Tanzania Life Project

John Vanderheyden (Treasurer) holds BSB and MBA degrees in international business from the University of Minnesota. He began his career in technology with IBM in 1980 followed by roles at both the University of Minnesota and Dain Rauscher. He then transitioned careers to focus on financial services while at Dain Rauscher and progressed to hold executive level positions at Fidelity, Kestra Financial and Bluespring Wealth Partners. John and his wife Mary have been involved in many charitable organizations together over the years including youth sports, scouting, church organizations, Meals on Wheels, street outreach, CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) and Tanzania Life Project (TLP). They have traveled to Tanzania regularly as part of the TLP team to work with the wonderful people of each village and the partners at TLP to evolve the program. John feels very fortunate to be learning so much from the people of Tanzania as he and the TLP team partner with them to solve the issues caused by a lack of clean, accessible water.

Mary Vanderheyden (Secretary) holds a BA degree in Professional Communications. Her life experience has been a mix of motherhood, entrepreneurism, teaching, and volunteerism. While raising five children in Minnesota, Mary worked for IBM and then left to create two administrative services businesses. She spent ten years teaching pre-school and later, while living in Boston, MA, worked with EduConsultants teaching computer skills to children in kindergarten through eighth grade. Throughout her life, Mary has volunteered to serve others of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds. Church ministry, Meals on Wheels, Caring Therapeutic Touch in a hospital setting, and being a child advocate in the CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) program of Travis County, Texas have all been paths of outreach near and dear to her heart. Mary travels to Tanzania with her husband as part of the Tanzania Life Project team on a regular basis. She is fascinated with the opportunity of two cultures coming together to solve problems and is working on improving her Swahili to better communicate with the people of Tanzania.