Board of Directors

Randy William Berry is United States Ambassador to Nepal. Ambassador Berry is a career diplomat and member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor. He has served as a diplomat since 1993, and spent more than twenty years abroad on assignment for the U.S. State Department. Most recently, he served in Washington DC as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, a position he held since late 2016. He served as the first Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons in the United States Department of State, as well as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.

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.

Maggie Doyne is an American philanthropist who has built a children’s home, women’s center, and school in Surkhet, Nepal. Maggie created the BlinkNow Foundation to sustain, grow, and support Kopila Valley Children’s Home and School in Nepal, and to serve as a vehicle to share her ideas with young people, especially children in the U.S.
Maggie believes that in the blink of an eye, we can all make a difference. At age 19, Maggie used her life savings to build a home for orphaned children in war-ravaged Nepal. Today, she is mom to over 50 children. In 2010, she opened a school for the region’s most impoverished children. The school now serves 400 students and is rated top in the region. Maggie was named 2015 CNN Hero of the Year. She was honored by the Dalai Lama as an Unsung Hero of Compassion in 2014. Her work was championed by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof in a cover story for the New York Times Magazine. In 2012, Maggie shared her story at the Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy, and in 2013 she received the Forbes Award for Excellence in Education.

Mr. Ben Ayers, a pioneer in sustainable development, came to Nepal as a college student in 1988 and has been living and working here ever since. He is a Senior Adviser at the dZi foundation which runs grassroots projects in Eastern Nepal focused on long term development through the mobilization of local communities. He completed his undergraduate studies in Bachelor of Science in Creative Writing from Bates College, Lewiston, Maine.

He founded Porters’ Progress in Nepal which supported workers through global awareness raising, collective bargaining, skills training and provision of warm clothing for travel to altitude. He also provided life-saving services to over 10,000 porters and trekking workers and changed the national discourse on porter rights and treatment standards. In 2020, he was honored with Bates Alumni Community Service Award by Bates College for his significant contributions to the community through his time, actions, and dedication.

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).

Mr. 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.