Dr. SOEURN Visal
MS CHENG CHANMARA
DEPUTY HEAD OF MIDWIVERY
Mara spent her younger years growing up in Phnom Penh and then moved to Sihanoukville for over 10 years. It was while she was living in Sihanoukville that she was awarded a scholarship that enabled her to achieve her dream of becoming a Midwife. Upon graduation, she returned to Phnom Penh and not surprisingly, Mara now feels she has two home provinces! With the focus and determination it takes to continue on a successful professional pathway, Mara applied for a position at UP in the Midwifery Department and she has worked here since 2014. Mara has always been a hard-working, thoughtful team member and a positive role model for both her UP colleagues and the many students she works with. She is always happy to take on a new challenge and so over her time at UP she has covered many different roles within the Midwifery Department. The culmination of this hard work was in 2019 when she was promoted to her current position as Deputy Head of Midwifery.
Mara commenced teaching when she was still an undergraduate student at Life University, in a role as a Teacher’s Assistant. This experience was formative for Mara and his enabled her to follow her midwifery career within the education sector. She is now a skilled and experienced teacher and someone who is unafraid to take on new teaching challenges, especially in this time of emergency closure and restrictions due to coronavirus. She also contributes to midwifery education on a national level, as a member of the Technical Working Group for Midwifery Curriculum Review.
Mara is actively involved in research, and is a UP research champion, representing midwifery in a range of research projects, both internally and externally. Last year she attended a Policy Boot camp with Future Forum, where emerging researchers were challenged to present ideas in the form of proposals to be reviewed and represented for publication as a policy brief. Mara also received an Outstanding Research Presentation award as part of a UP team at The First Biennial Conference of Comparative Education for Shared Community and Prosperity (CESCam 2019)
Outside of work, Mara is a bit of an adventurer. Travelling is her passion and she loves to plan trips that have some sort of adventure included. She often has to persuade her friends and family to join her in these adventures so she has company, but invariably, they are really happy they joined her after lots of great experiences.
