Mohammad Khan Kharoti was born in 1943 in Zabul Province, Afghanistan and up to the age of seven lived in a nomadic caravan. In 1950 his parents settled for the first time on land in the Nadia Ali District of Helmand Province. His father died when Mohammad was eleven. At the age of twelve he did something no one else in his village had ever done; he started primary school.

After the completion of primary school, Mohammad was admitted to an auxiliary nursing program in Lashkar Gah Hospital, taught by CARE Medico and Peace Corps volunteers. He graduated second in his class. He was offered a job in the same hospital, working with American nurses and physicians, and eventually was promoted to Head Nurse of the OR and Charge Nurse of the entire hospital.

In 1968 Dr. Thomas Roberts, an American AID physician, sponsored Mohammad to study in Lebanon. Wasting no time, he completed the usual six years of secondary school in two academic years and one summer. An American student he had met in Lebanon, Dean McGinty, then invited him to Clinton, Iowa where he lived with the McGinty family while studying at Clinton Community College. He transferred to Coe College to complete a premed program. An outspoken member of the foreign student community he was elected President of the International Students Club, an office he held until graduation in 1975.

That same year he returned to Jalalabad, Afghanistan to enter medical school, a seven-year program including internship. He stayed on to teach for a year in Jalalabad Medical School before moving closer to home in Lashkar Gah where he practiced general surgery until 1987. That year he was forced to flee to Pakistan with his family. For the next year he worked for Mercy Corps as a physician teaching paramedics and treating wounded Mujahideen. In December of 1988 he moved to Karachi to work in the American consulate office helping Afghan refugees.

In April of 1989 the McGinty family came to Mohammad’s assistance again, this time sponsoring his family in their move to Portland, Oregon. Mohammad began work as an orthopedic cast tech with Kaiser Permanente. He then completed a Nuclear Medicine course and has continued to work for Kaiser and Southwest Washington Medical Center.

As a way of thanking all of the people who assisted him along the way, Mohammad is eager to help the youth of Afghanistan. He remembers poignantly the day his long journey began when he stood excitedly in line having his name added to the list of primary school students. He wants the children of Afghanistan to have the same opportunity to read and write so that they too can interact with the larger world around them. Mohammad will devote the rest of his life to this project.

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Steve Boyer, M.D.
- Chairman

Steve Boyer grew up on a sheep ranch in Wyoming. He completed a degree in geology and biology at Yale University in 1969 and a Masters degree in Quaternary Geology at the University of Colorado in 1972. He remained in Colorado for medical school and internship before coming to Oregon for his residency in Emergency Medicine which he completed in 1981. He worked in Portland for Kaiser for 13 years and at St. Vincent Hospital for another nine years before retiring from Emergency Medicine in 2005. He continues to do medical relief work overseas.

In his work as a physician, geologist, and professional mountaineer, Steve has traveled extensively on every continent while participating in eight Himalayan and four polar expeditions and doing medical work in Central and South America, Asia, and Africa. His most challenging medical practice sites have been on K2 in Pakistan, on Everest and Annapurna in Nepal, and in the countries of Afghanistan, Sudan (Darfur), and the DRC (Congo). He has lectured extensively on the history and causes of the conflicts in Darfur and Eastern Congo bringing into focus the contributions of geology and international law. His most recent relief work was with Medical Teams International in Haiti shortly after the earthquake.  

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Jeannie Burt
- Treasurer

Jeannie Burt is semi retired. She spent her first career in business, corporate Human Resource management and in business consulting. This stage of life allows her time to devote to community interests and to the support of international issues that mean most to her. She has come to understand the fundamental importance of education and the part it must play in carving out a better future.

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Anthony S. Wawrukiewicz, M.D.
- Secretary

Tony Wawrukiewicz has been a physician at Kaiser Permanente in Portland, OR for 20 years. For the past ten years he was been actively involved with Neighborhood House, the social service agency for SW Portland. His activities with this agency included 6 years on the board, including board president, and he remains an active supporter. He is married with two grown children, and is an active member of St. Clare Catholic Parish in SW Portland where he heads the social justice committee.

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Kent F. (Rip) Van Winckel
- Executive Director

Rip was born and raised in New England. He earned his A.S. in Engineering from Mitchell College, New London, Connecticut and his B.S. in Business Administration from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Following school, he entered the U.S.M.C. (Rip refers to it as “my graduate school”) and served as a pilot including assignments flying off of a carrier in the Caribbean for six months and tours in Viet Nam and also in Japan as a test/acceptance pilot for aircraft coming out of overhaul. Along with his military travel, Rip has traveled as far east as Greece, west to Viet Nam, and south to Australia and has gained a deep respect for the vast cultural difference in the world. Following his military service, Rip moved to British Columbia, Canada where a brother and his parents lived. He then worked at a chemical research lab and actively participated in planning and building small specialty chemical plants. Returning to the states he got his license as a Nursing Home Administrator spending the last fifteen years as the Administrator and then Executive Director of a Christian Retirement and Nursing Home. Retirement is fine, but he gains the most satisfaction from helping others. He joined the Green Village Schools board in December of 2005 and has been using his “generalist” background serving as the Executive Director. His wife Bonnie is very understanding of his work and even of taking over a room in their home as an office/printing shop where he produces the brochures and newsletters for GVS.

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Homa Kharoti
- Director

Homa is Mohammad Khan Kharoti's youngest child. She was born in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan and came with her family to America in 1989. She has been an active member of her community by volunteering with various organizations since high school. She is an active member of the Rotary Club. Homa was selected to attended the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) retreat in 2006, the International Rotary Convention in Salt Lake City in 2007, and was a Junior Counselor at the RYLA retreat in 2008. She is currently a member of the Rotaract Club of Washington County - a junior Rotary Club for young professionals.

Homa has been back to Afghanistan twice, once in 2005 and once in 2009. She plans to continue traveling to Afghanistan in order to help educate the children.

Homa recently completed her B.S. in Marketing from Portland State University's School of Business Honors Program. She plans to attend law school in the fall of 2011. Though volunteerism consumes a large portion of her spare time, Homa also enjoys the outdoors, cooking, reading, traveling and spending time with family and friends.

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Michelle Lowe, M.A.T., M.Ed.
- Director

Michelle Lowe is a native Oregonian. She has one adult daughter, Natasha, and recently married her husband, Richard Lowe. She is currently an elementary school counselor for Molalla River School District. Prior to becoming a counselor, she was a high school teacher in Estacada. She has always been an advocate for children’s causes, especially when it comes to education. Mrs. Lowe became interested in Green Village Schools after reading an article about Dr. Kharoti’s experience in Afghanistan. She contacted Green Village Schools and asked if a board member was available to speak to students at the two schools she was working in at the time. Steve Boyer and Tony Wawrukiewicz visited the schools and inspired the students to raise over $500 in a penny drive aimed at helping buy school supplies for Afghan children in Shin Kalay. As a new board member, she is eager to see education flourish in Afghanistan.

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Rosalyn Montgomery, M.D.
- Director

Rosalyn Montgomery is an orthopedist with Kaiser Permanente in Portland, Oregon. She and her husband, also an orthopedist, have two teen-aged children. Dr. Montgomery received a B.S. in Physical Therapy and a Master’s in Exercise Physiology from the University of Colorado. She attended medical school and completed a five-year residency in Orthopedic Surgery at the University of New Mexico, being one of the first two women to complete the residency program there and one of few women in orthopedics in the United States at that time. She completed a one-year post-doctorate fellowship in Pediatric Orthopedics at Shriner’s Hospital for Crippled Children in Portland, Oregon. In addition to working at Kaiser, Roz has worked as a consultant to the Spina Bifida Clinic at Oregon Health Sciences University. Her primary area of interest in orthopedics is the care of children.

Roz believes strongly in the value of education, particularly for girls and women. Her father was the first in his family to attend college and it was important to him that all of his children pursue higher education. Through her schooling she has established a career in a field that in the past was dominated by men. She relishes the opportunity to work with Green Village Schools in providing learning opportunities for the children of Afghanistan, especially the girls.

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Judy Wick, R.N., M.A.T.
- Director

As a Registered Nurse and state certified teacher Judy Wick has a special appreciation of the relationship of education and health status. For 20 years Judy was employed as a Health Behavior Interventionist at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research. Her international health experience has been as the team leader of several mountain water projects sponsored by Northwest Medical Teams International and participation in construction projects in Romania and Nicaragua. In 2005 Judy, sponsored by Washington State University, traveled to Kabul to train physicians at Kabul Medical University to adapt a web based health curriculum for use in KMU classes. She is currently employed as the Patient Education Coordinator at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. She is married, has two adult children and continues her passion for international health education.

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Emeritus Directors

Robert H. McSweeny, J.D.
- Emeritus Director

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Bob received his BA degree from the University of Michigan. After graduation he saw service as a naval officer on several types of ships and as Flag Lieutenant to the director of the U.S. Joint Mission to Turkey. His last posting was as Commanding Officer of USS TOMBIGBEE, (AOG-11) in the Pacific Fleet.

After leaving the navy, Bob returned to Ann Arbor for law school. Upon graduation he and his wife, Jean, and their two young sons moved to Oregon. Bob practiced law in the Portland, Oregon area for many years, primarily in the area of business transactions and estate planning. From 1969 to 1976 he also served as Municipal Judge for the City of Hillsboro in addition to his law practice.

In 1991, he left the practice of law to pursue a career in nonprofit organization and development. Bob has served as an executive director and board member of several nonprofit organizations, and served for a time as the Director of Planned and Deferred Giving at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon and Clackamas Community College.

He currently works as a consultant in planned and deferred giving with Charitable Estate Planning Northwest in Portland, Oregon. He also works with nonprofit organizations to establish their corporate structure and obtain 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.

For the past seven years, Bob has served, along with Mike Penfield of the US Bank Foundation Team in Oregon, as the co-chair of Planned Giving for the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon. He and Mike assist congregations in the diocese with their planned giving programs and donors.

Bob is the author of Gathering the Harvest: A Planned Giving Manual For Churches and co-author of A Process For Prudent Institutional Investment. He is also a contributor to a number of publications in the nonprofit field. He serves as a director on the board of Green Village Schools, a school in Sheen Kalay, Afghanistan and the board of Community of Writers in Portland OR.

In his spare time, Bob enjoys golf, reading fiction and gardening. His best friend is Jean, his wife of 49 years. Their oldest son, Rob, is a hospice nurse in Seattle and has two sons, Alexander and Rowan. Son Michael is a chef and lives on Kauai with his wife, Marisa Hurley and their daughter, Olivia Kate.

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Mary Wendy Roberts
- Emeritus Director

Wendy Roberts has a B.A. from the University of Oregon and an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin; Currently, she consults on labor law and is a partner in a wellness business with her husband, Rhett Simpson.

In 1972, Wendy was elected to the Oregon State Legislature. She was a State Representative for two years and State Senator for four years. She served on the Joint Ways and Means, Senate Labor, Consumer and Business Affairs, and Senate Human Resources Committees.

Wendy was elected Oregon Labor Commissioner in 1978 and served in that position for 16 years. As chief executive of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, she was responsible for enforcing Oregon's civil rights laws in employment, all wage and hour laws, and child labor laws, and for overseeing housing and public accommodation and the apprenticeship system. Among her accomplishments are Oregon’s Family Medical Leave Act and the first comprehensive Wage Security Fund in the nation.

Awards include: 

• 1978 Woman of the Year Award, OWPC

• 1989 Award for Outstanding Service to the Farm workers of Oregon by the Oregon Hispanic Commission

• 1995 Leadership and Courage in Human Rights Advocacy by Oregon GALA

• National Award in Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action by the American Society of Public Administration 

Wendy has served as President of NAGLO, which is the organization of all State Labor Commissioners, and was the President of the National Apprenticeship Program Board. She was the only state official included in a US delegation to an International Conference on Apprenticeship in Paris, France. She established the ongoing annual exchange program on School to Work education and training between Oregon and our sister state, Lower Saxony, Germany. She was also a US delegate to the China in 1980 and in 1999, sent by the American Council of Young Political Leaders. 

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Inactive Directors

Curt Gray
- Inactive Director

Curt’s early pre-med college years were interrupted by 6 years of service during and after the Vietnam War in the US Navy Nuclear Submarine Program. During that service, he was instructor, training director, and tutor both on and off active submarine patrols. Surviving that, he worked as a nuclear reactor operator at a commercial nuclear power generation plant for three years, saving to return to college.

After completing five years worth of undergraduate work in four, he graduated with a dual degree: BS, Biology; and BS, Chemistry. Post graduate work was completed at the VA Medical Center and OHSU in Nuclear Medicine Technology finishing at the top of his class. He remained on staff at the VA until 1989. From there, he worked at and managed several nuclear medicine departments in the Portland-Vancouver area, including Southwest Washington Medical Center where Curt and GVS President Mohammad Khan worked together and became close friends.

He left the clinical world and worked commercially in the field of nuclear medicine and diagnostic imaging, eventually becoming president of his own consulting company.

He has been involved with and donated to other humanitarian activities: the Vietnamese Cultural Community of SE Washington, Habitat for Humanity, Waverly Children’s Home, and others.

Curt comes from an Oregon pioneer family who left poverty behind and traveled the Oregon Trail to the Philomath area in 1853 nearly losing their lives in the desert. He is the very first in the history of his family to achieve a college education.

He enjoys a wide variety of interests. He has raced sailboats, run marathons, bicycled across Oregon, traveled thousands of miles on motorcycle trips. He enjoys water skiing, swimming, backcountry snow skiing, rock climbing, and hiking. He is a pilot and never misses a chance to visit old flying machines. He and his father, a WW II and Korean veteran, are active in veteran’s organizations.

Curt believes his collaboration with Mohammad, the GVS, and the other Board Members is the most exciting, personally rewarding, and noble undertaking he has ever been involved in.

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Yama K. Kharoti
- Inactive Director

Yama, son of GVS founder Mohammad Kharoti, was a high school valedictorian and senior class president. He was also a two-time 1st place Academic All-Star in computer science. Yama has published a commentary on the need for education in Afghanistan in the Oregonian (see archives). He recently completed a B.S. in biochemistry at the University of Washington and is now a medical student at OHSU. In addition to being a director, Yama manages this website.

Yama continues to work closely with GVS despite his inactive status, which he adopted after his medical studies prevented him from attending meetings.

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William Kuhle
- Inactive Director

[Biography]

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Jim Loch, M.D.
- Inactive Director

Jim Loch is an Orthopedic Surgeon who grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. He received a BS degree in Chemistry from the University of Cincinnati and an MD degree from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan. He received further medical training in Orthopedic Surgery in Detroit. He has served on active duty with the US Navy as a General Medical Officer aboard the the USS Bainbridge and later as a staff orthopedic surgeon at the Bremerton Naval Hospital. Subsequent to this he was the Executive Officer for the Naval reserve medical unit based in Portland, Oregon.

In 1985 he and his family moved to Portland when he accepted a position as an orthopedic surgeon with Kaiser Permanente. In addition to his duties as a surgeon his other organizational roles included Chief of Orthopedics and Assistant Medical Director for Specialty Services. In 2001 he received an MBA from the University of Oregon.

He and his wife Carolyn (Family Practice Physician) enjoy their family of three children and travel. They have developed a fondness for bicycling overseas as a way to better understand the local culture.

Jim comes to the Green Village Schools with a commitment to the importance of education in the third world. He feels strongly that this is essential to the growth of a richer global village.

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Bobbie O'Boyle, R. T. (BA)
- Inactive Director

Bobbie O'Boyle has been a Radiology Director for over 40 years with the last 10 years at Kaiser Permanente. She has been awarded the Gold Award, the highest level of recognition given by the American Radiology Healthcare Administrators, a national organization dedicated to education in the field of Radiology. Bobbie has one daughter, a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, a son-in-law and two grandchildren, currently living in Florida. Bobbie brings her organizational skills and enthusiasm to GVS and serves as the Treasurer.

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Quint Rahberger
- Inactive Director

Quint Rahberger is currently the Training Coordinator for the Oregon - SW Washington IUOE Local 701 & AGC Heavy Equipment Operators JATC. He has served in this position since March of 1995. Prior to this, Quint was the Director of the Apprenticeship and Training Division for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries and served in that appointed position from January of 1988 until 1995. While Director, he was also a Board Member and Vice President of the National Association of State and Territorial Apprenticeship Directors and President of the National Apprenticeship Program Board ( a joint venture of the Apprenticeship Directors and State Labor Commissioners).
In 1993 Quint was a member of a study team sponsored by the Center for Learning and Competitiveness at the University of Maryland. Along with the other members of the team, the systems of education and training in Germany, Denmark and Britain were studied and a report produced "America's School-to-Work Transition: The Case of the Missing Social Partners" authored by Doctors Robert W. Glover and Alan Weisberg.

From 1978 to 1988, Quint held a variety of positions with the International Woodworkers of America as a Safety Director, Area Organizer, Research & Education and as the Assistant to the President. Before this, he was the Business Manager and Financial Secretary for IWA Local 3-17 having been elected to that position while working in the plywood, sawmill, log yard and logging operations of International Paper Company in Chelatchie Prairie, Washington.

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Retired Directors

Sultana Kharoti
- Retired Director

Sultana is the oldest of Mohammad Khan's three daughters. A Pre-Dental major, she was one of the founders of Portland State University's first nationally affiliated Pre-Dental Student Organization and currently serves as the Events Coordinator. She was able to collect donations of toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss for over 400 of the students in Sheen Kallay. During her visit to the schools, Sultana taught English, general science and hygiene to both male and female students and helped introduce and distribute many supplies.  Her work experience includes credit-card dispute investigation and quality control for First Consumer's National Bank.

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Lynn Renken
- Retired Director

Lynn began her interest in international affairs while an undergraduate student at the College of Wooster in Ohio. Lynn transferred to the University of Oregon, where she received her BA in Religious Studies. After a brief respite, Lynn joined the University of Oregon's International Studies MA program. She conducted her Master's thesis research while on a Fulbright scholarship in Pakistan. There, Lynn investigated women's access to credit in the Punjab province and assessed credit lending facilities there.
While completing her MA thesis, Lynn began interning for Mercy Corps in Portland, Oregon. After receiving her MA, she traveled to Kyrgyzstan to conduct comparative research on women and access to credit in Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan. While in Kyrgyzstan, she also interned for Mercy Corps and helped to start-up their first women's credit project, which continues to operate today.

Upon return to the US in 1997, Lynn joined Mercy Corps full-time as the Central Asia Program Officer. In 1999, she also assumed responsibility for supporting Mercy Corps programs in Pakistan and Afghanistan, in addition to the Central Asia Republics. Lynn has traveled to all the Central Asian Republics, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

She currently acts as the Senior Program Officer for South Asia, which entails supporting Mercy Corps personnel and programs in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. Lynn is responsible for hiring staff for the region, overseeing significant US government grants and funds from private individuals and foundation and liaising with our donors, particularly in Washington DC.

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