A Kansas University graduate helping spread health care to rural Afghanistan was among those killed in a plane crash there Friday, her organization confirmed.

Carmen Urdaneta, 32, was one of three employees of Management Sciences for Health killed in the crash near Kabul. They are believed to be the only Americans among the 104 on board.

“She didn’t care about the risky situations she was going to, because her goal was always to give a hand to people with AIDS and STDs and tuberculosis,” said Urdaneta’s mother, Lia. “I hope that she could be a model in our society that is so selfish.”

Urdaneta, who was born in Venezuela, graduated from Hayden High School in Topeka. She received her bachelor’s degree in human biology from KU in 1994 and went on to receive a master’s degree in international health from Boston University in 1997.

According to the MSH Web site, she had worked for the Boston-based firm since 1999. MSH is a nonprofit health care consultant that has projects in more than 100 countries.

She first served as communications associate for its family planning management program, then moving to South Africa in 2001 to serve as director of communications for its equity project before returning to Boston in 2003.

Urdaneta’s current title was senior communications associate. She traveled throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America to write and photograph people involved in MSH projects for the group’s publications.

She had been in Afghanistan since Jan. 10, conducting interviews with MSH’s Rural Expansion of Afghanistan’s Community-based Healthcare program.

For the past year and a half, Lia Urdaneta said, Carmen had primarily been inspecting health clinics in Third World countries.

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Other employees killed in the crash were Amy Niebling, communications associate, and Cristin Gaudue, who worked in business development.

“It is an understatement to say that Cristin, Amy and Carmen were exceptional young women,” said MSH’s president, Jonathan Quick, in a prepared statement. “All of us who ever had the chance to work with them know that these three women woke up every day and performed their work with great energy and enthusiasm. … In this time of grief, we are comforted by the fact that Cristi, Amy and Carmen died while pursuing what they were most passionate about.”

Lia Urdaneta, who lives in Topeka, said she hoped her daughter’s selflessness would serve as an example for others.

“My expectation is that people look at her as role model,” she said. “We have to help each other, especially the needy.”