Board of Directors

Ambassador Dean R. Thompson is the United States Ambassador to Nepal. He presented his credentials to President Bidya Devi Bhandari on October 21, 2022.

Prior to his arrival in Nepal, Ambassador Thompson served as Acting Assistant Secretary and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, overseeing U.S. policy and relations with the countries in the region. He is a member of the Senior Foreign Service and has more than 25 years of experience in U.S. diplomacy.

Ambassador Thompson previously served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He has also served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest, Romania, U.S. Consul General in Kolkata, India, and Chief of the Economic and Commercial Affairs section of the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Ambassador Thompson’s other overseas service includes tours at the U.S. Embassies in Paraguay and Bangladesh. While stationed in Washington, Ambassador Thompson led several teams in direct support of the U.S. Secretary of State and served as Director of the Executive Secretariat Staff, the Deputy Director of the Department’s 24-hour Operations Center and the Director of the Department’s Crisis Management Staff.

Ambassador Thompson has a Masters of Public Management from the University of Maryland, School of Public Affairs and a Masters of National Security Studies from the U.S. National War College. He is married to Jane Krill Thompson, an early childhood special education administrator.

Mike Harker is the Public Affairs Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Nepal, directing embassy communications and overseeing educational and cultural programming. His first visit to Nepal in 2006 to hike the Annapurna Circuit inspired subsequent returns for additional treks and studies in its monasteries. Mike previously served in Bangladesh, Iraq, Pakistan, Qatar, Egypt, and most recently as the Spokesperson to the U.S. Embassy in Burma, where he oversaw crisis communications following the Burma military’s 2021 coup. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications from UCLA and a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University.

Erica Alon Alexander is a public diplomacy-coned Foreign Service Officer from Memphis, Tennessee, currently serving as the Cultural Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu. She received a Bachelor’s Degree in Global Studies from Georgia State University and taught English in Daejeon, South Korea after graduation. In 2021, she started her time with the State Department after receiving the Charles B. Rangel Graduate Fellowship and attended The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where she earned a Master’s in Global Communication. During her fellowship, she interned for the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Public Affairs Section at Embassy Hanoi. In her free time, Erica enjoys volunteering for her sorority’s headquarters on the Board of Directors and working on creative projects like sewing and writing.

Jason Seuc joined USAID Nepal in August 2021 as the Economic Growth Office Director. His career has focused on balancing economic prosperity with environmental sustainability. He prioritizes partnership with governments and the private sector to achieve development impact for women, youth, and marginalized people. In Nepal, he leads a portfolio that strengthens market systems for agriculture, improves the country’s trade and competitiveness, and advances locally led development in marginalized communities. He has also served in Indonesia, El Salvador, and Bangladesh where he led low carbon and climate resilient development, biodiversity conservation, agriculture, water/sanitation, and clean energy programs.

Dr. Sangeeta Kaushal Mishra currently serves as Additional Secretary and Director General of the Department of Health Services at the Ministry of Health and Population. Her work focuses on planning and implementation of public health programs, quality assurance of health services, and oversight of national and international health care programs in Nepal. Her extensive experience in public health, especially sexual and reproductive health, includes the design and rolling out of reproductive health programs and community-based interventions. She has played an instrumental role in resource mobilization and execution of prevention and treatment programs for communicable and non-communicable diseases, including those related to mental health, and has assumed leadership roles in apex health organizations of Nepal. She worked as the first female spokesperson of the Ministry of Health. She currently serves as a member of the Senior Thematic Expert Panel of the Policy Research Institute, a think tank of the Government of Nepal. A national of Nepal, she holds a doctorate in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She completed her Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University as a Fulbright Fellow.

Dr. Mukta S. Lama Tamang is an anthropologist and teaches at Central Department of Anthropology, Tribhuvan University. His major areas of work include indigenous peoples’ issues, history and identity, participatory development, and social inclusion. He has extensive experience working as an expert on social development and engagement in civil society processes. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University and has been a Visiting Fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and Goldsmiths’ College of University of London. He also worked as a Research Fellow at the New School for Social Research in New York.