Bonnie Lee Black (Gabon 1996–98) earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University/Los Angeles in June 2007. An honors graduate of Columbia University (BA, Literature/Writing, 1979), she has been a professional writer and editor for nearly 30 years, and an educator — in the U.S. and overseas — for over 15 years.

For ten years (1986–96) she was a chef, caterer, and cooking instructor in Manhattan, during which time her freelance writing focused on food. In 1996, she joined the Peace Corps and served as a health and nutrition Volunteer in Gabon, Central Africa. Her new book, How to Cook a Crocodile: A Memoir with Recipes (Peace Corps Writers, 2010), recounts her experience teaching healthy cooking in Gabon.

Bonnie’s first book, Somewhere Child, was published by Viking Press in 1981. Her essays have appeared in a number of published anthologies and literary journals. She now lives in Taos, New Mexico, and teaches English and Creative Nonfiction Writing at University of New Mexico/Taos. Bonnie’s blog is Cooking Crocodiles & Other Food Musings

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Leo Cecchini (Ethiopia 1962–64) was yet another member of Ethiopia I — it was so early in the history of Peace Corps that the group had its farewell party in the White House with John Kennedy. Leo taught geography at a high school in Asmara, now the capital of Eritrea, and coached the school’s soccer team to two league championships.  From there he spent 25 years as a US diplomat, mainly promoting American trade and investment with the world.  He “retired” to become the first managing director of a joint Turkish-American public relations company in Ankara, Turkey.  That initial venture into private business was followed by working with the first black owned property development company in South Africa, managing director of a South African owned company in Orlando, Florida, a Wall Street stock broker,  managing director of a clothing maker in London, partner in a wine importing business in Washington D.C., real estate agent in Florida, and now an investment adviser.  Leo is a native of Washington D.C., has a degree in economics from  the U. of  Maryland, and speaks five languages. Leo’s blogs are Your Money: The New Economy and You ,  Travel: Train Treks, Environment — Light, Not Heat and Vino Fino.

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Chance Dorland, who is originally from the small town of Woodward, Iowa, left home in 2005 to pursue an interdisciplinary degree in media studies, journalism, and radio broadcasting from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. In 2008, he spent a year attending university and working for radio stations in Berlin, Germany, as a fellow of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange For Young Professionals. After returning home and graduating from college, he worked in radio in Los Angeles and New York before accepting a teaching position in Seoul, South Korea.

Chance is now one of the first Peace Corps Volunteers to return to Colombia since the program was closed in 1981. His primary goal is to teach English to primary and secondary students in Barranquilla while also providing resources for Colombian teachers to improve their English. He’s also involved with a new English radio station for students at his school called English Time Radio, a Saturday night jazz group he plays drums for, and his third goal project, Chance Dorland’s Peace Corps PodCast, which he also uses to communicate with Spanish students from his old high school in Woodward, Iowa. He can be followed on Twitter, YouTube, iTunes and his website, ChanceDorland.com.

Chance’s blog is PodCasting Colombia.

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John F. Fanselow served as a Peace Corps Volunteer with the first group to go to Nigeria from 1961 to 1963. He then worked with Peace Corps Volunteers for two years as a Contractor’s Overseas Representative from Teachers College, Columbia University in Somalia from 1966 to 1968, as an in-service trainer in Togo, The Ivory Coast and Senegal, and then as a trainer at TC for groups going to Africa. He earned his Ph.D. at TC and was then invited to join the faculty there. In 1987 he started an off-campus M.A. Program in Tokyo for Columbia University, Teachers College in 1987 grew out of work he had been doing with teachers in Japan. After becoming Professor Emeritus at TC in 1996, John was invited to become president of a private tertiary institution in New Zealand. Nine years later he left that institution, and returned to Japan where he is a visiting professor at Kanda University of International Studies.

John’s latest interest is online learning. He is teaching courses with International Teacher Development Institute (iTDi). This group is republishing all of my books starting in January 2013.

His book publications include Breaking Rules: Generating and Exploring Alternatives in Language Teaching (Longman, 1987), Contrasting Conversations: Activities for Exploring Our Beliefs and Teaching Practices (Longman, 1992) and Try the Opposite (SIMUL, 1992).  John’s blog is You Call Yourself a Teacher?!

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Mark Fullmer (Philippines 2010-2012) is currently serving as a teacher of English language fluency in one of the largest batches of Peace Corps Volunteers assigned to the Philippines. Prior to service, Mark lived across the United States, finding employ as a construction worker, musician, nightwatchman, hotel receptionist, and college writing instructor. He is the author of the poetry collection, Tweet, Tweet: a mysticotelegraphic fistbump panegyric to the American open road odyssey [Mutual Respect Books 2009], a story collection, On the Beautiful Sea [CreateSpace 2008], and a novel, 1337: A Game Novel [Facebook 2010], which details the great American subculture of videogaming. His writing and music can be found at markfullmer.com. Mark’s blog is Peace Corps in the 21st Century.

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Don Gayton did small-scale agricultural extension in Colombia from 1966 to 1969, with the objective of improving nutrition. He worked for a year in a very remote jungle area; he thinks the Peace Corps sent him there because he was disruptive during Training. The Choco was a fascinating experience, but certainly no place to practice small-scale agriculture since the local folks were very well fed already. For my second year I lived in a village in the Andean coffee zone, and worked with small farmers and their families, encouraging market gardens. It was a thrill to see the moms and children come — for the first time — to the Saturday markets as sellers, rather than just buyers.

He became a Canadian citizen in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, and live in the British Columbia Interior.

Don  works as a grassland ecologist, and has written six books of non-fiction, mostly on natural subjects. The most recent book is Okanagan Odyssey: Journeys through Terrain, Terroir and Culture published by Rocky Mountain Books in May of 2010. Don’s blog is Man Facing West.

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Harlan Green (Turkey 1964–66) was part of Turkey V, a rural community development group and worked in the western Turkish village of Ismet Pasha on livestock, poultry and irrigation projects.  Ismet Pasha was settled by Bulgarian Turks after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire in the 1920s. Harlan is an economist who has been a syndicated financial columnist for 10 years, and publishes weekly financial columns in the Santa Barbara News-Press, Santa Barbara’s daily newspaper. Harlan’s blog is Your Money: Popular Freakonomics.

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Travis Hellstrom served as a Peace Corps Volunteer and Peace Corps Volunteer Leader in Mongolia from 2008 to 2011 as a Health Specialist. A year before he left joined the Peace Corps he began writing what would become the Unofficial Peace Corps Volunteer Handbook that he added to here-and-there for 4 years until, after his 27th month of service in Mongolia, he published it. 100% of the profits for The Unofficial Peace Corps Volunteer Handbook are given to Peace Corps projects worldwide.

After completing his Peace Corps service Travis published a second book called Enough: What I Learned in the Peace Corps currently in ebook format, but soon to be available in print at Amazon. Travis has also created a website called Advance Humanity where he writes weekly articles for everyday humanitarians who are changing themselves and changing the world. He also became founding CEO of the New Media Foundation that is dedicated to helping leading nonprofits in Mongolia and around the world.

Travis is also the founder of Peace Corps 101, an online course led by Peace Corps Volunteers from around the world, which also donates all proceeds back into Peace Corps through the Peace Corps’ Partnership Program and NPCA’s Global Community Fund.

He currently lives in the eastern steppe of Mongolia with his wife Tunga. His blog is Unofficial Peace Corps.

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Cristina O’Keeffe (Ukraine from 2003–05) was an Economic Development Volunteer. She obtained funding, designed, implemented and conducted trainings for the Youth Leadership Program, with over 50 university students and 100 children participating.  She taught marketing, public relations and creative writing at local schools, universities and institutions throughout Lviv. She founded the Lviv Youth Hostelling Association (LYHA) bringing the first youth hostel to the city of Lviv, and authored The Personal Guide to Lviv published in 2005 as fundraising enterprise.

As a creative writer, Cristina has had numerous poems and essays published online and in print. Most recently, her essay “Mama Esta Trabajando (Mommy is Working)” appeared in the 2009 anthology Chicken Soup for the Soul:  Power Moms. Her non-fiction book, Finding Francis, was published in 2003.  She is currently working on two major creative projects:  a poetry chapbook entitled Bunny was a Horse, and a full-length fiction book called Letters to Helen.

Currently, Cristina is a professional copywriter. She runs LookOut Communications, which helps small business transform their visions into words.  She lives in Stewart Manor, NY with her husband, Thomas, and two daughters. Cristina’s blog is The Arts: Writing Right.

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Susan O’Neill (Venezuela 1973–74), is the author of Don’t Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Viet Nam (UMass Press, 2004), a collection based on her stint as an army nurse during the Viet Nam war. She edits Vestal Review, a literary magazine for flash/sudden fiction. Her essay blog and some of her fiction and non-fiction can be found from her home page at SusanOneill.us. Susan is a photographer in addition to being a writer. You can see her black and white prints at her site. She and her fellow military and Peace Corps veteran husband live in the fantastic foreign land of Brooklyn, New York. Susan’s blog is Humor: Off the Matrix.

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Hugh Pickens (Peru 1970–73) is a physicist who has explored for oil in the Amazon jungle, crossed the empty quarter of Saudi Arabia installing microwave communications systems, built satellite control stations for NASA all over the world, and has retired in his hometown of Ponca City, Oklahoma where he cultivates his square foot garden, and photographs local events.

Since 2001 Hugh has edited and published “Peace Corps Online.” His other writing accomplishments include contributing over 900 stories to “Slashdot: News for Nerds,” and articles for Wikipedia and “Ponca City, We Love You.” Hugh’s blog is “Hugh Pickens Writes Writes.”

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Joanne Roll was a Health Education/Rural Community Development Volunteer in Colombia from 1963 to 1965. She worked with a Colombian nurse and indigenous midwives to develop an UNICEF sponsored Maternal Education program. The nurse taught the midwives basic hygiene and safe practices. The midwives and she then taught the same course to pregnant women. She and her site partner also worked in other health education programs.

When Joanne returned to the US, she worked briefly in Washington DC in a low-level position at the Office of Economic Opportunity, but fled that city for the mountains of the West. She did graduate work at the University of New Mexico in Latin American Studies with an emphasis on Anthropology, and then earned a Masters in Public Administration. Joanne’s main career focus was as a caseworker and rehabilitation manger for agencies serving the developmentally disabled; subsequently she retired to raise her family.

After decades she is once more interested in all things Peace Corps — what it was and what it might become. She has searched for Peace Corps public records in many places, and it is this research she hopes to share. Joanne’s blog is Peace Corps: Public Records

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David Sears taught English in a high school and then a teacher training college in Morocco with the Peace Corps from 1979 to 1982. He stayed on in Morocco with USAID and PC Training for a couple more years and, following his return to the US and an MBA degree, worked in international development for many years, focusing on small business development and management training. He started Cambridge Data Systems to provide on-line tools for recruitment for development projects in 1997 and continues to manage that enterprise. In all his jobs he has spent many, many hours reading resumes and, though he can’t help with interviews, networking, or actual work, he has learned a lot over the years about what makes a good (or bad) resume. David lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife and two daughters.

David manages Jobs Jobs .

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P. David Searles served three years as the Country Director for the Peace Corps in the Philippines from 1971 to 1974, and then spent two years at Peace Corps headquarters as Regional Director for North Africa, Near East, Asia, and Pacific (NANEAP) and as Deputy Director of the agency under John Dellenback (1974–76). His career has included periods during which he worked in international business, government service and education. Following the end of his business career in 1990 David earned a Ph. D. from the University of Kentucky (1993), and published two books: A College For Appalachia (1995) and The Peace Corps Experience (1997), both published by The University Press of Kentucky. His blog is Remembering the ’70s.

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Mishelle Shepard (Czech Republic 1994–96) taught English at Gymnazium in Cheb, Czech Republic as a Peace Corps Volunteer and later went back to the country to teach at Charles University in Prague. Her experiences during these years sparked a fascination with self-sufficiency which blossomed into many more years of overseas work and travel in order to discover what drives the life and work of those in less consumer-oriented cultures than her own. She has an MA in French Literature and has been working as a contract instructor, teaching mainly French and ESOL for fifteen years and began freelance writing a decade ago. As a ghostwriter and in her own name she has had books and articles published on topics as diverse as personal financial planning and topless sunbathing in Thailand. Her latest adventure is by far the most challenging of all, homesteading , which as a total novice offers a learning curve so steep it will require her passionate devotion for the rest of her days. Mishelle’s blog is Homesteading: Starting from Scratch.

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Richard Sitler grew up in Knightstown, Indiana and is a graduate of Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois. He also studied at The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine. He has a wealth of experience as a photojournalist having worked at newspapers in Ohio, Indiana, New Hampshire and New Jersey. Most recently he was on the staff of The Herald Bulletin in Anderson, Indiana.

From 2000 to 2002 Richard took a break from his photojournalism career to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Jamaica. He was assigned to the rural community of Lluidas Vale where he served as an at-risk youth adviser at the Lluidas Vale All Age School. In 2006 Richard returned to Jamaica as a Crisis Corps Volunteer (now called Peace Corps Response) where he served as a curriculum developer for a community youth training center.

Peace Corps was a challenging and rewarding experience for Richard, and for these reasons he has continued to be an advocate for Peace Corps. In June 2009, he embarked on an epic journey to document the work and lives of Peace Corps Volunteers serving communities around the world. For more than two years, Richard traversed the planet  staying with Peace Corps Volunteers, experiencing their communities and work sites, and documenting what it’s like to be a Volunteer in the modern Peace Corps. This project culminated in his book Making Peace with the World, Photographs of Peace Corps Volunteers.

Sitler is currently promoting Making Peace with the World and working as a freelance photographer. Richard’s blog is Peace Photography.

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Jill Vickers (Afghanistan 1969–70) writes: ” As an English major in college, I was shocked to be selected by the Peace Corps to serve as a vaccinator in Afghanistan. The World Health Organization had made the eradication of smallpox in the country a priority, however the lack of logistical support, made it very slow going at first for the Volunteers assigned to this project.

“Over the next year things improved dramatically though, and I stayed until the following fall when the Volunteers’ role on the inoculation teams pretty much dried up. I’d grown to love the time in the villages, and it was a painful to board the overland bus to Istanbul not knowing if I’d ever see those people again.

“Thirty-four years later with the expert help of Jody Bergedick, I began taping my fellow Volunteers’ recollections from our vaccinating days. The women, including our training director, gave money to make a documentary to raise awareness of Afghanistan as we experienced it, and to raise money for a few trusted NGO’s working in Afghanistan. I’ve traveled with the film, along with my friends, since October 2008.

“You can read more about the film at Dirt Road Documentaries.”

Jill’s blog is Once In Afghanistan.