The International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) is the U.S. Department of State’s major professional exchange programme. The IVLP is a professional exchange programme that seeks to build mutual understanding between the U.S. and other nations through carefully designed short-term visits to the U.S. for current and emerging foreign leaders. These visits reflect the International Visitors’ professional interests and support the foreign policy goals of the United States. International Visitors are the current or emerging leaders in government, politics, the media, education, the arts, business and other key fields. Over 5,000 International Visitors come to the United States from all over the world each year.
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| Dr.Kithsiri Edirisinghe - MBBS, MSc, MD (Medical Administration) |
Over 320 current and former heads of government and state and many other distinguished world leaders in the public and private sectors have participated in the International Visitor Leadership Programme. Margaret Thatcher , Tony Balir , Juliya Gillard, Manmohan Singh, Indira Gandhi, Mahathir Mohamad, Hamid Karzai, Ranasinghe Premadasa, current President of Sri Lanka , Mahinda Rajapaksa are some of the many great world leaders who were the recipients of this programme.
The history of this programme extend up to 70 years , where in 1948 representative Karl E. Mundt and Senator H. Alexander Smith marshaled the Informational and Educational Exchange Act, also known as the Smith-Mundt Act which was passed by the 80th United States Congress and purpose of the Smith-Mundt was “to promote a better understanding of the United States in other countries, and to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries” through educational and cultural exchanges. This initiated the Foreign Leaders Programme, which was eventually consolidated into the International Visitor Programme (IVP) in 1952 and renamed as the International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) in 2004.
The concept behind this leadership programme is to organize a fairer, secure and more prosperous world through introducing the values and the cultural diversity and most importantly the tried and tested systems which could be useful to the rest of the world. This is implemented through the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) promoting personal, professional, and institutional ties between private citizens and organizations in the United States and abroad, and presents U.S. history, society, art and culture in all of its diversity to overseas audiences.
The latest recipient of the International Visitor leadership programme (IVLP) is Dr Kithsiri Edirisinghe a well known Medical Administrator and a Educationist, currently in Washington DC. The theme of the programme is Alternatives in Higher Education” focusing on South and Central Asia“. There are well-known academics and professionals from Pakistan, Maldives and India participating in this valuable programme which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State (DOS) and administered by Meridian International Center and conducted from April 9 - 27, 2012.
The Office of International Visitors seeks to provide a broad and balanced range of perspectives in its International Visitor Leadership programmes. To this end, programmes include a variety of appointments with individuals and representatives of organizations. (Source: Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, US Department of State, http://exchanges.state.gov/ivlp/ ; Meridian International Center, Washington, DC)
As per the programme Dr. Edirisinghe and the other six participants would be visiting the following destinations, namely Washington, DC, San Francisco, California, Berea, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Ohio and Miami, Florida. Dr. Kithsiri Edirisinghe obtained his M.B.B.S. Degree from North Colombo Medical College and moved on to obtaining a Masters Degree (MSc) in Medical Administration and a Doctor of Medicine (MD) in Medical Administration from the University of Colombo.
He worked as a Medical Administrator in the government sector and served from a peripheral unit to a base hospital to a teaching hospital. He also worked in the capacity of a Project Director in the private sector, where he pioneered the establishment of two major hospital projects. He continues to provide consultancy for both state and private sector hospital projects through Green Healthcare (Pvt) Ltd. Taking an innovative step to improve the quality of healthcare education in Sri Lanka, Dr. Edirisinghe set up the International Institute of Health Sciences (IIHS), an internationally recognized healthcare training centre which has succeeded in the first ever online healthcare Skill evaluation in Sri Lanka through E education with the collaboration of SUNY Canton, USA and TAFE South Australia.
IIHS also prides itself of the establishment of the first private sector healthcare BSc and MSc programs in Nursing and a popular Medical administration program. Dr. Edirisinghe is currently in the process of making IIHS a truly a green campus by heading towards a paperless education organization and making it an environmentally friendly institute by reusing martial like discarded containers for structures for the facility. IIHS is about to implement an allied health sciences and nursing professional magazine and research forum. Dr. Edirisinghe also contributes to the MSc and MD programs in Medical Administration at the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM) in Health economics and Strategic management in Healthcare. He is also a director and a member of the board of study at GSM, the first private sector provider of PhD programs in Management in Sri Lanka. Dr. Edirisinghe is also a certified trainer in the Australian Qualification framework for TAFE programs. Apart from his contribution to academia he received the Asian Grid Leadership Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship for the year 2009. |
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