Educating Future Global Health Practitioners in One of the Most Remote Places in the World

In-person event. Available to Harvard Undergraduate Students only. In-person capacity is limited and available on a first come first serve basis.

The Harvard Global Health Institute  is pleased to welcome Dr. Mangal Rawal, Vice Chancellor of Karnali Academy of Health Sciences (KAHS), a medical university in one of the most remote areas of the world, to Harvard’s campus on Wednesday, February 28th. In this interactive event, Dr. Rawal will discuss rural health equity and share the mission, achievements, operations, and challenges of running a medical university in a remote region. The conversation will be moderated by Pradish Poudel, MD, graduate student in Global Health Delivery at Harvard Medical School. Students will get insider knowledge about health equity in rural areas such as Karnali, Nepal, and gain insight on the challenges and inner workings of health organizations like KAHS.

Karnali Academy of Health Sciences (KAHS) is a medical university established by the government of Nepal to enable access to quality healthcare services and education at an affordable cost for the people of under resourced areas in Jumla. Dr Rawal, the Vice Chancellor of KAHS, has played a pivotal role in establishing and advancing the organization, setting an example for how to successfully operate a medical university in one of the most remote areas of the world.

Mangal Rawal, MD, MPA was born in a remote village of the Karnali Province in Nepal. He defied the odds to pursue education, completing traditional schooling in his village before advancing for further studies. Despite limited resources, he obtained his MBBS/MD from BPKIHS and Residency in Orthopedics from NAMS, Kathmandu, both on government scholarships. Following this, he pursued an AOA Fellowship in Trauma in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and earned a master’s in public administration (MPA) from Tribhuvan University. Recognized for his dedication to rural health, he was appointed as the Vice Chancellor of Karnali Academy of Health Sciences (KAHS) by then Prime Minister of Nepal, becoming the youngest Vice Chancellor in Nepalese history. His tenure witnessed groundbreaking initiatives, including establishing undergraduate and postgraduate medical education programs in a remote medical school. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his leadership as the hospital director of KAHS earned him the prestigious President’s Medal for extraordinary contributions. Driven by a vision to transform KAHS into a center of excellence for rural health, medicinal herbs research, and mountain medicine, Dr. Rawal remains committed to serving the communities of Karnali with clinical expertise and social advocacy.