Carrie Hessler-Radelet (Western Samoa 1981-83) Nomination Hearing,Wednesday, November 6, 10:30 a.m. FINALLY!

The Senate confirmation hearing for the nomination of Acting Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet to become the next Director has finally been scheduled.

It will take place on Wednesday, November 6 at 10:30 am. It is a nomination that we fully support.

Some background on Carrie. She and her husband Steve (they spent their honeymoon in Peace Corps Training, and can you believe it: they are STILL married!) were PCVs in Western Samoa from 1981-83. She taught high school and helped design a national public awareness campaign on disaster preparedness. .

After her Peace Corps tour, the couple moved to Boston for graduate school where Carrie got a master’s degree from Harvard School of Public Health in health policy and management. (Her BA in political science is from Boston University.) During her “Boston years” she also worked for the Peace Corps as a Public Affairs Officer in the recruitment office and gave birth to two children, now both adults.

Prior to being deputy, Carrie was vice president and director of the Washington, D.C., office of John Snow Inc., a global public-health organization. She oversaw the management of public-health programs in more than 85 countries. In total she has spent more than two decades working in public health, focusing on HIV/AIDS and maternal and child health and lived and worked in more than 50 countries.

Since coming to the Peace Corps in 2010, she has worked on a half dozen changes for the agency, including the  Focus In/Train Up initiative, (where do they come up with these wacky names?) which provides targeted technical training to Volunteers.

In the wake of the Kate Puzey murder–which happened before Carrie came to the Peace Corps–she has worked on overseen the implementation of key policies and programs aimed at reducing the risk of sexual assault and violent crime, as well as improving medical, mental health, legal, and post-service care for victims.

She also created a new Office of Global Health and HIV to expand the agency’s HIV-education and prevention programs and the Global Health Service Partnership to send physicians and nurses to teach in developing countries. Carrie, as deputy, was also involved in the establishment of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and was a primary author of PEPFAR’s first strategic plan.

Her extended family has been connected to the Peace Corps since its beginning. Four generations of Hesslers have served as Volunteers. Hessler-Radelet’s aunt was the 10,000th Peace Corps Volunteer and served in Turkey (1964-66), her grandparents served in Malaysia (1972-73), and her nephew recently completed his service as an HIV education Volunteer in Mozambique (2007-09).

Carrie was also at once time a board member of the NPCA.

We wish her well on Wednesday.