Dr. Gloyd is a family practice physician who has been a University of Washington (UW) faculty member since 1986, where he has held many leadership positions. He created the UW MPH Program in Global Health in 1987 and directed the program until 2021, with over 800 graduates now working around the world. He has worked for over 30 years in Africa, Latin America, and Asia as a clinician, manager, researcher, teacher, and policy advocate. His work has focused on improving Primary Health Care, including maternal-child health services, tuberculosis control, malaria, and STD/AIDS; global health assistance; and on the connection between neoliberal policies and health. He founded Health Alliance International, a solidarity organization that works to strengthen Primary Health Care with the Ministries of Health of Mozambique, Cote d’Ivoire, Sudan, and Timor-Leste. Dr Gloyd is the recipient of the Edward Barsky Award for Global Health Activism and was the 38th University of Washington Faculty Lecturer, awarded annually to one faculty member whose work has had substantial impact on society. He received his BA and MPH from Harvard, his MD from the University of Chicago, and his Family Medicine Residency at the University of Washington. Dr. Gloyd’s host institution is Dhulikhel Hospital – Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences.
Dr. Mushtaq Memon is professor emeritus at Washington State U, Courtesy Prof at U of FL and vice president-Livestock of WE-Empower, a US-based NGO. Dr. Memon has a first-hand experience of Nepali animal-agriculture as he was a Volunteer/Consultant under USAID’s Farmer–To–Farmer Program to assist in dairy cow health problems at Janaki Milk Producers Cooperative in Jyamirya, Chitwan, Nepal during Jan – Feb 2001. Dr. Memon is a specialist in Theriogenology (Veterinary Reproduction), received veterinary education in Pakistan, Ph.D. in Theriogenology from Univ of Minnesota, and residency training in food animal medicine & surgery from the University of Illinois. Prof Memon has taught for 35 years at veterinary colleges of Washington State, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Tufts University in the United States. He is author of more than 120 publications in refereed journals, conference proceedings and book chapters.
Dr. Memon is Fulbright Specialist and internationally recognized scholar and has traveled to more than 25 countries as a visiting professor, consultant, or volunteer. His recent consultant assignment was sponsored by USAID Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems, Univ of Florida The assignment was ‘Strengthening animal reproduction (Theriogenology) education and hands-on training for human and institutional capacity building in Cambodia’, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Royal Agriculture University, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, November 12-23, 2018.
Prof Memon’s upcoming visits to Nepal as a Fulbright Specialist during 2022 involve assisting Agriculture and Forestry University, to strengthen its veterinary education programs offered at Rampur campus; offer continuing education to members of Nepal Veterinary Association in Katmandu, and provide training to smallholder goat farmers and to members of the Federation of Woman Entrepreneurs Associations of Nepal.
Dr. Soni Mulmi Pradhanang is an Associate Professor at the Department of Geosciences, Director of the Minor Program in Global Water Resources, and Chair of Wetlands and Watershed Ecosystem Sciences, Master of Environmental Management Program, University of Rhode Island. She has been a principal investigator of various US and international (South and Southeast Asia) research projects. Her research work ranges from the development and evaluation of hydrogeologic and water quality models, studying the fate and transport of nutrients and contaminants of emerging concern, innovative treatment technologies, and source water protection measures for informed decision making. She has authored and co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed journals and book chapters and serves as the editor, guest editor of various journals in the field of water research. She has more than 15 years of experience in water quantity and quality studies in Asia and North America particularly focusing on the development and evaluation of innovative treatment technologies including floating wetland treatment systems, and monitoring and modeling of source water protection measures.
Dr. Soni’s host institution is The Small Earth Nepal. Her project in Nepal is Hydrological Modeling Application for Watershed Management. She will be organizing training that will strengthen the technical capacities of professionals from non-governmental organizations including The Small Earth Nepal (SEN) and governmental agencies including Kathmandu Valley Water Supply Management Board (KVWSMB), for executing projects related to water resources planning and management using watershed models.
Linda Austin is an award-winning editor and educator, schooled in instructional design and experienced in international teaching, online learning, and curriculum development. She is the project director for NewsTrain, a journalism-training initiative sponsored by the nonprofit News Leaders Association. As a Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow at the University of Missouri, she developed the first course in digital journalism delivered via bite-size lessons on smartphones, known as mobile microlearning. Austin also led three local newsrooms — in Greensboro, North Carolina; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Lexington, Kentucky — to seven national and 41 state awards. She was a two-time Pulitzer Prize juror. Austin earned a master’s degree in educational technology from Arizona State University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism with the highest honors from the University of North Carolina..
In Nepal, Linda will be training journalists to combat online misinformation with her host institution Freedom Forum. She has experience in teaching journalists and communications students internationally how to recognize and combat dis/misinformation. Austin previously received a prestigious appointment as a Fulbright Scholar, the first to teach journalism in Burma, and a Luce Scholar, to report in Singapore. She also was a visiting professor in the Global Business Journalism Program at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and Semester at Sea, a floating university. As a Fulbright Specialist, she was a keynote speaker at an international media conference at Romania’s largest university, Babeș-Bolyai.