Meet Our Leadership
Like our volunteer base, Refuge International’s leadership team boasts a diverse mix of backgrounds and specialties enabling them to effectively guide the fulfillment of our mission and purpose.
Their unified and dedicated approach ensures that our organization is strong and able to provide compassionate and quality care and support to our communities.
Renea Schott
Executive Director
In December 2024, Renea Schott was appointed as the executive director of Refuge. Over the past three years, she and her family have been committed volunteers, significantly contributing to the organization’s mission. Renea began her involvement at the Longview Warehouse, and in April 2024, she transitioned to a part-time role, where she effectively managed inventories and supported trip and volunteer coordination. With her professional background in accounting and speech therapy, Renea brings a diverse skill set to her current position. Her dedication to serving others is evident, as she aims to further enhance Refuge’s presence and resources to better serve medically underserved populations in Guatemala.
board of directors
Executive Committee
Carroll Greenwaldt
President
In the summer of 2018 Refuge International excitedly announced the appointment of Carroll Greenwaldt as president to the Board of Directors. At the time of appointment, Carroll had actively served on the Board for over 3 years and was a longtime member of the Refuge International family. He has been instrumental in building upon our work in the Petén region helping build a collaborative relationship between Refuge, Rotary International and the National Hospital in San Benito.
“From my earliest trip to Sarstún in 2008, I have been “hooked.” I know that we will grow and strengthen Refuge, building on the solid foundation that Deborah Bell and so many others have laid,” Carroll commented to the Board.
An individual with a servant’s calling, Carroll has been a Rotarian for over 30 years and has served on Refuge/Rotary teams to Guatemala to help in medical clinics, deliver school supplies, and distribute parasite-eradicating medicines to children.
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He led the development of two large Global Grants. The first provided 4-million doses of Albendazole that Refuge volunteers distributed throughout Guatemala through the Ministry of Education in 2011. The second culminated in delivering over $100,000 of much-needed Nursery/NICU instruments and equipment to the Hospital National de San Benito in 2017. The same grant also enabled Deborah Bell and Dr. Kimberly Garcia to train over 192 midwives across the Petén Department. Carroll has served in several Rotarian leadership roles, serving as President of both the Longview South Rotary Club in 1984-85 and the Rotary Club of Longview in 2009-2010. In terms of local projects, Carroll was most pleased to lead a team that established a backpack program in the Longview Independent School District that fed as many as 800 children each weekend over several school years, serving all 13 campuses in the District. In 2011, Carroll was honored by his club as Rotarian of the Year. He served as Rotary District 5830 Governor for 2014-15 and is the Current District Foundation Chair. He is also currently a Board member of the Lone Star P.E.T.S. organization that trains over 700 Rotary President-Elects each March. He received the Rotary International Distinguished Service Award in 2017.
Born in Central Texas, Carroll attended Southern Methodist University and earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1975. He later earned a MBA from Stephen F. Austin University and has been employed by Eastman Chemical Company in Longview, TX, for over 43 years, serving in a variety of leadership positions. He is currently the Director of Utilities, a Cogeneration Power Generating Plant, and Environmental Services at Eastman.
Active in his community, Carroll has served as a Board member of the Greater Longview United Way and as President of the Founding Board of Artsview Children’s Theater in Longview. In Scouting, he has served in a number of leadership roles, culminating as District Chairman in Longview serving over 2000 scouts in Gregg and Upshur Counties. He served on the Executive and Advisory Boards of the East Texas Area Council, Boy Scouts of America. He currently serves on the East Texas Food Bank Development Board in Tyler. He and his wife, Mary, are active in First United Methodist Church of Longview, where he has served in a number of positions through 40+ years. Carroll and Mary enjoy life with their three adult children and seven grandchildren, ages 3 to 13 years old.
Debbie Mahoney, Ph.D, CFNP
Vice President
Debbie Mahoney began her service with Refuge International in the early 2000s and has been on at least 35 trips volunteering her time and skill to those in need around Guatemala. Debbie currently holds the Vice President seat on our Board of Directors.
Debbie started volunteering in the medical field as an aid when she was fourteen years old and just knew she wanted to go to nursing school. Once a certified nurse and her career underway, as well as having met her husband and started a family, Debbie turned her sights on the field of education. Debbie returned to school to get her master’s degree in nursing and later received a fellowship from Kellogg to attend nurse practitioner school, an honor bestowed on only four applicants from Texas that year.
In 1999, while in Lubbock, Texas for a nurse practitioner convention, Debbie overheard some other attendees talking passionately about volunteer work in Guatemala and she soon found herself on her way to San Raymundo, Guatemala …
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with First Baptist Church and as they say, the rest is history. Debbie was determined to help improve those living in underserved communities in Guatemala and soon started serving with Refuge International and has done so now for more than 20 years.
One of Debbie’s most memorable experiences while on a Refuge International mission trip happened in a remote village called Picayas in December, 2005. It was three o’clock in the morning when a man began frantically kicking on their door, yelling that his wife was having a baby. Three volunteers, including Debbie, followed the man through the jungle for 25 minutes, getting separated at one point when crossing various rivers but all eventually each finding their way. Once at the couple’s hut, Debbie noticed several pairs of eyes glowing in the darkness. There were animals everywhere in the house and no matter how many times she shooed them out they kept returning, trying to comfort the woman crying out in labor. Once the baby boy was delivered, the family said they’d be honored if Debbie and the other volunteers named the baby, and after finding a family name in common, they decided on James. It wasn’t until after, when on her plane ride home thinking about Christmas that Debbie realized the similarities between the birth of Jesus and the birth she had witnessed on that trip: the three kings each wandering just like the three volunteers had, the barn in which Jesus was born paralleling the straw and bamboo hut, the animals all around awaiting the birth in both instances, and finally, after telling her church about the story, Debbie was told that some scholars believe Jesus had a little brother named James. All of these similarities are what make Debbie look back at this night as one of her most meaningful experiences as a volunteer. She is grateful to have had the opportunity to go back and visit James and his family three years later.