Noel, Jan International Student Scholarship Fund

Dr. Jan Noel, associate director of Washington State University’s Office of International Programs and head of Development Cooperation, was killed May 3, 2003, in an accident on the farm she and her husband, Jim Henson, own in Oregon. Noel had extensive overseas experience and completed long and short-term assignments in multiple countries in Africa, Middle East, Central Asia and the former Soviet Union, Europe and Latin America. During long-term assignments in Kenya/Gambia, she conducted research on tropical animal  diseases  and  animal  production. Short-term  assignments  addressed  project design, management, implementation, and evaluation: strategic planning; institutional and human resource development; crop  and  livestock  research, production and  marketing; and  others. She planned and conducted numerous workshops, conferences, and other activities in the United States and in developing countries for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation for projects and local, regional and national organizations in agriculture, animal health, higher education and related topics. Her experience encompasses both laboratory and field activities and the effective transfer of technology. Noel prepared proposals and served as U.S. coordinator for projects totaling more than $100 million, including the Western Sudan Agricultural Research Project, the Mali Livestock Sector Development II Project, the Malawi Agroforestry Research and Extension Project, the Mali Animal Productivity and Export Project, the Integration of Science and Education for Economic Development in South Central European Russia and others. Noel served on the steering committee of the Russian-U.S. Science, Education and Economic Development Consortium and conducted numerous planning, monitoring and evaluation consultancies in Pushchino, Russia. She also had published extensively on her work.  Dr. Noel had a keen interest in, support for, and commitment to the enhancement of human resources and institutional capacity in the developing countries, especially Africa and the Middle East. Noel earned her Doctor of  Veterinary Medicine degree from WSU in  1973. She earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science/pre-veterinary medicine from Oregon State University in 1969. Noel joined the  university in 1979 as a  project development officer for International Program Development and associate project director, Western Sudan Agricultural Development Project. Earlier she has served one year as a research assistant in the Department of Veterinary Pathology. At the time of her death, she also held a WSU faculty position as associate professor, Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology.

Award Requirements 

Consistent with Jan Noel’s commitment to the enhancement of human resources and institutional capacity in the developing countries and her many interests, the purpose of this endowment is to provide financial support for financially needy and academically promising students and faculty from partnership universities/institutions from the developing countries in Africa and the Middle East to study at WSU or in educational programs conducted/sponsored by WSU.These programs may include undergraduate degree or graduate degree programs, as well as continuing education.