About

The Greater Himalayas Foundation is a non profit organization which was created to honor the legacy of Mingma Norbu Sherpa, by continuing conservation and humanitarian efforts in the Himalayas. The Foundation was established in Washington DC in 2008 by his wife Phurba, and children Dawa and Tenzing Sherpa.

The activities of the Greater Himalayas Foundation will range from sponsoring scholarships, giving awards in related fields, supporting income generating projects, promoting community based conservation, and providing health care to citizens in remote Himalayan communities of Nepal, Bhutan, India, and Tibet.

A young Mingma planting a tree.

The Greater Himalayas Foundation Board of Directors

Dawa Sherpa

President

Ms. Dawa Sherpa is Program Director for the Bhutan Foundation office based in Washington DC. Dawa holds a BS in Biology from Virginia Tech, and a MA in Global and Community Health from George Mason University. She has international experience working in the field on HIV/AIDS programs in Nepal with the United Nations Development Program, implemented rural public health awareness programs through Students Partnership Worldwide in the US, and interned for the Ministry of Health in Bhutan. (BhutanFound.org)

Phurba Sherpa

Chairman

Phurba Sherpa is the founder and chairman of the Greater Himalayas. She established the foundation in 2008 to carry on the conservation efforts of her late husband Mingma Norbu Sherpa. Phurba regularly travels to project sites in Nepal to personally over see the completion and success of projects funded through the Greater Himalayas. She is also in close contact with students from the GHF’s Plus 2 Scholarship program as well as Lincoln’s Mingma Norbu Sherpa Memorial Scholarship program.

Brian Menkes

Treasurer

Brian Menkes is the secretary and general counsel to the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. In this capacity, he oversees the legal affairs of the Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, Mr. Menkes was a member of the tax practice group at the international law firm of WilmerHale in Washington, DC, where, for almost two decades, he represented and assisted in organizing, obtaining exemption for, and counseling leading US and foreign non-profit organizations in a wide variety of matters, including general corporate transactions, mergers, acquisitions, domestic and international grant making and worldwide programs related investments, disaster relief efforts, charitable giving, corporate governance, and other innovative programs and transactions. Mr. Menkes has received numerous accolades for the provisioning of pro bono services to non-profit organizations. He is the former chair and vice-chair of the DC Bar Association Taxation Section, Exempt Organizations Committee, and is an author and frequent speaker on issues affecting non-profit organizations. He has served on numerous boards of directors of non-profit organizations and is a current member of the Board of Trustees of the Bhutan Foundation and an officer of Youth Entrepreneurs Kansas. He earned his master’s in law, JD, and bachelor’s degree from New York University School of Law, Western New England College School of Law, and Central Connecticut State University, respectively.

Kathryn Fuller

Kathryn S. Fuller served as Chief Executive Officer and President of World Wildlife Fund, Inc. (WWF) from 1989 to July 2005. She held several positions in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), culminating as Chief, Wildlife and Marine Resources Section, in 1981 and 1982. Ms. Fuller served as an Attorney in the office of Legal Counsel, where she prepared Attorney General opinions and provided advice to the President and Executive agencies on constitutional and federal statutory questions. She has been Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Ford Foundation since May 2004. Ms. Fuller serves as a Member of Board of Trustees of Resources for the Future, the Summit Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. She serves as a Member of the Advisory Council of WWF. She was a Public Policy Scholar of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars since October 2005. Ms. Fuller received her B.A. in English and American literature from Brown University in 1968. She earned a Law degree with honors from the University of Texas and pursued graduate studies in Marine, Estuarine and Environmental Science at the University of Maryland. (Business Week)

Anne B. Keiser

Anne Keiser is a freelance photographer based in Washington, D.C., focusing on photographing public health and conservation issues in developing countries. From 1972 to 1986 Keiser worked as a photo editor and photographer for the television division at the National Geographic Society. Her assignments took her all over the world. One of Keiser’s final assignments was photographing Sir Edmund Hillary in the eastern Himalaya for the documentary Return to Everest. The film focused on the humanitarian work Hillary did with the Sherpa people, whom he befriended during his historic ascent of Everest. Motivated by Hillary’s work, Keiser returned to the Himalaya with Hillary numerous times following her initial trip. She compiled the images she shot from these trips in a book, Sir Edmund Hillary & The People of Everest. Keiser has also produced two children’s books on Hillary.

Keiser continues to contribute images to the Image Collection and serves as the official photographer for several nonprofit organizations. (National Geographic)

Jim Ottaway Jr.

Mr. Ottaway is chairman of the World Press Committee, an umbrella group of media organizations fighting against restrictions on press freedoms around the world. He is a member of the board of trustees of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece and also serves as a trustee of Bard College, and as treasurer of the Wallkill Valley Land Trust in New York. Born in Binghamton, New York, Mr. Ottaway graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale University. (Sourcewatch.org)

Dr. Bruce Bunting

Dr. Bruce W. Bunting is President of the Bhutan Foundation in Washington, DC. Dr.Bunting was the managing director and vice president of World Wildlife Fund’s Special Programs and Strategic Partnerships .He first visited Bhutan in 1986 and has been a long time advisor to the Bhutanese government on a variety of issues including the establishment of Bhutan national park system, the Bhutan Trust Fund for Environmental Conservation, the world’s first such trust fund, and the Bhutan Health Trust Fund. He has authored several articles, including Bhutan, Kingdom in the Clouds for National Geographic Magazine. He received a B.S. in zoology and a doctorate in veterinary medicine from Michigan State University. (BhutanFound.org)

Tenzing Sherpa

Secretary/Webmaster

Tenzing Sherpa is an analyst for the US Department of State. He graduated with a BS in Business Information Systems from Virginia Commonwealth University. Tenzing also participated in the 2009 Mingma Norbu Sherpa Memorial Scholarship Committee during which two candidates were chosen to study abroad in Lincoln, New Zealand. His unique contribution to the GHF is Sherpapedia- the collaborative online Sherpa dictionary which is a continued work in progress. Tenzing has also volunteered in regions of Khumbu, Nepal where the foundation has many on going projects.