International Programs leader dies

Jan Noel, associate director of Washington State University’s Office of International Programs and head of Development Cooperation, was killed May 3, in an accident on the farm she and her husband, Jim Henson, own in Oregon.

There will be a private family service on Wednesday at the ranch. Arrangements for a memorial service to be held on the WSU campus will be announced at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made in Noel’s honor to the Jan C. Noel International Student Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 641927, Pullman, WA 99164-1927. E-mail messages may be sent to henson@wsu.edu and telephone calls to the family home at (541) 828-7875 are welcome. Please send cards to International Programs, PO Box 645121, Pullman, WA 99164-5121.

Noel had extensive overseas experience and completed long and/or 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 and Gambia, she conducted research on tropical animal diseases and animal production.

She planned and conducted numerous workshops, conferences, and other activities in the United States and in developing countries for project planning, and 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 Malawi Agroforestry Research and Extension Project, and the integration of Science and Education for Economic Development in South Central European Russia.

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.

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 served one year as a research assistant in the Department of Veterinary Pathology. She also held a WSU faculty position as associate professor, Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology.

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