Archive - April 2023

  Elizabeth Gore (Bolivia 2003-05) serves as President and Chairwoman of the Board for Hello Alice, the first-ever artificial intelligence platform for business owners. Hello Alice helps all business owners find the right path to launch and grow. As a social enterprise, Alice is open to all entrepreneurs and prioritizes services for women, underrepresented founders and veterans. Elizabeth previously served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Dell Technologies, where she drove initiatives to support Dell’s goals around helping small and medium businesses scale and prosper, fueling the expansion of global entrepreneurship. Elizabeth personally advises the growth of purpose-driven companies, such as ride share commuting company Scoop, and is an investing Limited Partner with the Portfolia fund. In addition, Elizabeth is part owner in Gore Family Vineyards in Sonoma County. She is the Emeritus Chair of the United Nations Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council and previously served as the first-ever Entrepreneur in Residence for the . . .

CELEBRATE SIX DECADES IN THAILAND By Khaosod English April 7, 2023 8:54 am On April 3, 2023, U.S. Ambassador Robert F. Godec and Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn swear-in 49 Peace Corps Trainees at Songphanburi Hotel, Suphanburi Province. In Thailand, Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) serve with their Thai counterparts in two sectors: Education, and Youth in Development. Volunteers live in local communities across the country, learn the Thai language, and share American culture with their communities during their two-year assignments. More than 5,500 Peace Corps Volunteers have served in Thailand since 1962. The swearing-in ceremony is conducted in conjunction with the 60th anniversary celebration of Peace Corps Thailand (the 60th anniversary celebration was supposed to happen last year but is delayed due to the pandemic). With U.S. Ambassador Robert F. Godec, Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn, Director-General Ureerat Charoentoh of the Thailand International Cooperation Agency, Royal Thai Government Officials, local . . .

UH Hilo political scientist Su-Mi Lee compiles biographies from Peace Corp volunteers with ties to Hawai‘i Island Posted on April 5, 2023 by Staff The project is significant to UH Hilo because Hawai‘i Island was chosen as a primary training location for thousands of Peace Corps volunteers in the 1960s and the university’s precursor—UH-Hilo Branch—contributed greatly to the training program. A local group involved in promoting acknowledgement of returned Peace Corps volunteers to Hawai‘i Island stand for a group photo at a plaque erected on the UH Hilo campus to commemorate John F. Kennedy who began the Peace Corps program. In the group are Hawai‘i County Mayor Mitch Roth (center) with Assistant Professor of Political Science Su-Mi Lee (fifth from left), returned Peace Corps volunteers, Rotary club members, a librarian from UH Hilo’s Mookini Library, and students including Lee’s student assistant Nikki Jicha (fourth from left). (Courtesy photo) By Susan Enright A political . . .

Women’s Economic Empowerment and the Peace Corps – A Conversation with Jody Olsen, Former Peace Corps Director Interviewed Held on March 8, 2019 Edited for this blog Dr. Olsen served as a volunteer in Tunisia in the late 1960s, and she held various leadership positions throughout the agency in the ’80s, the ’90s, and 2000s. And between that time she spent time as a visiting professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore School of Social Work, as well as the director of the university’s Global Education Initiatives. The  moderator is CSIS Senior Associate Nina Easton chair of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women International Summit and the co-chair of the Fortune Global Forum. Nina Easton: OK, hands up: How many former Peace Corps volunteers do we have here? Ooh. (Cheers, applause.) OK. (Applause.) And, Jody, thank you for your service. Jody Olsen: Well, thank you. Nina Easton: I warned you that we . . .

African artist’s work benefits Sierra Leone The story of Africa Yes is really the story of the remarkable village of Gbeworbu (BEH-wuh-boo), which hosted Peace Corps Volunteer Steve Cameron from 1989 to 1991. The partnership that resulted has withstood the intervention of a brutal civil war and thirteen years of separation. The villagers continue to demonstrate their resilience, determination, and work ethic as they rebuild and move forward. The first project that grew out of the partnership between Steve and his hosts was a Village Health Worker program to provide low-cost basic medicines and medical advice from the book Where There is No Doctor. This was begun at the request of the villagers themselves — Steve’s primary project was outside the village, supervising a water project in a nearby town. Other villages heard about the program and asked to participate. Eventually, there were 14 villages in the area with Village Health . . .