought leader. Trevor received a Ph.D. and M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of North Dakota, and holds a Professional Engineers License.

Alison Ling, Ph.D., P.E., is an Environmental Engineer with Barr Engineering Company in Minneapolis, MN. At Barr, she is engaged in front-end design and troubleshooting for water and wastewater treatment projects and holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering and Molecular Biology from The University of Colorado at Boulder. Her work includes process modeling, bench testing, and technical advising for clients in the power, mining, food and beverage, and municipal sectors. Ali completed her PhD at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she split her time between the Environmental Engineering and Molecular Biology departments.