Board of Directors

Ambassador Dean R. Thompson is the United States Ambassador to Nepal and 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 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 the 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 has 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.

Garrett Wilkerson is the Public Affairs Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal. His previous overseas assignments include U.S. missions in Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Korea, and The Bahamas. Originally from the state of Oregon, he has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Texas A&M and a master’s degree in political communication from the University of Kent at Brussels, Belgium.

Sarah Jasmine Knight is the Cultural Affairs Officer at U.S. Embassy in Nepal. She previously worked at U.S. Embassy in Oman, and before joining the Department of State, worked as a project manager on World Bank and USAID workforce development projects. She also worked as an English Teacher for high school and university students in Tunisia. She has Masters and Bachelors degrees both from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Corey O’Hara is an agriculture and nutrition professional specializing in ethical sourcing and value creation for smallholder farmers. Corey received his PhD from Tufts University, where he researched the interactions between agricultural markets, diets, and gender and social inclusion. He also holds a Master’s degree in International Environment and Resource Policy and a Master’s degree in Agriculture, Food, and the Environment from Tufts, as well as a Bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) from Harvard.

Before joining iDE, Corey worked in the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Language Officer, then as a consultant for Winrock International. Corey later worked as Associate Director of the Clinton Global Initiative, and from 2008 to 2010, he founded and coordinated the Haiti Action Network, a multisector group of actors engaged in long-term development, recovery, and reconstruction efforts. Corey first began consulting for iDE in 2006, providing significant support for creating partnerships in Nepal, Cambodia, and Bhutan. He assumed the role of Country Director for the Nepal office in 2020. Corey serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Food and Nutrition Bulletin, a peer-reviewed academic journal focused on global nutrition and human security.

Dr. Tulashi P. Thapaliya is currently working as the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, NEPAL. Previously he has served as the Director General of the Centre for Education and Human Resource Development (CEHRD), the main implementing agency under the Ministry. He received a Ph.D. in Education Leadership from Kathmandu University. He has association with Kathmandu University as a visiting faculty.

He has worked under the Ministry for more than three decades in different capacities in the areas of policy and planning, education reform, human resource development, and monitoring the implementation of educational program in Nepal. He has also worked internationally in Global Partnership for Education as a member in the Strategy and Impact Committee, representing the Developing Country Partner from Asia Pacific Constituency for two terms (2016-2020).

Sushil Lamsal started his professional career as a Diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Missions Abroad. He also worked as a Charge de’ Affairs and Counselor at the Embassy of Nepal in Dhaka and served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Nepal in Beijing. He, then, worked as the Director General at the Department of Passports. In 2020, he was honored with the Excellence in Civil Service Award by the Government of Nepal.

Mr. Lamsal is currently working as the Head of Southeast Asia and Pacific Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Nepal. He received an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University, USA under the Fulbright Foreign Student Program (FFSP/Master’s Program) in AY 2011-2013.

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 of 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.