Pressroom

This year, we celebrate Henry Watts reaching the milestone of 20 years with EMI!

Henry first served as an intern in 1998. After working in the construction management industry with his structural engineering background, Henry, and his wife Erika - a landscape architect - both joined staff in 2004. In those early years, they often led project trips together. In 2008, they spent 8 months in Jordan where Henry served on a construction site for an EMI-designed project.

Erika left staff in 2009 to stay home with their kids. Those kids – Owen, 17, Claire, 14, and Jordan, 12 – have never known life without EMI! And they got to experience a true taste of EMI mission life in 2014 when the Watts family moved to Kenya for a year where Henry again worked on a construction site for an EMI project – Tenwek Hospital. We’ve been excited to recently welcome back Erika to staff as she started back part-time at EMI USA in 2023.

Henry has held many roles throughout his years at EMI, perhaps most notably serving as the Director of EMI USA since 2017. Henry is a peacemaker and an includer. He makes people feel valued because he actually values them. He has strong convictions about the Vision and Mission of EMI and our unique role to play in world missions. He’s passionate about protecting EMI from drifting away from our Christ-centered roots, while at the same time, he’s been at the center of our desire to grow and change towards better mission practices.

Congratulations and thank you, Henry, for your two decades of service with EMI!

Madhulika joined EMI India in January 2014 as a staff architect after being invited by a staff member from church. Over the last 10 years she has faithfully served in so many ways - from design to project leadership, and project development, she has played a major role in developing drawings and developing people, as she has both professionally and spiritually mentored interns and staff. She has built relationships with clients in the mutual desire to see God’s kingdom come. Madhulika is an amazingly consistent, reliable, and vibrant force at EMI India. Ministries across South Asia are more beautiful, functional and alive because she chose to give so much of her life and energy to this work. 

In addition to her significant role in the India office, Madhulika served a term in Cambodia in 2018, helping to grow and develop the team’s architecture program and further contribute to EMI worldwide. 

One remarkable quality of Madhulika is her care. In her work, she is extremely attentive to detail, while still maintaining a big-picture vision for the project.  She desires to consistently deliver projects that are of the highest standard possible. In her relationships within the office and in her church community, she shows her care through generous hospitality.  

Thank you Madhulika, for over a decade of service! Your love for the mission and steady presence has left an indelible print on EMI.

Laura began her time with EMI as an intern in the Guatemala office. After working in industry as a structural engineer, God led Laura back to EMI in 2013 where she joined the US office as the CAD Manager. Her care and attention to detail were a great gift in helping the US office and participating in trips around the world as part of EMI projects. After serving for 5 years in a design role, Laura’s care for people while seeing the need for better systems and organizational structures led her to shift to a role in Human Resources, something that she discovered quickly to be a natural fit for her. Over time, she has added knowledge and experience to HR, becoming a licensed HR professional and taking on leadership as the Manager of HR in 2022. Laura has become an invaluable asset to the office – developing an office culture of belonging, providing care and support to our staff, and providing order to our office’s operations.

During her time at EMI, Laura married her husband (and EMI Intern Alum, Wes) and added daughter Camille to their family. When not at the office, Laura and family can be found in their community in Palmer Lake if not out on one of their frequent excursions in the Rocky Mountain trails and campgrounds.

EMI USA has been so blessed to have Laura with us and we appreciate her dedication, compassion, and service and the way in which she has ministered so effectively towards and among us.