Born and raised in Washington, D.C., I was always interested in political movements & social activism. My family’s involvement with the local community sparked my lifelong journey to build opportunities for service.

My first of many times in Nepal was in 1971 to prepare for my Fulbright Grant. As part of my project, I observed and talked with women about their children’s health. I picked up Nepali pretty quickly, building on a few years of Hindi-Urdu study. My husband Tim and I trekked more than 500 miles to reach remote villages.

From Nepal, I applied to the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor. It’s here where I met the Brilliants and my future Co-Founders of Seva. In fact, I met Girija Brilliant while walking down the school’s hall and noticed we both had matching Tibetan woven shoulder bags! We were thrilled to learn that we were in the same doctoral program.

Our early meetings were a real trip. A richly eclectic group of folks gathered – public health experts like Dr. Nicole Grasset and Dr. Venkataswamy, spiritual leaders like Ram Dass, Wavy Gravy, and more. Our job was to explore public health issues in the world and identify where we could make a difference. 

Wavy really liked the idea of working on diarrhea- “We could have concerts and call them’ No Shit’!” he’d say.

We settled on avoidable blindness. One of the first things that we did was conduct the Nepal Blindness Survey. The Nepali and expat teams who led this effort went door-to-door to more than 8,000 homes in 105 villages to uncover that cataract was the leading cause of blindness. One of my first jobs was going around Kathmandu and finding printing companies to print the thousands of survey forms! There was no task too small or basic.

Yep, that’s me dancing backup for Wavy Gravy. We called ourselves the Sevettes and performed at several benefit concerts over the years that raised critical funds for Seva programs!

I will never forget the first planning session for the Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology, the first such multidisciplinary training and research institute in the global south. During this same meeting week in India, Seva and Aravind members also discussed the formation of Aurolab which today produces 8% of all intraocular lenses used by cataract patients around the world.

One of the joys with Seva has been to get to know and work with remarkable people like Ram Dass, Dr. Venkataswamy, Mirabai Bush (pictured) and so many others. It has been a privilege to work intimately with hundreds of people from around the world in my multiple roles with Seva.

Across the years, I represented Seva at more than 150 meetings at the World Health Organization, Ministries of Health, and global eye care conferences. In many cases I was responsible for crystalizing the key points for Seva and other institutions’ followup.

Twice in the course of my years with Seva I met a person just as they were receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. First, I met His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1989; in 2006 I met Prof Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank. This Seva-Aravind meeting with Grameen led to a long and productive partnership producing several eye hospitals and many vision centers in rural Bangladesh.

One of the longest-term training programs I have had the privilege of launching is the Seva-Aravind Eyexcel workshop: Excellence in Eye Care Training. Little did we know that this initial faculty would grow to strengthen in-hospital personnel training with 174 eye hospital teams across 29 countries. During COVID, our virtual methods radically increased the number of hospitals reached.

It was a thrill when Seva, Seva Canada and our mutual partner Kilimanjaro Center for Community Ophthalmology received the Antonio Champalimaud Award for Vision (a 1 million Euro cash prize). This photo taken in Lisbon, Portugal represents partnership and teamwork which are the hallmark of Seva’s work.

Surprises pop up frequently, including being surrounded by a bevy of Aravind hospital staff daughters. They are greeting me on my way to the stage to give the Dr G Venkataswamy Oration Award in 2016 on the 10th year of his passing. My talk reflected my nearly 30 years of close working and learning with Dr. V.

Novel visitors enrich Seva by stopping by the office. Here the Gyoto monks came to learn about Seva and how they could take part. They were fascinated by Seva’s blend of service, science and spirit and the many cultural and spiritual traditions found in our work around the world.

For decades, Seva Board meetings continued to bring together board, staff, partners, and volunteers for cross-fertilization of ideas and experiences across regions. Although complicated to plan and pull off, these larger, longer meetings stand out as among our most impactful across the decades. Here we are at Wavy Gravy’s Camp Winnarainbow in California.

Every year, for the past 20 years, eight of Seva’s women co-founders have gotten together for a retreat. This has been a very important part of sustaining my early connections and aspirations. This photo was taken just last year!

After working with Seva for 45 years, this group of people were my strongest impetus to retire. Husband Tim, our kids and their spouses, and three grandchildren under the age of 3 years! In retirement, I look forward to more relaxed, uninterrupted time with them while also pursuing my volunteer interests at home and around the world.