S. REBA MCINTYRE, LICSW, MPA, PhD

Background: I am a social worker, global health educator and non-profit administrator who has had a career in international refugee resettlement and higher education. Early on in my career I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia, West Africa and an educational job trainer in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Before retiring from 20 years in academia, I managed both masters level programs in social work at Eastern Washington University and a global health program at Medex Northwest at the University of Washington.

Why HLI: In 2007 I founded an international medical education Seattle based non-profit organization to work solely in the Lao PDR. The Peace Corp type model I designed focused on recruiting medical professional volunteers who were interested in combining travel, teaching and volunteer service. I had spent nineteen years resettling Southeast Asian refugees, predominantly Laotian, in the US and wanted to spend the last part of my career in building a sustainable global health program in the Lao PDR. As I built the HLI model, I was fortunate to meet Department of State officials who helped HLI secure federal funding as a federal fiscal agent to support medical education in the UXO regions of the Lao PDR.