Beth Howlett joins the class

My name is Beth Howlett and I am currently adjunct faculty and part-time staff at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (OCOM). I wear lots of "hats", but for the purposes of this course, I am enrolled for professional development training in support of my work as continuing education coordinator. I am also a graduate of the college's Master's program and a licensed acupuncturist practicing in Portland, OR.

I began my study of Chinese in 1994, enticed by the prospect of learning a language with no verb tenses. This initial curiosity developed into a passion for Chinese language and culture and an undergraduate major in East Asian Studies at Bryn Mawr College. After graduation, I participated in Princeton-in-Asia’s teaching intern program and represented them as an English instructor at a vocational college in Ningbo, China. In 2008, I traveled there for a third time on OCOM’s Study Abroad trip to Nanjing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Starting in 2010, I coordinated and led the trip as an adjunct faculty member and began mentoring a group of Master's students on translation work for the Kam Wah Chung Co. museum in John Day, OR..

I work at the college in a staff capacity as an admissions, community and continuing education coordinator. I have orchestrated and participated in numerous seminars, demonstrations and lectures on the subject of Chinese Medicine. I am incredibly passionate about increasing opportunities for the public and practitioners alike to learn about TCM. Online instruction is an important part of that work, particularly when it comes to the development of a relatively small and geographically diverse professional population.

Finally, a note about the photo. I make no claim to be a "celebrity doctor." This image was taken of me in Nanjing last year on my clinical rotation in their main TCM hospital. We were observing a handful of experts, who become "celebrities" by a humorous twist of translation.