James L. Hecht, Chairman and President

After receiving his Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering from Yale, Jim spent 31 years in various research and development posts with DuPont. Since his retirement in 1985 he has written extensively on public policy issues, including foreign aid. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, The Christian Century and many other publications. He became interested in Patan Hospital after spending 10 days in Kathmandu with his wife, Amy, who is the Chairman of the Global Mission Committee of Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church in Denver and a former Dean of the College of Allied Health Professions at Temple University.

Eleanor Roberts, Treasurer

Eleanor Roberts graduated from Hastings College in Nebraska with a degree in music education. She taught public school music, owned a private music studio and served as organist and choir director for several different churches. She retired from the telephone industry where she was a trainer and course developer. Eleanor traveled to Nepal to do service work in 2000.

Scottie Annable, Treasurer

Scottie received her Bachelor of Science Degree in math education from Purdue University. In 2005 she retired from preparing individual taxes for a CPA firm in the Denver area. She has been an Elder in Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church, traveled to Nepal on the 2000 work trip and will return to Nepal as a team member of the October 2007 work trip.

Connie Dunlap, Assistant Treasurer

Connie received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing at Metropolitan State College in Denver. She specialized in Emergency Medicine and worked at Porter Adventist Hospital. Before retiring last December, she was training Physicians on the use of the Electronic Medical Record. Connie and her husband, Bob have traveled to Nepal several times both as tourists and participating on work trips. She is an active member of the Leadership committee coordinating and planning future Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church Work trips to Nepal.

Dr. Mark Zimmerman, Vice Chairman

Mark received his MD at the Dartmouth Medical School. He then did his residency and chief residency in internal medicine in Syracuse, New York. In 1986 he joined the medical staff of Patan Hospital and also worked in the hill hospital of Amp Pipal. In 1998 he became the Medical Director at Patan. He met his wife, Deirde, a native of Ireland, at Patan Hospital while she was working with the United Mission to Nepal Nutrition Program. In 2005 Mark resigned his position at Patan Hospital to become the Executive Director of the Nick Simons Institute which is a huge program aimed at improving health care in the rural areas of Nepal.

Mark Haynes, Secretary

Mark is a cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. A resident of Denver, he is a member of the law firm of Ireland, Stapleton, Pryor & Pascoe, a professional corporation of which he is a shareholder (the equivalent to partner). He and his wife, Gwen, have four children, one of whom was a Nepali orphan.

Michele Avila-Emerson, Director

Michele Avila-Emerson is a Pediatric Critical Care Nurse Practitioner at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. She is an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania, where she obtained her MSN while training at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She became interested in Nepal, and specifically Patan Hospital, when she was recruited by Sangita Basnet, a pediatric intensivist practicing in the United States and native of Nepal. Michele will be working with team members to help support and train PICU/NICU care teams in Patan Hospital in the new building structure. Michele and her husband Brian made their first trip to Nepal to attend the 25th Anniversary Celebration on November 7, 2007, and during their week stay met with key healthcare leaders within pediatrics for the Kathmandu Valley. However, this was not Michele's first trip to Asia. In the past she has worked on humanitarian projects in Cambodia and Thailand.

Mary C. Carroll, Director

In the past 15 years Mary has given considerable time and effort to volunteer service in Nepal. She has led medical camps, conducted VIP tours, arranged cultural exchanges and organized day camps for as many as 250 Nepali children. In 2001 she was appointed Honorary Trade Representative of Nepal by the Federation of Nepali Chambers of Commerce & Industry. In the 30 years she has lived in the Philadelphia community she has served on over 25 community and national boards involved with the environment, international affairs, historic preservation, and others. Presently she is Chairman of the Nepal Foundation, and Board member of the YMCA of Philadelphia & Vicinity and Aqua America, Inc. the largest US owned water utility on the NYSE. Mary was recently awarded the Woman of Distinction Award from Lake Forest Academy and was the first recipient of the Friend of Nepal award given by the Association of Nepalis in the Americas. She graduated Magna cum laude from the University of Miami.

F. Joseph Feely III, Director

Joe received his BS in Mechanical Engineering and MS in Industrial Administration from Purdue University and his JD from the University of Virginia Law School. He retired from Verizon Communications in 2001 after working for 28 years as a lawyer. Before attending law school he worked as a Development Engineer for E. I. Du Pont de Nemours Corporation in Newport, Delaware, and he served as a commissioned officer in the U. S. Public Health Service at the National Center for Air Pollution Control in Washington, D. C. Currently, he serves as a Director and Secretary of the Board for the EOFULA Hispanic Senior Center that is located in Washington, D. C.

Dr Rajesh Gongal, Director

Rajesh Gongal is the Medical Director at Patan Hospital. A surgeon, he received his medical training at the Darbhanga Medical College in India. After several years of residency in Nepal and India, he spent four and a half years working and training in the United Kingdom. He has worked at Patan Hospital since 1998, becoming Medical Director in May of 2007. He also is a Professor of Surgery at the National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS) and the founding Chairman of Hospice Nepal, the first hospice in the country. Under his leadership the hospice has been a great success since its founding in the year 2000. Rajesh also has pioneered the teaching of palliative care to doctors and nurses throughout Nepal.

Dr. J W Richard Harding, 3rd, MD, MPH, Director

Dick earned his MD at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and did his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Hartford (CT) Hospital and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (San Jose, CA). He studied Tropical Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and received an MPH in International Health from Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. He and family spent 22 years in Nepal as Presbyterian missionaries serving under the United Mission to Nepal (UMN). His experiences included in-patient, out-patient, community based medicine, a short term as director of Tansen Mission Hospital and he developed a training program for Community Medical Assistants. He established and taught in the department of Community Medicine of Nepal's first medical school. He was a director of Lalitpur Community Development and Health Program associated with Patan Hospital and was UMN's Senior Health Consultant, evaluating management of several of Nepal¡¯s largest government hospitals. The Hardings have four children and the eldest, Ellen, and her family are missionaries in Nepal. Dick and his wife retired to Greensboro, NC.

Dr. Linda Hungerford, Director

Linda Hungerford is a graduate of Oregon Health Sciences University and completed her internal medicine residency at Providence Portland Medical Center in 1995. From September 1995 to March 1996, she served with United Mission to Nepal at Patan Hospital on the internal medicine ward and in the clinic alongside Mark Zimmerman. She has maintained an active interest in medical missions, and counts her experience at Patan hospital as one of the most formative for her world view and practice of medicine. She has been in private practice with Providence Medical Group in Portland, Oregon since 1996. She and her husband Ben homeschool their children on their small family farm and are expecting their 5th child in April 2007.

Chrissy Kohrt, Director

After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, Chrissy spent 2 years (1989-91) in Nepal as a Peace Corps Volunteer. She taught science in Ramachaap District during her first year. During her second year, she trained science teachers in Rautahat District, concentrating on the health curriculum. Chrissy has also worked as the Director of Volunteers and Resident Services at Monroe Community Hospital in Rochester, NY. She and her husband, Kris, have three children.

Embracing a Peace Corps' goal of bringing the world back home, Chrissy continues to share her past experiences in Nepal through speaking engagements.

Dr. Hillary Liss, Director

After completing a medical residency at the University of Washington, Hillary spent 2 years in Nepal, volunteering at a new medical school. While there, she was fortunate to spend time at Patan Hospital, particularly following Mark Zimmerman and a host of other physicians around and learning from them. Now back in Seattle, Hillary is on the faculty of University of Washington in the departments of Internal Medicine and Obstetrics-Gynecology, and she also travels throughout the Pacific Northwest as the Medical Program Director of the Northwest AIDS Education Training Centers, giving talks about HIV/ AIDS, primarily at rural clinics. She and her husband, Bill, attempt to return to Nepal almost yearly.

Dr. Catherine Michael, Director

Cathy did her undergraduate studies at the University of Notre Dame and received her M.D. from Indiana University. She completed a residency in Emergency Medicine at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. Since then she has been an emergency room physician in Indianapolis and currently works part-time. She spent two months at Patan Hospital in 1994 as a medical student and returned for another month in the year 2000. Cathy and her husband Jon-Adam are active members of Grace Presbyterian Church (PCA) and have two boys, Isaac and Andrew, born in 2002 and 2005.

Ram Prasad Prajapati, Director

Ram Prasad became the Chief Executive Officer of Patan Hospital in November, 2002. He has been with Patan Hospital since its beginning and was the Deputy Administrative Officer prior to his recent promotion. He was born in Bhaktapur, Nepal, the son of a potter who travelled around the country. He holds three degrees from Tribuvan University, a public university in Kathmandu: a Bachelors degree in commerce (1975), a MBA (1981) and a MPA (1994).

Robert B. Shields, Director

Mr. Shields earned B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He is a co-founder of Research Associates of Syracuse, a firm that specializes in defense electronics, and served as President and Chairman of the Board from 1986 to 2000. He and his wife, Peggy, were instrumental in raising funds for an Ultrasound Scanner installed at Patan Hospital in February, 2001. He is treasurer of Marcellus United Methodist Church and has served in many leadership capacities there.

Dr. O. James Staats, Director

Jim, a pathologist, received his medical degree from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Recently retired, he spent most of his career as a Clinical Professor of Pathology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Concurrently he served as a pathologist with the Baptist Medical Centers in Alabama including seven years as Chairman of the center at Montclair. In the fall of 2000 he spent two months as a pathologist at Patan Hospital on a medical missionary tour.