As you may know from some of our past blogs, On-the-Ground Coordinators (OTGCs) play a vital role in EWH’s Summer & January Institute programs. Our OTGCs are often, but not always, past participants in the programs. As coordinators, they work in-country for 3-10 weeks, helping to prepare for participants’ arrivals, serving as Teaching Assistants, and supporting participants in their hospital assignments. Our OTGCs come from around the world, and regularly display great passion and dedication in the intersection of global health and technology, as well as a strong sense of adventure. This year is no exception!

Please welcome our fantastic OTGCs for the 2018 January Institutes:

Maddy Bishop-Van Horn – from New Mexico, USA; Graduated from Tulane University, working for EWH!

Where are you working with EWH in 2018?  JI Cambodia & SI Mongolia

Past Programs: Participant in SI Rwanda 2015. OTGC in SI 2016 Rwanda, JI 2017 Cambodia, SI 2017 Uganda. Also worked in Nepal and Tanzania in 2017.

What are your academic or professional interests or achievements?

I'm a tinkerer. In college, I worked on embedded control systems and in Makerspaces--helping turn people's ideas into reality. Now, my goal is to train EWH participants to be thoughtful, dedicated problem solvers. Problem solvers who make a tangible impact on their hospital!

Why do you want to work with EWH?

I'm passionate about EWH's mission. I'm energized by connecting the international biomedical engineering community to address big challenges in global health.

What are you looking forward to most as an OTGC in 2018?

I'm very excited to coordinate our first program in Mongolia! This program started because a Mongolian doctor heard about EWH and recognized the need for our volunteers in their hospitals. Helping to meet that need makes me proud to work for EWH.

Alyssa Paul – from Rhode Island, USA; attending Marquette University

Where are you working with EWH in 2018?  JI Guatemala

Past Programs: Participant in SI 2016 Nicaragua, OTGC in SI 2017 Nicaragua

What are your academic or professional interests or achievements?

I'm interested in cardiac arrhythmias, low cost solutions, and data science, modeling, visualization, and simulation.

Why do you want to work with EWH?

The program promotes a partnership that benefits both the country's healthcare and the students who learn new skills and gain a cultural experience. Even in just two years of participating, I have seen huge movements to improve the repair of medical equipment on the part of the Nicaraguan government and I like to think EWH's presence brought attention to kick-start that initiative.

What are you looking forward to most as an OTGC in 2018?

I'm looking forward to working with a group of students that have had a semester's worth of training specifically for this experience.

Talia Rose – from Australia; attending the University of Queensland

Where are you working with EWH in 2018?  JI Cambodia

What are your academic or professional interests or achievements?

I have volunteered for Engineers Without Borders for the last 3 years, working throughout Cambodia and India on humanitarian engineering projects during the summers. I have a keen interest in entrepreneurship and innovation in biomedical engineering, patenting a robotic arm for stroke patient rehabilitation during my time at the National University of Singapore. I am looking to complete my final year thesis in humanitarian biomedical engineering.

Why do you want to work with EWH?

I have finally found Engineers Without Borders meets Médecins Sans Frontières! I think students are the world's most valuable resource and I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to lead, teach, and learn with EWH.

What are you looking forward to most as an OTGC in 2018?

Meeting the kind of engineers that will be implementing appropriate solutions to improve healthcare worldwide and seeing those same engineers come to that realisation themselves. Oh, and eating a really good beef lok lak!

Seth Thompson – from Cape Town, South Africa; attending the University of Cape Town

Where are you working with EWH in 2018?  JI Uganda & SI Rwanda

Past Programs: Participant in SI 2017 Nicaragua

What are your academic or professional interests or achievements?

I am interested in innovation for low cost solutions to health problems in low resource areas.

Why do you want to work with EWH?

The experience of traveling the world and seeing, first hand, the problems that healthcare systems face in under-resourced areas. I am also excited to learn from people who work in these areas about the solutions that they use and how these could be formalized.

What are you looking forward to most as an OTGC next summer?

Watching the students learn to diagnose problems and apply that knowledge, as well as seeing a new country and meeting new people with different cultures and foods!

*

Thanks so much to our January OTGCs for sharing a little about themselves. Next week we'll introduce our Summer OTGCs!