Author - Joanne Roll

Here is a short video of Marian Haley Beil talking about creating Peace Corps Writers website with John Coyne.The link to the video: https://youtu.be/y7lLWyXQ_zw?si=fVXR7IQ8lJqE2ztq

  David E. White Jr. currently serves as Special Assistant to the President in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel (PPO). Prior to this role, he served on the National Security Council as Senior Advisor to the White House Coordinator for Operation Allies Welcome, where he facilitated whole-of-government efforts to provide housing, health care, education, employment, and other resources at scale for nearly 90,000 Afghan allies resettled in the United States. An attorney by training, White joined the Biden-Harris Administration as Deputy Associate Counsel in PPO. He was previously a member of the Biden-Harris Transition Team and an attorney at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York City. White began his career in public service as a cavalry officer in the U.S. Army. He served on active duty in a variety of domestic and overseas assignments, including as a Scout Platoon Leader in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in support of . . .

Please note:  This letter is in response to a query about Peace Corps and information from Alana DeJoseph, Producer of the Peace Corps historic Documentary, A Towering Task: “Dear Alana and Joanne: Thanks for Alana’s of March 30, 2023. She is certainly keeping me busy these days as I hurtle toward 90. I have maintained a file with respect to charges and publications about the Peace Corps that may jeopardize Peace Corps volunteers.  I do not warrant its completeness. Sarge never wanted to have a security office, as such, in the Peace Corps.  He assigned such issues to me, and I generally handled them personally without delegation to other lawyers. Consequently, I was the Peace Corps liaison to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and so forth. The General Counsel’s office also screened Peace Corps volunteer and employee applicants who . . .

When an errorous statement is published about the Peace Corps and our experience knows the statement is not true, what should the response be?   A professor  had written  a book about federal agencies and included the Peace Corps with glowing praise, but he also wrote that only men were sent to Puerto Rico for Outward Bound Training. I had no success in convincing him to include that women also went  to Puerto Rico for that vigorous training. More recently, an RPCV  friend explained to me that she had received an inquiry from a student in Europe writting about the history of Peace Corps.  He had learned in a conference that Peace Corps had intervened in the Netherlands in 1962 and stayed for ten years  He later said it found the same information in an AI website.  That statement about Peace Corps is not true. It was time to query . . .

This information is from FOIA 23-0037,  as of Friday, January 13, 2023 “A search conducted by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer provided the following information: There are 49 Peace Corps Volunteer Trainees, 783 Peace Corps Volunteers, 56 Peace Corps Response Volunteers 16 Volunteers serving in virtual programs. In total, there are 1,004 Volunteers in service as of January 13, 2023.”

  This information is from FOIA 23-0021: “A search conducted by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer provided the following information: there are 506 Peace Corps Volunteer Trainees, 345 Peace Corps Volunteers; and 53 Peace Corps Response Volunteers. In total, there are 904 Volunteers in service as of October 31, 2022. I am closing this case in our Office. There are no fees associated with this response.” I made this FOIA request on November 13, asking for the number of Serving Peace Corps Volunteers, the number of Peace Corps Trainees and the number of Peace Corps Response Volunteers, as of October 31, 2022.  I received a response today.  It is, of course, not a current count.  I received no explaination for the long delay in responding,

This is the news from the National Peace Corps Association.  Thank you to Jonathan Pearson. “As the 117th Congress finishes its work for the year, final results for the Peace Corps are mixed.” “On Friday, the House completed work on a $1.7 trillion Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) omnibus spending package to fund the federal government through next September. The Peace Corps received a funding increase in its baseline budget. The omnibus legislation includes President Biden’s request of a $20 million, five percent increase for the agency (from $410.5 million to $430.5 million). It’s the first increase in seven years, matching the president’s request and responding as well to the House and Senate appropriations letters that 43 Senators and 146 Members of Congress sent, calling for an increased budget. This increase comes as more than 900 Volunteers and Trainees have returned to service in 45 countries. The remaining nine months of . . .

Thank you to Jonathan Pearson, Advocate Director of the NPCA for this news.   Last night, December 14th, the United States Senates formally confirmed Carol Spahn, (Rumania 1994-1996)  as the 21st Director of the Peace Corps.  This was the final step in the namination process. From the Peace Corps website: Spahn brings more than 25 years of public and private sector experience to the director position. Most recently, she served as Peace Corps’ chief of operations in the Africa Region covering Eastern and Southern Africa. Previously, she was the country director of Peace Corps/Malawi for five years. Spahn served as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1994 to 1996 in Romania, where she worked as a small business advisor. Before returning to the Peace Corps as Country Director, she was the senior vice president of operations at Women for Women International. Prior to that, Spahn was executive director of Accordia Global . . .

 NPCA is Advocating for YOU! URGENT ACTION ALERT FOR THE PEACE CORPS COMMUNITY With only a few weeks remaining in the current Congress, we need all members and friends of the Peace Corps community to mobilize and rally to make sure key National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) legislative priorities are approved this year. Our top priority is to pass the Peace Corps Reauthorization Act (S. 4466; H.R. 1456). As more than 900 volunteers have returned to Peace Corps service, this is the moment to pass this once-in-a-generation legislation. Write to Republican Senators NOW: We need the bipartisan Senate bill (S. 4466) to be passed, and key to that is building further support of Republican Senators. If you are represented by one (or two) Republican Senators, please take this action now, and share it with others from your state. Other Senate Action: If you are represented by Democrats in the Senate, . . .

I am sorry for the aging information.  I received the final response to my original August 5. FOIA request on October 7, 2022. The FOIA request is 22-0141. I do not know what caused the long delay,  In June, I had made a FOIA request for the number of serving Volunteers and received a prompt and detailed response. (https://peacecorpsworldwide.org/number-of-peace-corps-voluntees-serving-as-of-june-28-2022/) This is what I had requested, anticipating the same kind of response I had received earlier.  “Documents which show how many more Volunteers entered service after June 28, 2022 and were in service as of August 4, 2022;” and on August 30, 2022, you clarified your request to indicate you would, “like to know the number of Volunteers as of  August 23, 2022.” ” A search conducted by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer provided the following information: between the dates of June 28, 2022 and August 23, 2022, an additional . . .

  Read this news and link to  text of the letter at the NPCA website: https://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/articles/former-peace-corps-directors-call-on-senate-to-pass-the-peace-corps-reauthorization-act • “In a bipartisan show of support, ten former Peace Corps Directors who have served under Republican and Democratic administrations alike call on the Senate to pass the Peace Corps Reauthorization Act. The most sweeping Peace Corps legislation in a generation, it would bring important reforms and support for Volunteers as the agency seeks to meet the needs of a changing world.” From the Press Release: Today, 10 former Peace Corps Directors who served in both Republican and Democratic administrations sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), calling on them to pass the Peace Corps Reauthorization Act (S. 4466). These bipartisan former Peace Corps Directors specifically asked the Senate to move the legislation, co-authored by Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Ranking . . .

  WASHINGTON – Peace Corps Chief Executive Officer Carol Spahn announced that over the next year the agency will implement a climate initiative to support over two million hours of volunteer and staff service in approximately 50 countries around the world. Speaking via video at the Global Citizen Festival in New York City, CEO Spahn described how approximately 1,000 Peace Corps volunteers will work with host country partners to identify and implement strategies that contribute to climate priorities and national plans. “Climate change disproportionally impacts the Global South, including many countries in which Peace Corps Volunteers serve,” said CEO Spahn. “The world is at an inflection point when it comes to the climate emergency; it is now or never, and we are choosing now.” Volunteers and their host communities will work together to promote climate-smart agriculture practices, develop community tree nurseries, and increase climate literacy through environmental education. Additionally, the Peace Corps . . .