Board Members
Hakon Torjesen, founding president of Health Frontiers, is a retired faculty member of Case Western Reserve University and retired US Foreign Service Officer. He continues to do volunteer administrative work for Health Frontiers, including responsibility for annual reports required by the State of Minnesota. He visits Laos on a regular basis
Erik Torjesen, MEd, President of Health Frontiers, is a faculty member at the Singapore American School where he has worked for 19 years. He received part of his University training at University Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. He has served as the Chair of the Social Studies Department. He visits Laos to meet with the University of Health Sciences faculty and with Health Frontiers volunteers.
Georgine Busch, CPA, is treasurer of Health Frontiers. She is also treasurer for the Earl and Doris Bakken Foundation in Hawaii and also for several additional NGOs established by Earl Bakken, who was the inventor of the cardiac pacemaker and founder of the Medtronic Corporation. Georgine has visited Laos and met with Health Frontiers volunteers and with Lao faculty.
Kristine Torjesen, MD, Vice President of Health Frontiers, is a pediatrician who spent a year in Laos teaching pediatrics during the first year of the pediatric residency program. Subsequently, she served as the Coordinator of volunteer faculty for Health Frontiers for five years. She is currently the Associate Director, Science Facilitation, FHI360, Durham, North Carolina. She coordinates many research projects related to prevention of HIV in women.
Bryan Watt and his wife Leila Srour, MD, continue to be involved with Health Frontiers since 2002 when Leila volunteered in Laos as pediatric coordinator and HF field representative and then transitioned to CME coordinator. Bryan volunteered as administrative coordinator and transitioned to outreach coordinator. Bryan continues to take care of the accounting and help with the IT in Laos. Both of them continue to provide support through their annual visits to the Health Frontiers office in Vientiane.
Melanie Anspacher, MD, is a pediatrician who spent a year in Laos as the HF representative and currently serves as a Board member. She is an attending hospitalist at Children's National Hospital and is on the faculty of George Washington University.
Christine Johns, MD, is an internist and nephrologist who spent two years in Laos as the HF field representative and is currently on the faculty of the University of Minnesota. She continues to visit Laos as a volunteer faculty and maintains financial records for Health Frontiers in Minnesota.
Marisa Herran, MD, is a pediatrician and has been a faculty member at Case Western Reserve University for 20 years. She has been a volunteer to help children in humanitarian emergencies in Kosovo, Darfur, Nepal and Haiti. She has taught disaster management with a special focus on children in many countries, including Nicaragua, Panama, India, Syria, Thailand, Pakistan, El Salvador, Lebanon, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, El Salvador, Cuba, Haiti, Nepal and Nigeria. She brought comfort kits to Laos to help children displaced by the floods in September 2018.
Libby Clarke, MD, Volunteer coordinator of Health Frontiers, is a geriatrician who provides primary care to underserved seniors in Denver, Colorado. She served as the HF Field representative and Internal Medicine Coordinator in 2011. She still views this volunteer opportunity as one of the best experiences of her life, and is happy to support coordinating short and long term volunteers who wish to contribute to and learn from the Lao medical community.
