Grantee

Erika Hoffmann-Dilloway is a Professor of Anthropology at Oberlin College. Her research focuses on the linguistic anthropology of sign languages in Nepal, Germany, and Malta, with attention to the flexible multi-modal nature of communicative practice as well as to the social factors that facilitate or limit that flexibility. Through experimentation with graphic methods, she participates in expanding the modalities and genres through which scholarship is produced and circulates. Her most recent book, Signing and Belonging in Nepal (2016), was published by Gallaudet University Press.

Dr. Karl Woodmansey is a native of Montana, U.S.A. and currently resides in Dallas, Texas, U.S.A. He received a B.S. degree in biomedical science from Montana State University in 1986, a D.D.S. degree from Baylor College of Dentistry in 1989 and a Certificate in endodontics from Texas A&M College of Dentistry in 2008. He also earned a M.A. degree in educational administration from the University of the Pacific in 2015.

Dr. Woodmansey practiced dentistry and endodontics in Bozeman, Montana, for 22 years before entering academia. He held faculty appointments from 2011 to 2020 at the Texas A&M College of Dentistry Department of Endodontics and as the Graduate Endodontic Program Director at St. Louis University. Dr. Woodmansey served as a member of the U.S. Air Force Reserve / Air National Guard Dental Corps beginning in 1998. In 2021 he retired at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Dr. Woodmansey’s research interests are broad, with more than 55 publications in a wide variety of domains, including novel endodontic materials, the effects of human factors on dental diagnosis and treatment, endodontic education assessments, and global oral health issues.

Dr. Woodmansey currently has a variety of part-time employments, including practicing as a den-tist/endodontist for contracted vendors of the U.S. military, providing continuing education presentations for Dentsply-Sirona Endodontics, performing accreditation surveys for the Accred-itation Association for Ambulatory Healthcare, reviewing international dentists’ immigration ap-plications for Carnegie Evaluations, LLC, and serving as a graduate endodontic program site visi-tor for the Commission on Dental Accreditation.

Dr. Woodmansey has been an active contributor to the dental profession. He is a “Diplomate” of the American Board of Endodontics and has achieved “Fellowship” in the Academy of General Dentistry, the Academy of Dentistry International, the American College of Dentists, the Inter-national College of Dentists and the American College Health Association. He is also a life member of MENSA.

Dr. Woodmansey will be affiliated with Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences.

Neelam Chandra Poudyal is a natural resource social scientist and currently a professor of natural resource policy and human dimensions at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA. Previously, he was an assistant professor of natural resource recreation and tourism at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA. He has a B.S. in forestry, an M.A. in geography from Western Illinois University, and a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Tennessee. He is an affiliate faculty fellow at the Howard Baker, Jr. Center for Public Policy.

His research is focused on understanding and explaining the behavior and decision-making of various stakeholders including landowners, hunters, recreationists, and the general public etc., as they relate to policies in natural resource management and biodiversity conservation. He has published over 100 journal articles and book chapters and secured more than $5 million in research grants from a variety of funding sources. He has been invited by research and education institutions within the USA and abroad to deliver seminars, and serve as a subject matter expert. Over the last ten years, he has served as an associate editor of Journal of Forestry, Human Dimensions of Wildlife, as a member of Society of American Foresters’ Forest Science and Technology Board, and as an elected council member of International Association of Society and Natural Resources.

Over the years, he has successfully mentored 4 Ph.D. students, 13 M.S. students, 5 post-doctoral Scholars, and hosted 2 international visiting scholars. Poudyal has collaborated for social science research on conservation issues in Peru, China, and Australia and started a new collaboration in Nepal. In 2018, he traveled to Nepal to study climate change risk perception and conservation behavior of local communities living inside the Sagarmatha National Park. Earlier in 2003, he briefly worked in Nepal with National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) for Tiger/Rhino Conservation Project to help establish community forestry user groups among the people relocated from inside the Chitwan national park.

During his Fulbright fellowship in Nepal, he will be affiliated with the Institute of Forestry, Pokhara Campus.