Doug Fountain ’87: Deputy Vice Chancellor Uganda Christian University

When Doug Fountain (BS Poli Sci, Econ ’87) and his wife JoEllyn Murillo Fountain (BA Poli Sci ’88) spent their first wedding anniversary packing their Springfield apartment to move across country to go to graduate school in 1988, Doug had travelled no further from the Willamette Valley than Boise. When on the second day of their journey, Doug had already expanded his horizons, he could have had no concept that in 20 years he would be living in Uganda and would soon become a Deputy Vice Chancellor (Vice President in the US system) of a major University in East Africa.

The path to Uganda included Doug completing a Masters in Public Administration at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill followed by 13 years of work on policy research and implementation in the field of mental health and substance abuse while living in North Carolina and in the Washington, D.C. suburbs. In 1999, Doug took his first trip to East Africa by travelling to Tanzania on a 3 week mission trip with his Fairfax, VA church. From that trip, Doug ended up managing, from the US, a re-forestation and agricultural improvement project in central Tanzania between 2001 through 2003. In early 2004, Doug, JoEllyn, and their daughter Alyssa moved full-time to Uganda to work as missionaries at Uganda Christian University.

Doug began work at UCU as a Consultant to the Vice Chancellor (President of the University) on Health programs and later became the founding head of the Department of Health Sciences. In that capacity, Doug designed and taught a course on health and wholeness that all students are required to take; he was instrumental in seeing the creation of a degree program for nurses and one in Community Health; and oversaw programs in Maternal Health and Health Management. He also consulted with the church in the Democratic Republic of Congo to create a strategic plan to provide health services in that war affected region. When the leadership of UCU learned of his abilities in planning, he was asked to help create a 10 year strategic plan for the University and oversee its implementation – leading to his appointment as Director of Planning.

In September 2010, Doug was appointed Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor for Development and External Relations and received the full appointment in June 2011. He has oversight for Planning, Financial Aid Services, Physical Plant and infrastructure development and maintenance, Public Relations, Alumni, Career Planning, Counseling Services, and Development/Fundraising for the University.

UCU began as a theological college in 1913 and became a University in 1997 with 150 students in theology and education. Today, UCU has 5 campuses across the country with more than 11,000 students being trained in Law, Business, Theology, Social Sciences, Science and Technology, Education & Arts and achieving Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Ph.D.s. UCU was the first fully-accredited private university in Uganda.