Dylan Terrell Selected as Rotary Citizen of the Year 2025

Caminos de Agua Founder and Executive Director Dylan Terrell has been selected as the Rotary Citizen of the Year for 2025. Caminos de Agua is a San Miguel-based nonprofit addressing one of Mexico’s most urgent challenges: water scarcity and contamination.
 
After years of working across Latin America, Terrell committed himself to San Miguel de Allende where he built Caminos de Agua through partnerships with universities, Engineers without Borders, local villages, and grassroots organizations. The organization has pioneered award-winning, low-cost technologies such as a ceramic water filter, and a groundwater treatment system which removes dangerous levels of arsenic and fluoride from drinking water.
 
Through a participatory, community-led model, Caminos de Agua empowers residents to design, build, and maintain water solutions, ensuring long-term sustainability. Over 15 years, this work has reached more than 200 rural communities, positively impacting more than 60,000 people with 1,800 rainwater harvesting systems, multiple community-scale water treatment plants, and complementary educational efforts.
 
Beyond technology and education, the organization advances open-source data and policy advocacy, influencing municipal and national strategies for water management. Terrell’s vision blends innovation, collaboration, and justice, making him a transformative leader whose impact extends from San Miguel to communities across Mexico and beyond.
 
“Dylan Terrell is a true hero to more than 200 local villages and communities in San Miguel,” said Rotarian John Palmer. “His empathy, creativity, and leadership checks all the characteristics of the best of the Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende-Midday and Rotary International,” he continued.
 
“He exemplifies the very best of civic leadership through his visionary, compassionate, and technically rigorous response to one of the most urgent challenges facing our region and the world: access to safe, affordable water. Dylan has transformed complex water scarcity and contamination problems into sustainable, community-led solutions that improve health, economic stability, and social cohesion,” continued Palmer.
 
“Dylan’s work is distinguished by the thoughtful application of technical skills and modern technology grounded in real-world conditions to achieve truly beneficial results.  His ability to translate cutting-edge research into practical, scalable tools demonstrates exceptional technical & collaborative leadership,” continued Palmer.
 
“Equally important is Dylan’s effectiveness as a manager and cross-cultural collaborator. Beginning with minimal resources, he built Caminos de Agua through strategic hiring, strong governance, and long-term partnerships, creating a multidisciplinary team that integrates engineering, community development, education, and data analysis. His leadership style prioritizes transparency and monitoring, ensuring accountability and continuous improvement while empowering governments, citizens, and institutions to make informed decisions,” continued Palmer.
 
“Dylan’s work is deeply rooted in sensitivity and respect for our remote communities. Caminos de Agua operates only by invitation and uses participatory processes that place local residents in leadership roles from system design to maintenance. This approach builds trust, strengthens local capacity, and ensures long-term success,” continued Palmer.
 
“With a wide-ranging understanding of global and local water issues -- from climate change to overuse of water and public health -- Dylan has helped San Miguel and surrounding communities become models of innovation, equity, and collaboration. His work and the work of Caminos de Aqua is not only changing lives today, it is helping tip an entire system toward a more just and sustainable future,” said Palmer.
 
The Rotary Citizen of the Year Ceremony will take place Tuesday, March 24, at 9:30 a.m. at Teatro Santa Ana at the Biblioteca Publica via the Zenteno entrance on Relox near Insurgentes. Reservations will be taken soon.
 
For more information, contact Terrell at [email protected].