Part-time Telluride locals, Drs. Kerr and Hauswald receive Gates grant

29 Jul Part-time Telluride locals, Drs. Kerr and Hauswald receive Gates grant

[click “Play” to listen to the conversation with Doctors Kerr and Hauswald]

Telluride Inside… and Out is alerted to stories in a variety of ways. The most obvious is a heads up in the form of a press release from any one of the non-profits or special events in the region. But sometimes a person just calls with his or her hair on fire about something or someone, an upcoming adventure or noteworthy accomplishment. That is how this post came about.

Our friend Judy Thompson phoned out of the blue one day to brag on two of her friends: Dr. Nancy Kerr and husband, Dr. Mark Hauswald. Judy was super excited because the couple, Telluride locals, had just gotten word about receiving a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Gateses have primarily targeted world health issues for their philanthropy, a fact underlined by a recent cover story in the Sunday New York Times which talked about a conference in October their foundation is sponsoring on new approaches  to male contraception. In a way, the Kerr/Hauswald grant addresses the other side of the coin: wanted pregnancies and delivering babies – potentially fatal to women in third world countries.

Specifically the Kerr/Hauswalds received a Grand Challenge Exploration grant that allows them to produce and road test 60 devices they invented designed to help staunch bleeding after childbirth until a surgeon, anesthetist and blood can be arranged. Monies from the grant will allow the couple to make the device in Nepal, train 60 midwives in its use, follow up on their skill at applying the device months later and record what use was made of the device in the field. Why is this important? About 1 in 31 women die of childbirth related causes in countries like Nepal, about half of which are due to hemorrhage (bleeding). In some places in the world, the new nation of south Sudan for one, the situation is even worse.

I am stating the obvious when I say Telluride is asset rich. We have been uniquely blessed by Mother Nature and by the people who call the towns of Telluride and Mountain Village home, Drs. Nancy Kerr and Mark Hauswald among them. The Kerr/Hauswalds live in town near the Wilkinson Public Library and vote in Telluride. They are active in Rotary and on the mountain, skiing, boarding and hiking – that is when they are not working- online, in New Mexico, and now especially, overseas.

Kerr first came to our box canyon for Telluride Bluegrass in the late 1970s when doing her residency training in OB/Gyn at the University of New Mexico. Hauswald, an ER doc, also visited Telluride in the 1970s, but met his wife while working in Gallup, New Mexico, in the Indian Health Service. The young doctors returned to Telluride to ski and bought their home with the idea of one day retiring in the region. Though not yet retired, a few years ago Kerr and Hauswald left their home in Albuquerque, their primary residence for the past 30 years, to move back to Telluride, now home base for their adventures in global medicine.

Want to learn more about your world-changing neighbors?

Click the play button and listen to their interview.