Dr. Mirjam-Colette Kempf is a member of COMMITTED’s Advisory Board. Dr. Kempf recently joined our team and will be providing valuable insights for our community health initiatives; especially with regards to HIV/AIDS related research and interventions.
Dr. Kempf is an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, with research experience in numerous subjects including molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis, Human papilloma virus and cervical disease and HIV transmission in discordant couples. Her current research interests include the clinical epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in the Southeastern states of the U.S., especially as it relates to the impact of antiretroviral therapy on HIV positive women and their infants. Dr. Kempf also holds an appointment in the Minority Health Research Center and the Center for AIDS Research and is an advisor to the Sexual Health Awareness through Peer Education (SHAPE) program at the Center for AIDS Research. She currently is the course master for the STDs and HIV/AIDS graduate course at UAB. Click here for a list of Dr. Kempf’s publications.
Dr. Sadeep Shrestha has been involved with COMMITTED since December of 2006. Dr. Shrestha’s personal ties and research interest in Nepal will be instrumental in successful planning and implementation of health projects. Dr. Shrestha will be involved as a consultant in research, intervention and treatment of infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.
Dr. Shrestha currently is a faculty in the school of public health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s (UAB). He is an epidemiologist and is interested in studying the interplay of human genetics with behavioral and environmental factors in the natural history and pathogenesis of infectious diseases. He is also interested in epidemiologic studies of vaccines and drug treatments.
He received his MHS (Infectious disease/Genetic Epidemiology) and PhD (Genetic Epidemiology) from the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University and MS (Biotechnology) from Kreiger School of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, NCI-Frederick before joining the School of Public Health faculty in 2005. Dr. Shrestha also serves as an Associate Scientist for the Cancer Control & Population Sciences Program of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, a scientist for the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and as associate scientist for the minority health research center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Click here for a list of Dr. Shrestha’s publications
Sangita Sigdyal has been involved with COMMITTED since 2007. She is currently providing guidance to strengthen the Farmers’ Bus Project concept. Her expertise is very valuable to COMMITTED and comes from her role as the Deputy Director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign, a leader in the microfinance field that brings practitioners, donor agencies, government leaders and other stakeholders to the table to forward the movement. Sangita manages all aspects of the Campaign's work with a special on its on its two goals: working to ensure that 175 million of the world's poorest families are receiving credit for self- employment and other financial and business services by the end of 2015, and working to ensure that 100 million of the world's poorest families move from below US$1 a day by the end of 2015.
She has also served as Chief Operating Officer of the Association for Conflict Resolution, the largest membership association for mediators and arbitrators, for four and a half years. She has a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in finance and business from Columbia University's School for International and Public Affairs.
Dr. Amir Sapkota is an Environmental Health expert and recently joined COMMITTED’s Advisory Board. Dr. Sapkota will be involved in COMMITTED’s environmental initiatives including the ongoing research on fugitive dust and its health implications in the Kathmandu Valley area.
Dr. Sapkota is a faculty member of the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health, University of Maryland at College Park, Maryland (UMD). He received his PhD. in Environmental Health Sciences from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2004. After completing his Post Doc at the Johns Hopkins in 2005, he continued Post Doc as a Fellow for the Gene-Environment Epidemiology Group, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Lyon, France.
His primary research interests lie in the area of exposure assessment and environmental epidemiology: understanding link between exposure to various air pollutants and human diseases. These include the inner city environment and asthma; impacts of traffic on community air pollution; and indoor air pollution from solid fuel usage and the risk of lung cancer, particularly in the developing countries. Click here for a list of Dr. Amir Sapkota’s publications.
Dr. Amy Rebecca Sapkota advises COMMITTED on environmental health projects including the ongoing research on fugitive dust and its health implications in the Kathmandu Valley area.
She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, Institute for Applied Environmental Health, College Park, Maryland (UMD). She received her doctorate in 2005 from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, MD in Environmental Health Sciences, and MPH from Yale School of Public Health, CT in 1999. She continued at Johns Hopkins as a Postdoctoral Fellow for the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and as a Postdoctoral Researcher for the Environmental Microbial Genomics Group, Laboratoire Ampere, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, Lyon, France.
Her research interests lie in the areas of microbial environmental exposure assessment and environmental epidemiology, with a focus on evaluating the complex relationships between the environment, food and water production systems, and human infectious diseases. Current research projects include: 1) evaluating the dissemination of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes from agricultural sources into air, surface water, groundwater, soil and food products, and understanding how this may contribute to rises in antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in humans; and 2) utilizing metagenomic methods to understand total bacterial and viral biodiversity in environmental samples including soil, food, air and other commercial products. Click here for a list of Dr. Amy Rebecca Sapkota’s publications.
Mr. Sanjeev Rana is COMMITTED's Survey & Research Specialist. Mr. Rana has been involved in numerous of COMMITTED’s projects including the needs assessment survey of Kanya Mandir School. His primary role is to guide conduct surveys and the grant writing process to solicit funds. He has also served on COMMITTED’s Executive Board as the Coordinator for the year 2006-2007.
As a research analyst for CSR, Incorporated, he provides technical assistance and consultation for the HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Mr. Rana has also been involved in the collection and management of survey data on several projects including the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment's (CSAT) Cooperative Agreements for Strengthening Communities, Montefiore Medical Center's Infant Feeding Study, the Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology, and the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology/Sociology from Luther College, Iowa, and a Master's Degree in Human Services: Planning and Administration from Minnesota State University, Mankato, Minnesota. Mr. Rana has gathered significant experience in research methods in public health projects. He is currently enrolled in graduate level courses in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland.
Mr. Rana is COMMITTED’s environmental expert and brings an experience of fifteen years in the fields of civil engineering (B.S. - George Washington University, Washington DC) and environmental science (M.S. - Virginia Polytechnic and State University). He also served on the founding Executive Board as the Co-chairperson from 2004-2007 and was instrumental in COMMITTED’s operations and key decisions.
He has served as a Senior Project Manager for the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Virginia. During his tenure at SAIC, he was involved extensively in clean water related projects covered under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). He provided technical support to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Wastewater Management (OWM), State Governments and the Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW). His attachment with Nepal provided him opportunities to work with the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) projects; assessment of environmental conditions of various lakes of Nepal and identifying measures to improve their conditions. Another project, also in coordination with ADB, was to improve the tourism industry of Nepal through environmental management. Mr. Rana currently works for the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington DC.
Dr. Mirjam-Colette Kempf is a member of COMMITTED’s Advisory Board. Dr. Kempf recently joined our team and will be providing valuable insights for our community health initiatives; especially with regards to HIV/AIDS related research and interventions. 
Dr. Sadeep Shrestha has been involved with COMMITTED since December of 2006. Dr. Shrestha’s personal ties and research interest in Nepal will be instrumental in successful planning and implementation of health projects. Dr. Shrestha will be involved as a consultant in research, intervention and treatment of infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. 
Sangita Sigdyal has been involved with COMMITTED since 2007. She is currently providing guidance to strengthen the Farmers’ Bus Project concept. Her expertise is very valuable to COMMITTED and comes from her role as the Deputy Director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign, a leader in the microfinance field that brings practitioners, donor agencies, government leaders and other stakeholders to the table to forward the movement. Sangita manages all aspects of the Campaign's work with a special on its on its two goals: working to ensure that 175 million of the world's poorest families are receiving credit for self- employment and other financial and business services by the end of 2015, and working to ensure that 100 million of the world's poorest families move from below US$1 a day by the end of 2015.
Dr. Amir Sapkota is an Environmental Health expert and recently joined COMMITTED’s Advisory Board. Dr. Sapkota will be involved in COMMITTED’s environmental initiatives including the ongoing research on fugitive dust and its health implications in the Kathmandu Valley area. 
Dr. Amy Rebecca Sapkota advises COMMITTED on environmental health projects including the ongoing research on fugitive dust and its health implications in the Kathmandu Valley area. 
Mr. Sanjeev Rana is COMMITTED's Survey & Research Specialist. Mr. Rana has been involved in numerous of COMMITTED’s projects including the needs assessment survey of Kanya Mandir School. His primary role is to guide conduct surveys and the grant writing process to solicit funds. He has also served on COMMITTED’s Executive Board as the Coordinator for the year 2006-2007.
Mr. Rana is COMMITTED’s environmental expert and brings an experience of fifteen years in the fields of civil engineering (B.S. - George Washington University, Washington DC) and environmental science (M.S. - Virginia Polytechnic and State University). He also served on the founding Executive Board as the Co-chairperson from 2004-2007 and was instrumental in COMMITTED’s operations and key decisions.