About the Tour Leaders

Bio Sketch____________________Beth Howlett, MAcOM, LAc

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.  During my time at Bryn Mawr College, I participated in a study abroad program for a semester at Nankai University in Tianjin, China.  After graduation, I was selected to participate in Princeton-in-Asia’s teaching fellowship and represented them as an English instructor at a vocational college in Ningbo.  While living in China for over a year, I also had the opportunity to work in hospitality as a liaison between hotel staff and foreign guests.  After returning to the US, I continued to study Chinese language and culture by pursuing my masters at OCOM.  After graduation in 2008, I traveled to China for a third time on OCOM’s China Trip to Nanjing University of TCM.  In 2010, I coordinated and led the trip as an adjunct faculty member.  I am honored and excited to help facilitate this year’s graduates in experiencing the medicine in its native place.

My professional interests also include advocacy work as the President of the Oregon Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (OAAOM).  This is complemented by my administrative role at OCOM as Director of Communications and part-time research faculty. In addition, I am pursuing my study of medical Chinese with my Doctoral capstone using primary source material at the Kam Wah Chung Co. Museum.

Kam Wah Chung Co. Museum       John Day, OR                                       

This is the fourth year of mentoring research teams of 5 graduating OCOM interns through the painstaking realities of archival work, systematic translation of printed and handwritten documents, and a training in medical Chinese through facilitated group work in translation methodology.