Since 2006, the Golden Apple Award has recognized the members, volunteers, partners, and supporters who make extraordinary contributions to the sustainability and effectiveness of Health Volunteers Overseas.
2025 Golden Apple Honorees
Jean Baumgartel, OT
Ms. Baumgartel has been a registered occupational therapist since 1977 and certified in hand therapy since 1999. In 2015, she retired from Group Health Cooperative after thirty years. While there, she developed an adult outpatient therapy service and worked with other health care providers from urgent care, family practice, orthopaedics, and neurology to treat patients with a wide variety of health issues. Before her position at Group Health Cooperative, Ms. Baumgartel worked as an occupational therapist in various health care settings. In addition to her volunteer work with HVO, she has served with various other organizations in several countries. From 1980 to 1982, she served in the Peace Corps at a special education school in Chile where she provided individual therapy to children with neurological and learning disabilities. She also provided services to children in an orphanage and led an instructional infant stimulation program.
Soniya Dulal, MD, DM
Dr. Dulal is an associate professor in the department of internal medicine at B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS), Dharan, Nepal. She is a graduate of National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS), Bir Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal and is one of the first two fellows in medical oncology/hematology to graduate from this program, the first such program in Nepal. After a three-year fellowship, she decided to move from Kathmandu to work in her hometown of Dharan to support the underserved population. She holds a faculty position in one of the largest and most reputed institutes of Nepal and is actively involved in academics, clinical practice, and research.
Leslee Jaeger, MD
Dr. Jaeger is an experienced obstetrician/gynecologist practicing full spectrum care since 1991. She retired from full time work in January 2024, continuing to work part time doing locums work in rural communities in her home state of Minnesota. She holds degrees from Gustavus Adolphus College and the University of Minnesota Medical School. She led yearly surgical teams to Haiti from 2006 to 2019 and is a board member for Haiti sans Cervical Cancer. In 2023, she received the International Service Award for Maternal Health, Empowerment, and Gender Equality from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Katharine Lowndes, MBBS, FRCP, FRCPath
Dr. Katharine Lowndes is a consultant hematologist at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, UK. She has long had an interest in global health, having worked in the Solomon Islands during her training. In 2019, she became involved in her hospital link partnership with Yei Hospital, South Sudan, which sparked her ongoing commitment to global healthcare. Since then, Dr. Lowndes has worked extensively in sub-Saharan Africa, but also more recently in Cambodia supporting training and education in clinical and laboratory hematology. She strongly believes in building sustainable, long-term partnerships with clinicians in low resource settings through collaboration with organizations including Health Volunteers Overseas, the British Society of Haematology, the American Society of Hematology, and the International Council for Standardisation in Haematology.
Robert Sowa, PT, BSc
After graduating from the University of Ghana with a BSc in physiotherapy, Mr. Sowa took a position at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital where he is now a senior physiotherapist and head of the hand therapy unit. In addition to serving as an on-site coordinator for HVO, Mr. Sowa is also an on-site coordinator for the Global Health Design Initiative University of Michigan. He serves on the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT) Educational Committee and the IFSHT Lifetime Achievement Award Committee.
2024 Honorees
Andrew Babu, BPT, MPT
Michael Martin, MD
Margaret Nakakeeto, MD
Prakash Neupane, MD
Kelly Smith, MD
Hansjörg Wyss
2023 Honorees
Charity Burke, MD
John Kanyusik, DDS, MSD
Nancy Kelly, MHS
Mark Koh Jean Aan, MBBS, MRCP
Olushola Akinshemoyin Vaughn, MD
Linda Wolff, MPT
2022 Honorees
Anju Adhikary
Bhavani Chalikonda, MBBS
Robert Erdin, MD
Matthew Fisher, DMD
Annette Galassi, RN, MA, OCN
Brian Hollander, DMD
Dashrath Kafle, BDS, MDS
Murray Kesselman, MD, FRCPC
Stephanie Murphy, MPA, CPA
Royann Royer, RDH, MPH, CDA
Rebecca Turkel, PT/DPT, CEIS, CEIM, IBE
Richard Wise, MD
Yangden, BSN
2021 Honorees
Habib Ghaddar, MD, FACP
Dorey Glenn, MD, MPH
Michael A. Linden, MD, PhD
Cathy Pingoy, RN, MSN
Jaime Andres Suarez-Londono, MD
2020 Honorees
Roland Beverly, MD
Jill Derstine, EdD, RN, FAAN
Susan Harris, MD
Patricia Larsen, PT, CWS, OMS
Monika Mann, PT, MPH
Anne Marie Tietjen, PhD
2019 Honorees
Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) Team of Anesthesia Providers
Editors, HVO-Sponsored Frontiers in Public Health Special Topic eBook
Richard Fisher, MD
Christoph Funk, MUDr
Brian Hollander, DMD
Mimi Lhamu Mynak, MBBS, MD
George Pantely, MD
2018 Honorees
Janna Beling, PhD, PT
Pamela Cole, PT, CWS
Robert Hoffman, MD
Cynthia Howard, MD, MPHTM
Dashrath Kafle, BDS, MDS
Alexia Knapp, MD, MS
Sithach Mey, MD
George Meyer, MD
Prakash Neupane, MD
2017 Honorees
Charles Bloomer, DDS
Theresa Coetzer, PhD
Christian Fuentes, MD
David Goldstein, MBBS, FRACP, MRCP(UK)
Judith Hembree, PT, PhD
Silvia Plattner, PT
Julia Plotnick, RN, MPH, FAAN, RADM, USPHS(ret)
2016 Honorees
Kay Ahern, PT, CHT
Mary Christman, PT, MAEd
Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Chung
Jo Davies, MBBS, FRCA
Barry Gainor, MD
John P. W. Kelly, DMD, MD
Antoinette “Toni” Sander, PT, DPT, MS, CLT-LANA
Leila Srour, MD, MPH, DTM&H
N. Ewen Wang, MD
2015 Honorees
Gaston Barnechea, MD
Barbara Billek-Sawhney, PT, EdD, DPT, MS, GCS
Peter Curran, MD, MHCDS, FACP
Brian Failla
Donald Lalonde, MD, FRCSC
Jeanne Leffers, PhD, RN
Susan Raber, PharmD, MPH
Peter Trafton, MD, FACS
2014 Honorees
Dino Aguilar, MD
Robert J. Buchholz, JR., CRNA, MSNA
David E. Frost, DDS, MS
Katharine Morley, MD, MPH
Tom Morton, MBChB, FACEM
Jose Angel Sanchez, MD
Linda Wolff, MPT
2013 Honorees
William Creasman, MD
Randall Culp, MD
Diana Davidson, CRNA
Norman James, MD
Robert Kalb, MD
2012 Honorees
Eugenio Beltran, DMD, MPH, DrPH, MS
T. Desmond Brown, MD
Linus T. Chuang, MD, MPH, MS
Lawrence Gordon, MD
Martin Hobdell, BDS, PhD, MA
Jared Hubbell, MD
Mark Makumbi Kayanja, MBchB, M.Med (Surg), M.Med (Ortho), PhD
Pfizer’s Global Health Fellows – India
Robert Stein, MD
2011 Honorees
Laura L. Fitzpatrick, MD
C. Fits Hunsel, PT, LMBT
Michelle James, MD
C. Neil Kay, BDS, MS
Isador Lieberman, MD, MBA, FRSC(c)
Fredric V. Price, MD
Vidya Swaminathan, PhD
2010 Honorees
Judy Canfield-Henry, PT, MSEd, EdD
Shaun Cleaver, PT, MSc
Denise English, PT
Mary Jo Geyer, PT, Phd, FCCWS, CLT-LANA, CPed
Victoria Seligman, MD
Lynne Welch, MSN, EdD, ApRN, FNP-BC
2009 Honorees
Caroline Dueger, MD, MPH, DTM&H
Kim Dunleavy, PT, PhD, OCS
Richard Henker, PhD, RN, CRNA
Elizabeth Kay, PT, PhD
Barbara Latenser, MD, FACS
Benedict Magsamen, MD
Joseph E. Sheppard, MD
David Spiegel, MD
2008 Honorees
Eugenio Beltran, DMD, MPH, DrPH, MS
Cary Bjork, MD, FACP
Ann Carroll, RNC, NNP
Larry Herman, DMD, MD
R. Byron McCord, MD
Ellen Milan, RNC
Michael O’Brien, MD
Celia Pechak, PHD, PT, MPH
Yvonne Vaucher, MD, MPH
2007 Honorees
Suzanne Brown, CRNA
Glen Crawford, MD
Lena Dohlman, MD, MPH
Marvin Godner, MD
Martin Hobdell, BDS, PhD, MA
Christopher Johnson,MD
William Laney, MD
John McFadden, MD
Puthocode Rajamani, MS
Wingfield Rehmus, MD, MPH
2006 Honorees
Mattilou Catchpole, CRNA, PhD
Ray DeFalque, MD
Nancy Descouteax, PT, BAC
Denise English, PT
Charles Jennings, MD
Marvin Lang, CRNA
Robert Nassau, MD
Tim O’Brien, MBBS
Alfred Scherzer, MD, MS EdD
Geoffrey Walker, FRCS
Harry Zutz, MD
To learn more about the award and how to make a nomination, click here.