Presenters

Michael Heath is the Chargé d’ Affaires a.i. of the U.S. Mission in Thailand and a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor. He was previously acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Canberra, Australia (2016-2019) and Consul General in Chiang Mai, Thailand (2013-2016).

Previously, he worked on the U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. He has also served in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and completed domestic tours in the Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs and the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, where he was Senior Country Officer for Indonesia. Originally from Los Angeles, he also grew up in the United Kingdom and Belgium before returning to California, where he received his B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University.

Ravin Chobchai participated in the YSEALI Academic Fellowship Program in 2018 at Kennesaw State University. He won the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund Competition (AEIF 2019) for the project “Building a Transparent Thailand” and has also received a $25,000 grant from U.S. Department of States for nationwide anti-corruption project implementation. Additional accomplishments include winning second prize and crowd favorite during the 2018 YSEALI Summit’s Innovation Slam competition in Singapore, and winning $10,000 in grant funding during the same event’s investment pitching competition.

Ravin currently works as managing partner at Young Good Governance Co., Ltd., advising government transformation strategy and youth engagement to clients such as The Prime Minister's Office, Council of State, Office of the Public Sector Development Commission, and Digital Government Development Agency (DGA).

Tom Schmidt is the Director of the U.S. Regional Environment, Science, Technology, and Health Office (REO) for East and Southeast Asia, located at U.S. Embassy Bangkok. His office helps develop regional policy and programming for the U.S. Government. It focuses on transboundary water resource management, air quality, food security, clean energy, climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity conservation, wildlife trafficking, and building regional science education and health systems capacity. In addition, it serves as the U.S. Government’s primary point of contact in East and Southeast Asia on the Mekong - U.S. Partnership (MUSP) and to the Mekong River Commission. As a foreign service officer for the U.S. Department of State since 2006, Tom has served in Thailand, Pakistan, Malta, Iraq, Canada, and Washington, D.C.

LTC Anthony Jones, Director, Virology Laboratory, Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS) received his Bachelors of Science in Biology at Columbus State University in 2002, followed by his Master’s in 2004 and Ph.D. in 2007 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology from Georgia State University. In 2013, he received his American Society for Clinical Pathology Board certification in Clinical Microbiology.

LTC Jones is the Director of the Department of Virology's Laboratory Operations at AFRIMS. Prior to this assignment, LTC Jones served as the Director of the Multidrug-resistant organism Repository and Surveillance Network (MRSN) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research where he oversaw clinical multidrug resistant organism (MDRO) outbreak investigations, provided clinical guidance of scientific policy and program goals, and reported antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance data to leaders, laboratories, healthcare providers, and infection control committees across the entire Military Health System (MHS). LTC Jones has also served as the Chief of the clinical microbiology laboratory at Madigan Army Medical Center (Tacoma, WA), and the Deputy Director of the Special Pathogens Laboratory at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). LTC Jones deployed in 2010 with the 31st Combat Support Hospital to Camp Dwyer, Helmand Province, Afghanistan, as their Clinical Microbiologist, in addition to leading a team of scientist at the Liberia Institute of Biomedical Research during the Ebola Outbreak of 2014/2015, in support of Operation United Assistance. In his current role as Director, Virology Laboratory, LTC Jones is responsible for providing primary oversight to all laboratory activities within the Department of Virology and Department of Virology Field Sites while managing resources and project workloads.

His research accomplishments include 18 peer-reviewed publications, and 13 presentations at national and international conferences. LTC Jones is a member of the American Society for Microbiologists and American Society for Clinical Pathologist. His military awards include the Meritorious Service Medal (1 OLC), Army Commendation Medal (3 OLC), Army Achievement Medal (2 OLC), National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, GWOT Service Medal, and NATO Medal.

Dr. Sintasath is an infectious disease/malaria epidemiologist with over 15 years’ experience living and working in several African and Asian countries including Eritrea, Cameroon, Philippines, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma/Myanmar, Lao PDR, and Viet Nam. From 2014-2019 and currently, he serves as USAID’s Regional Malaria Advisor for the U.S. Presidents’ Malaria Initiative in the Greater Mekong Subregion and provides technical support to national malaria programs as well as bilateral missions. Prior to USAID, he has held technical, advisory, and management leadership positions with international non-governmental organizations such as Malaria Consortium and FHI360. He served as a US Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines. He holds a Ph.D from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and an MSc from the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Ravin Chobchai participated in the YSEALI Academic Fellowship Program in 2018 at Kennesaw State University. He won the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund Competition (AEIF 2019) for the project “Building a Transparent Thailand” and has also received a $25,000 grant from U.S. Department of States for nationwide anti-corruption project implementation. Additional accomplishments include winning second prize and crowd favorite during the 2018 YSEALI Summit’s Innovation Slam competition in Singapore, and winning $10,000 in grant funding during the same event’s investment pitching competition.

Ravin currently works as managing partner at Young Good Governance Co., Ltd., advising government transformation strategy and youth engagement to clients such as The Prime Minister's Office, Council of State, Office of the Public Sector Development Commission, and Digital Government Development Agency (DGA).