Tackling TB, both medically and socially

Well before Handaa Enkh-Amgalan arrived on the campus of East Tennessee State University, her life had been marked by grave illness and skeptics – as well as profound triumph.

Author of “Stigmatized: A Mongolian Girl’s Journey from Stigma and Illness to Empowerment,” she has spent recent years leading projects and coordinating programs around the world aimed at a variety of topics, including for the International Rescue Committee, an international organization that responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

And this week, her expertise will be recognized on the world’s main policymaking stage: she will deliver opening remarks at the second high-level meeting on the fight against tuberculosis during the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York.

“My main message is going to be encouraging the world leaders not just to tackle tuberculosis medically, but also socially,” she said. “There is so much discrimination and stigma, that we must also address the social factors that are putting the medical progress we are making behind.”

Enkh-Amgalan is a 2016 graduate of ETSU, majoring in business administration, economics and marketing. As a Midway Honors Scholar, she participated in high-level undergraduate research.

She remains grateful to ETSU for the experiences she had here. “ETSU and the Honors College allowed me to obtain higher education and helped me grow tremendously,” she said. “It really opened a lot of doors for me, and I remain grateful to the university community.”

Enkh-Amgalan loved the hospitality of the region, as well as the beauty of the mountains. She further founded Student United Way at ETSU, a chapter of United Way Worldwide, with which she enjoyed an internship in Washington, D.C. For a livestream of Enkh-Amgalan’s Sept. 22 panel, visit media.un.org/en/webtv. It begins at 10 a.m. and her speech will be at 10:25 a.m.