Peace Corps Worldwide provides a virtual community, supplies resources and shares real stories from around the world to Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs), Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs), their families and friends, and to all who share our belief that international understanding contributes to world at peace.

To achieve these goals we have brought together a group of talented Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, former Peace Corps staff, and friends and family of PCVs and RPCVs who have volunteered to contribute their time and skills to create a social network where we will help each other in our careers and in our lives.

This site is in many ways an outgrowth of the website Peace Corps Writers that began in 1989 as a newsletter for and about Peace Corps writers. This new and expanded website is designed to provide personal and professional resources to returned Volunteers and Peace Corps Volunteers, to share news and information about, and of special interest to the Peace Corps family, to assist the members of the Peace Corps community bridge cultures as they fulfill the Third Goal of the Peace Corps, and to tell the incomparable stories that come from the Peace Corps experience. All of this comes to you with a touch of humor and from people with plenty of life experiences, in and out of the Peace Corps.

We want a site that can help RPCVs in continuing their careers, returning to school, meeting up with friends who share their interests and life style, a site where they can write their stories and read about new books and articles by Peace Corps writers. We want a site to help people join the Peace Corps, complete their service, and come successfully home again, and begin their new lives as citizens of the world. We want a site that is worldwide in its approach. No one needs to join, but every one can belong.

We look forward to your contributions in the form of comments and support. All it will cost you is your time and interest.

To develop this site, we have assembled five key contributors:

Editor:
John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962–64)
John was with the first group of Peace Corps Volunteers to go to Ethiopia and taught English in Addis Ababa. After completing his service, he worked for the Peace Corps in Washington, and then became an Associate Peace Corps Director in Ethiopia. He left the Peace Corps in 1967 to become Dean of Admissions and Students at the SUNY/Old Westbury, and later turned to writing full time. In 1995 John returned to the Peace Corps as Special Assistant to the Associate Director for Volunteer Support where he conceived of  and edited three essay books about the Peace Corps experience: To Touch the World, At Home in the World, and Peace Corps: The Great Adventure. While at the Peace Corps he wrote the concept paper that outlined a new role for Peace Corps Volunteers — the Crisis Corps, later renamed the Response Corps. In 1996 he was appointed Manager of the New York Peace Corps Recruitment Office. John, who is considered an authority on the history of the Peace Corps, has written or edited over twenty-five books including Going Up Country: Travel Essays by Peace Corps Writers and Living on the Edge: Fiction by Peace Corps Writers. In 1987 he began publishing the newsletter RPCV Writers & Readers with Marian Haley Beil; in 1999 the newsletter morphed into the website Peace Corps Writers — which has just morphed into Peace Corps Worldwide. John was a co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund — the non-profit foundation to support Third Goal activities of returned Peace Corps Volunteers, and is a member of the board of Ethiopia & Eritrea RPCVs. John is the Manager of Communications for The College of New Rochelle. John has three blogs on this site: John Coyne Babbles, Peace Corps Writers, and The Arts: Writing.

Publisher:
Marian Haley Beil (Ethiopia 1962–64)
Marian has enjoyed a variety of incarnations. As a Volunteer she taught math in a secondary school in the town of Debre Berhan. Subsequently she worked at Peace Corps/Washington, married RPCV Donald Beil (Somalia 1964–66) and had two sons, earned an MFA in weaving and textile design and then worked as a fiber artist. Since 1987 she has worked as a publication designer and technical illustrator — and now website designer.  She is president of the board of Ethiopia & Eritrea RPCVs, co-founded Rochester (NY) RPCVs and was publisher of Peace Corps Writers. Marian is the designer and publisher of this site.

Advisors:

Barbara Ferris (Morocco 1980–82)
As a Volunteer in Morocco Barbara taught English and led community health projects. She is the co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund. She has worked as a legislative assistant to a Member of Congress, at the Peace Corps she served as the Women in Development Director and was an advisor to the US Delegation to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. She is the president and founder of the International Women’s Democracy Center established to strengthen women’s global leadership. IWDC holds special consultative status to the United Nations. Barbara serves on the board of directors of local and international non-profit organizations, and she was the endorsed Democratic candidate for Ohio’s 10th Congressional district in 2006. Barbara’s blog is Your Future: You & a 501(c)(3).

Matt Losak (Lesotho 1985–88)
Matt served as a Peace Corps Volunteer English teacher in Lesotho in southern African, and then served on Peace Corps staff from 1988 to 1997. His is a co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund. Matt has worked as director of public affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment Standards Administration, and as a press advance officer at the White House Office of Scheduling and Advance in the administration of President William Jefferson Clinton. He presently serves as director of communications at the National Labor College. He hold’s a B.A. in English from Southern Connecticut State University. Matt’s blog is The DC Skinny.

Shlomo Bachrach (PC/Ethiopia Staff 1966–68)
Shlomo was on the staff of Peace Corps/Ethiopia following several years as a lecturer at Haile Selassie I University in Addis Ababa. He worked on Peace Corps training programs for several countries including Ethiopia in 1964, and again from 1966 to 1971. His most recent project was bringing together Ethiopia and the concept of trademarking its coffee brands. He is currently editor of East Africa Forum, a news group and online archive of news from the Horn of Africa. Shlomo has two blogs on the site: Horn of Africa Report, and The Arts: International Music.

Also read about the experts who will blog on our site.

Peace Corps Worldwide owes a special debt of gratitude to Noah — our incomparable tech man.