Stevan Harrell, President

Steve is a founding member of the CMEF board, and has served as President since its inception. He is a University of Washington anthropologist who has worked in Taiwan and China for over 30 years, and in Liangshan for 20 years. He and his wife Barbara live in Seattle, Washington. For more about Steve's story, please read our history page.

Lauren Brown, Vice-President

Lauren joined the UW-Sichuan Undergraduate Exchange Program in 2002. Along with language studies, she conducted anthropological fieldwork on medical decision-making in and around Yangjuan village for which she received a Mary Gates Research Training Grant. She interviewed Nuosu people, local Nuosu practitioners such as the bimo and the sunyi,as well as traditional Chinese medicine and biomedical personnel in nearby Baiwu township and Yanyuan county seat. Lauren graduated from the University of Washington in 2006 in Anthropology and Public Health. Since graduation, she has worked as research program staff in ovarian cancer screening at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle, WA) and as an intern for the Immunization Policy Unit at the World Health Organization (Geneva, Switzerland). She is currently a Master’s student at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is fond of Anatole France’s conclusion that “Nine tenths of education is encouragement.” Lauren is intensely gratified that students, especially young women in Yangjuan, will attend middle school and thus enjoy improved outcomes as a result of CMEF’s contribution.

Nancy Meenen, Treasurer

Nancy was the program manager for the UW-Sichuan University Undergraduate Exchange Program from 2004-2008. She visited Yangjuan with students in the fall of 2005. Nancy currently works as the Affiliate Director for CrossFit, Inc and owns and operates CrossFit Seattle with her husband. Nancy resides in Seattle, Washington.

Tami Blumenfield, past secretary and treasurer

Tami believes that CMEF helps children access meaningful educational opportunities, both through supporting their school attendance, and through providing enriching curricular content for the Yangjuan Primary School. She is one of the founding members of CMEF. Tami has made two summer trips to Yangjuan for educational research and to provide support for arriving UW exchange students in 2004 and 2005. She also conducted a teacher training for Yangjuan Primary School teachers in March 2006. In addition to her doctoral work in anthropology at UW she teaches night classes in anthropology. She lives in Seattle with her husband Ryan, her son Ethan, who just turned one, and her trusty dog Pukipu, who spent a week with her in Yangjuan in 2006.

Barbara Grub, Vice President, Treasurer

Barbara is a founding member of the Board. She brings experience in rural development to CMEF, which she gained working in Guatemala for the Peace Corps as well as through her own personal experience living in small agricultural towns. She believes that CMEF encourages the sustainable growth of the Yangjuan Primary School. Barbara first visited Yangjuan in 2002 and spent extended periods there in 2004, 2005, and 2007 pursuing her graduate research. She studied how the Nuosu raise their livestock, both historically and today, and the impact that this has on the local environment. Currently, Barbara is employed by Safeco Insurance in the communications and public relations department. She is also writing her graduate dissertation. She lives in Seattle, and is contemplating a future in environmental NGO administration.

Katharine Liang, board member since 2006

Katharine joined the UW-Sichuan Undergraduate Exchange Program as a freshman in 2002. While studying abroad in China with the program, she conducted wolf field surveys throughout the greater Liangshan region and backpacked through the villages surrounding Yangjuan. She also conducted snow leopard population surveys in Tibetan regions. Her time in the field was spent looking for wolf tracks and scat, as well as interviewing the local Nuosu people about their everyday practices in coexisting with wildlife in rural areas. Katharine collected photographs taken by students and faculty during their field work in Yangjuan and created the first annual Yangjuan Primary School Calendar. Proceeds from the calendar project have since funded many CMEF projects including teacher training and student scholarships. Katharine graduated from the University of Washington in 2007 in Neurobiology and International Studies and is currently an MD/PhD student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In her free time, she enjoys training for marathons and triathlons, backpacking, playing the violin and the guitar.

Deborah Sung, Member-at-large

Deborah participated in the UW-SU exchange program from 2006 - 2007 as a senior majoring in International Studies. While studying abroad, she focused her research on Nuosu rituals in the village of Yangjuan as well as in the greater Liangshan area. She graduated with honors in 2008 and is currently an MD student at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Her hopes are to pursue a joint MPH degree and to follow a career path in underserved medicine.

Geoffrey Morgan, Member-at-large

Geoffrey was first introduced to CMEF when studying abroad on the UW-Sichuan Undergraduate Exchange Program as Junior in the 2007-2008 academic year. While conducting field research on small scale charity water projects in rural China, he spent 5 weeks Yangjuan analyzing the water projects that had recently been built in the surrounding area. Geoffrey then used the results of his research to rebuild and extend the water project above Yangjuan to reach 36 homes and the Yangjuan Primary School. During his time spent in the village he fell in love with the people and saw the good that CMEF was providing and wanted to help. He is currently working with CMEF on the designs for a larger scale water project to give the villagers reliable access to potable water year round. Geoffrey is majoring in Civil & Environmental Engineering and International Studies at the University of Washington and is projected to graduate June 2011

Victoria Poling, Alumni

Victoria is a founding member of the CMEF board. Through educational opportunities supported by the fund she hopes to provide the future artists, philosophers and leaders of the Yangjuan area with perspectives and skills that enrich their life experiences. As a participant in the University of Washington-Sichuan University Undergraduate Exchange Program, Victoria conducted ethnobotany research in Yangjuan on several trips during the 2002-2003 academic year. She was inspired by the inquisitiveness of the primary school students she worked with, and impressed by the depth of plant knowledge held by local elders. Victoria currently teaches outdoor environmental education, history and sail training programs on tall ships, where she has held positions as deckhand, engineer and 1st Mate.

Phil Chi, Alumni

Phil has been a board member since 2007. He first visited Yangjuan as a participant in the University of Washington-Sichuan University Undergraduate Exchange Program. His research was on the forest community surrounding the Yangjuan and Pianshui villages and included biomass measurements and soil type determinations.

Phil has recently earned his Masters in Forestry from the University of Washington.