Himalayan Health Exchange Advisory Panel

Professor Paul Donnelly teaches Religious Studies at Northern Arizona University. He has a PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was a student of Geshe Lhundup Sopa. Professor Donnelly also teaches courses on Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Tantric forms of Indian religions, Women in Asian Religions and Religion and Film. Professor Donnelly has travelled to the Indian Himalayas extensively and has been leading anthropology trips for HHE since 2004.

Oliver is a general dental practitioner who graduated from University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Since qualifying he has worked in general practice in Sunderland. Oliver has a special interest in practicing dentistry (especially oral surgery) and oral health care promotion in the rural environment.Prior to university Oliver worked at outdoor pursuits camps in the UK and gained his Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award in 1999. He has participated in two Himalayan Health Expeditions and plans to return atleast once every year. His interests include climbing, hiking and foreign travel.

Dr. Elizabeth Haney received her medical degree at Dalhousie University,Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She is a full time Emergency Physician practicing in Southwestern Ontario. Professionally she has strong interests in international medicine, wilderness medicine, and in ultrasound applications in the emergency department. International medicine has captured her heart and expeditions will be a regular occurrence in her practice. Interests outside of medicine include running, rock climbing, CrossFit, travel, and photography.

Jane Cross is a pediatrician from western Massachusetts who first became interested in international health (IH) in the 1970’s during time off from college when she worked in a mission hospital in western Kenya. That interest was placed on the back burner for decades while she got her schooling and raised a family. In 2002, she and a friend worked in the high Andes of Peru for 2 weeks as part of a child survival project and they returned again in 2003. Since then she has also traveled to Ecuador several times, the Dominican Republic several times, helped start an IH track for interested residents and students at her local teaching hospital, co-chaired an IH state committee of the AAP and had her first trip with Himalayan Health Exchange in June 2010. Her dream is to someday cut her work to half time and increase her travel time accordingly, allowing her perhaps three month-long trips a year.

Dr Levy’s career has been focused on Community Oriented Primary Care. After residency he worked for several years for Indian Health Services at the Tuba City, AZ hospital as an Internist and Director of Medical Education. He was the founding medical director of a community health center, served as Chief of Medicine at an area Hospital, worked briefly in private practice, and, more recently, was Director of medical services for the Central / Western Massachusetts VA. He currently works as a staff internist and director of the Hepatitis C program at the CWM VA. His interests in International, and, more specifically, Himalayan Health, began in residency when he spent an elective in Nepal. Outside the medical orbit, he spends time hiking, bicycling, and playing jazz. He has led two trips for HHE and is delighted to be planning his third.

Dr Gudmundsdottir studied medicine in Reyjavik, Iceland and qualified in 2013, and is now finishing her anesthesiology residency at the Landspitali University Hospital in Reykjavik. Signy has participated in two of the Himalayan Health Exchange camps, first as a student on the Outer Himalayas Trip to Himachal Pradesh and then again as a physician on the Kargiakh trip in August 2013. When she isn´t working she is hiking and enjoying the beautiful Icelandic highlands.

Denton Shanks is devoted to working in the community, leading through service, and reaching out to the larger world in an effort to promote good healthcare for all. He enjoys working with multidisciplinary teams on global health & development and disruptive healthcare innovations & technologies to help discover sustainable solutions for individuals and communities everywhere. He grew up with exchange students from around the world and volunteering with his sister ‘s Special Olympics team. He has studied, completed research, and worked in many states and countries and now is completing a Family Medicine Residency at a community health center in Washington DC. He is also working on a Wilderness Medicine fellowship and has immensely enjoyed participating on two HHE expeditions so far.