Conference Speakers
Opening Speaker: Noor Trienekens | Closing Speaker: Brent Freeman
NWMUN-Portland 2019 Opening Speaker: Noor Trienekens
Coordinator at GlobalPDX; Director for Strategic Planning and Implementation at OHSU-PSU School of Public Health
Noor Trienekens serves as the Coordinator at GlobalPDX and is the Director for Strategic Planning and Implementation at Oregon Health & Science University and Portland State University School of Public Health (OHSU-PSU School of Public Health). Prior to moving to Portland, Noor worked for Massachusetts General Hospital Global Health as the Deputy Country Director in Mbarara, Uganda. Noor lived and worked in Mbarara for nearly four years, overseeing research and clinical capacity building programs as well as managing partnerships between the Uganda Ministries of Health and Education and the Mass General Hospital.
Noor has experience in organizational management, strategic planning, grant writing, marketing, graphic and website design, and fundraising. She has raised and managed philanthropic donations totaling over $3.5 million for global development. Noor holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology, a Bachelor's degree in Pedagogical Sciences, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic and Interior Design, a Master's degree in Clinical Neuropsychology, and a Master's degree in Pedagogical Sciences from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
NWMUN-Portland 2019 Closing Speaker: Brent Freeman
Naval Attaché, US Diplomatic Corps, Taiwan (2005-2008), Japan (2009-2012), Viet Nam (2012-2016);
Commander, US Navy (Ret); Superintendent, Wahkiakum School District
Brent S. Freeman, Commander, US Navy (retired), is the current Superintendent of Wahkiakum School District in Southwest Washington, having previously served as Administrative Director for the district. This follows a lengthy career in the US Navy including 25 years of active duty service and multiple tours of duty as a Naval Attaché with the US Diplomatic Corps. Freeman served as Naval Attaché to Taiwan from 2005-2008, at the US Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, from 2009-2012, and finally in Hanoi, Viet Nam, from 2012-2016. He was the first US Naval Attaché to Viet Nam since 1975, and the first and only three-time, back-to-back-to-back Naval Attaché in the history of the US Navy.
Prior to his decade of diplomatically accredited Naval Attaché service, Commander Freeman served in tours with the USS Nimitz Strike Group (2001-2003), the Naval Strike Air Warfare Center (1998-2001), and previously in Japan, the Persian Gulf, and Somalia. His academic expertise includes theory of social change, rural development and impacts of technology on society. His Masters thesis explored the relationship between power and kinship in rural Pakistan. He also taught as a visiting professor at Liaoning University in Shenyang, China during 1987-88 and spent a major part of that academic year exploring China. After returning to the United States in 1988, he taught Sociology and Anthropology for two years at Minot State University in North Dakota. Commander Freeman graduated from Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana in 1985. After graduating he was selected as a teaching assistant at Colorado State University, earning a Master’s Degree in 1987.
Freeman and his family were extremely active in relief efforts in Japan following the 2001 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis in Japan. He logged more than 90 days in the disaster area and was the first US government official to cross thru the nuclear exclusion zone following the meltdown at Fukushima. Freeman’s most recent Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief deployment was to Nepal following the April 2015 Earthquake. His role in the Nepal disaster relief efforts included acting as a liaison with the Nepalese armed forces and police, coordinating relief efforts of the multi-national military as well as coordinating with the United Nations. In addition to the coordination efforts, Freeman provided daily direct observation assessments to the US Embassy in Kathmandu and made a significant contribution immediately following the second large (7.2) earthquake that struck the country by identifying incoming casualties and taking the initiative to set up a triage station at the airport with foreign medical teams that then assessed patients who were then routed to functioning medical facilities that could provide appropriate care.