I was awarded a six week Fulbright Specialist Grant and spent it at School of Public Health, Al Quds University, in the West Bank, Palestine during fall semester sabbatical 2013. Under the direction of Dean Motasem Hamdan, I guest-lectured in several nutrition and public health courses, assisted in curriculum development, and was one of two keynote speakers at The Palestinian Conference on Health Sciences: Towards promoting and developing a quality-health care, Faculty of Health Professions. The title of my talk was, “Obesity: Geographic distribution, and food policy.”

On a day off, I met up with some volunteers (the Friends of Al Walaja) and participated in an olive harvest. Those six weeks were the richest and most rewarding experience of my 25+ year teaching career.