Lecturer Dr. Mona Dorsinville-Phanor (ROCL) unleashes a hearty laugh, the kind that really makes anyone nearby laugh along with her-but nobody said anything funny. The misplaced guffaw embodies her lighthearted nature, a characteristic that stays with her even as she tries to save her country one person at a time.The Haitian native, who is teaching an intermediate French conversation course in her first semester at Brandeis, reaches out to her country by nurturing people, and, in doing so, teaches them to do the same.

After first earning her medical degree in the Dominican Republic in 1985, she moved to Puerto Rico and then the United States, where she earned a Master's degree in Public Health at Harvard before earning a Master's degree in Public Administration from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Since then, she has taught at Tufts and Northeastern before coming to Brandeis.

Dorsinville-Phanor, along with a group of relatives, founded the Massachusetts Institute for Health Careers a decade ago in Hyde Park. The school brings together immigrants from all over the world-Dorsinville-Phanor estimates half of them are Haitian, while the rest are mostly Brazilian, African and Hispanic-and trains them as nursing assistants. She says she started the school when she saw that many foreign immigrants around her were unemployed.

"One of the things they know to do best is to use their hands to nurture," Dorsinville-Phanor says of her students. "Many of these people [cared for] an old mother, an old father, back in their country. So they know how to nurture."

Dorsinville-Phanor, 53, saw the world at an early age, traveling throughout Latin America and the United States with her father, who owned a travel agency.

That upbringing is still reflected in many of her mannerisms. She's quick to point out cultural differences of the smallest kind, laughing again when the reporter in her office insists on knowing her age. Miniature flags for almost a dozen countries-such as Israel and the Dominican Republic-adorn her desk. Knick-knacks from a half-dozen other cultures pepper the office, and when asked where a small ceramic representation of a music performance comes from, she breaks out in laughter again when she realizes she needs to look at the label to answer, "Peru!"

The scarf covering her black leather jacket is itself a rainbow of diversity: purple, red, green, yellow and a lighter magenta-like purple.

"I consider myself a citizen of the world," Dorsinville-Phanor says, letting out another chuckle.

Dorsinville-Phanor has overseen the certification of many immigrants as nursing assistants and home health aids. Several of those students have advanced their education and now work as full-fledged nurses.

One of those nurses, Sultana Lafond, says Dorsinville-Phanor always pushed her to strive for more.

"She's always encouraged me," says Lafond, who got registered as a nurse in 1999 and works at Youville Hospital in Cambridge. "[She was] always telling me ... 'You can do it! You can make it!'"

Dorsinville-Phanor describes her students as "regular people who are trying to make a better living ... [and] want to see their kids go to school and put bread on the table."

The students are not the only ones who benefit-the impact is reciprocal.

"What sticks out is the joy of seeing ... those eyes light up when they say 'I'm glad I found a job,'" she says.

But that is only part of what Dorsinville-Phanor has achieved since leaving Haiti. She also provides cross-cultural health care consulting to hospitals, a service that medical practitioners employ to better equip themselves in dealing with the cultural differences that surface when providing medical care to foreign patients. Dorsinville-Phanor says a language barrier is often the largest of these obstacles.

"I think ... even if they have an interpreter for the person, the person might not want to reveal to the interpreter what he would [reveal] to the health professional," she says.

Dorsinville-Phanor also says there are other challenges that arise-from appointment etiquette (Haitians will often bring several family members for support to even the smallest of doctor's appointments) to Americans' directness regarding the subject of death (news of a death is broken to family members much more gradually in Haiti).

Somehow, she also finds time to run a Sunday music school for children out of the health school, direct the choir of her church and play the organ for that same choir with her sister, Rachel Vieux who also teaches in the romance languages department. Ever the educator, Dorsinville-Phanor also hosts home health radio programs in English, Spanish and French on church radio stations.

But she says she is still not satisfied.

"I feel that I have to do something more than what I am doing now," she says. "I haven't done much for Haiti. I feel like I have to do more."

More, in her case, means mobilizing her new community behind her cause. To that end, Dorsinville-Phanor is hoping to bring Haitian culture to Brandeis . She hopes to have a campus celebration of Haitian culture and is working with Prof. Jane Hale (ROCL) on preliminary logistics of such an endeavor which Hale says could include Haitian art and food.

"I think we can create some degree of awareness [at Brandeis]," Dorsinville-Phanor says. "[Brandeis students] are very learned and intellectual."

Hale says Dorsinville-Phanor is just the person to bring that awareness to Brandeis.

"She's brought so much to us with her warmth and her knowledge," Hale says. "I think it's extraordinary for someone with the ... experience she has to teach French language to undergraduates. I'm so pleased she found us."

Dorsinville-Phanor says she has also talked with University President Jehuda Reinharz about such a celebration, along with other faculty members, who have shown her significant support.

"That's what I like about Brandeis," she says.

In the meantime, she holds onto her goal of helping Haiti and the rest of the world.

"I have big dreams," she says letting out her biggest laugh yet. "Big, big dreams. Even if I can accomplish ... a very small mustard seed ... something to make a difference, then I think I will have contributed to something.