Peace Corps Community in the News (week of January 19, 2025)

Zac Schnell portrait

Zac Schnell (Philippines 2012-14), Pamlico Community College president

Pamlico Community College appoints new president, By Maya Geving on WITN.com | January 17, 2025.

Zac Schnell (Philippines 2012-14) earned a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Technology and Management from N.C. State and went on to earn a master’s degree in Natural Resources from NCSU. He spent two years in the Peace Corps, working on coastal resource management projects in the Philippines. He also worked at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Institute at Tremont.

Africa: A Conversation with Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield: Reflecting on U.S.-Africa Relations at the Center for International and Strategic Studies in Washington, DC | All Africa | January 15, 2025.

Our Peace Corps volunteers have been part – I mean, I meet so many Africans who are my generation who say: my Peace Corps teacher was the person who taught me to speak English, and I will never forget that person. Americans generally have this sense of caring about other people, and I think that is still there, that sense of caring, that sense of commitment to helping other people reach their dreams. And so what I find when I go home is people want to know about these countries. They want to know about the people.” —Linda Thomas-Greenfield

Scholarship director supports students on their academic journeys, by Krista Richmond in UGA Today, January 18, 2025.

Jessica Hunt (Guatemala 2008-10) earned her bachelor’s degree in English and then worked for UGA as an admissions counselor. After studying international development as a graduate student, she decided to work in the field and joined the Peace Corps and spent two years on a reforestation project in Guatemala. Upon returning to the United States, Hunt spent 16 years teaching English in middle and high schools in Atlanta; Montgomery County, Maryland; and Aberdeen, Scotland, before moving back to Athens and teaching at Athens Academy.

Washtenaw United: The future of Washtenaw County’s immigrant community in the wake of Donald Trump’s second inauguration, by David Fair on WEMU.org | January 20, 2025.

Christine Sauvé (Mauritania 2007-09; Senegal 2009-10), LMSW leads policy advocacy, community engagement, and communications strategies for the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, working to ensure immigrant Michiganders experience equity, justice, and belonging. In 2013, she was one of ten national leaders honored by The White House as a Champion of Change for her efforts to promote immigrant inclusion. Christine served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mauritania and Senegal and is a member of the National Association of Social Workers.

Book of the Week – Running After Shadows by Hifsa Ashraf, by Dan Campbell, The Haiku Foundation | January 6, 2025.

I served in Peace Corps El Salvador from 1974 – 1977 and this life changing experience inspired me to devote my career to international development with USAID. I would like to share with Peace Corps Worldwide that I volunteer as the Digital Librarian for the Haiku Foundation and publish a regular Book of the Week feature and below is a link and excerpt from my latest feature.” — Dan Campbell (El Salvador 1974-77).

Thomas Tighe reflects on 24 years leading the international health nonprofit Direct Relief, by Gabriela Aoun Angueira at The Associated Press | January 20, 2025.

Direct Relief’s mission is to expand healthcare access. Founded in 1948, the group supplies free medical resources across the U.S. and globally. Thomas Tighe (Thailand 1986-88) helped transform its operations, embracing technology and courting corporate partners, guided by the idea that a nonprofit health venture could and should run as efficiently as a commercial one.

When my Peace Corps community began to feel like home, by Peace Corps, on PeaceCorps.gov | January 21, 2025.

Integrating into a new community is not easy. It takes time to learn a language, understand new customs, get used to different foods, and develop relationships. Five Peace Corps Volunteers share the special experiences that helped them feel at home in their new communities.

Meet Erica Thibodeaux, in Canvas Rebel | January 20, 2025.

As an outreach crisis counselor, I learned many skills that later enabled me to be a more present, conscientious, and intentional Peace Corps Volunteer. The time I spent living with the Dagara people has changed my life in too many ways to write about here. Two decades later, I am still integrating what I learned. When I returned from Ghana, I met my partner and we relocated to where I live now. It was then that I decided to go to graduate school to become a licensed clinician.” —Erica Thibodeaux (Ghana 2007-08).

WPS names 2025 Teacher of the Year, by Molly Williams in The Winchester Star | January 20, 2025.

Mary Cate Cornish (Malawi 2006-08) was inspired to become a teacher after her two-year stint as a United States Peace Corps officer, according to the release, when she taught at a high school in a rural African village. “This experience opened my eyes to the power that education has as an agent of change,” she writes in her Philosophy of Teaching, according to the release. “[It] showed me that I am capable of playing a meaningful role in it.

Connecting with Ukraine: Highlands Ranch students assemble solar panels for schools and hospitals in Ukraine, by Haley Lena in Highlands Ranch Herald | January 21, 2025

As a first-generation American, Broomfield resident Andy Lenec (Ukraine 2017-18) was steeped in the language and culture of Ukraine. His parents were political refugees who relocated to the United States after World War II to escape Russian occupation. Once he retired as an engineer, Lenec joined the Peace Corps and lived in Ukraine from 2017 to 2018, where he made numerous connections.

Ward 15 Dems salute one of their own, former Rep. Charlotte Golar Richie, by Harriet Gaye, Special to the Dorchester Reporter | January 21, 2025.

When Charlotte Golar Richie (Kenya 1981-83) and her husband Winston (Kenya 1978-80)— and their two young daughters moved to Dorchester’s Meetinghouse Hill in the early 1990s, the couple quickly became active in civic affairs. Cook was one of the people who urged her to run for state representative.

Author Dorrin B. Rosenfeld Shares Inspiring Memoir, ‘The Day I Got Hit by the Tortilla Truck: My Healing Journey‘EIN Presswire | January 21, 2025.

Dorrin B. Rosenfeld (Belize 1985-88) is pleased to announce the release of The Day I Got Hit by the Tortilla Truck: My Healing Journey, a powerful memoir published on April 11, 2024. This transformative account chronicles Rosenfeld’s journey from surviving a traumatic brain injury as a Peace Corps volunteer to becoming a dedicated chiropractor, offering readers a testament to resilience, self-discovery, and the power of belief in overcoming life’s most challenging moments.

Running for a Cause: Athlete inked with Los Angeles-wildfire solidarity tattoo, by John Sanders, The Argonaut Staff Writer | January 23, 2025.

Los Angeles local Tommy Vinh Bui (Kazakhstan 2011) loves his community. He works as a Westside librarian, became a doctoral student and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Central Asia. The Mar Vista resident is a 2018-19 Arts for LA Cultural Policy Fellow for the city of Inglewood. He’s created artwork that appeared in the Wende Museum exhibition “Vietnam in Transition,” a 1976 to present multi-layered intersection of arts and history. Bui’s latest cause is running.

Director of guinea worm eradication at The Carter Center Adam Weiss gives interview on Carter’s impact, by Joshua Windus | January 23, 2025.

Adam Weiss (Ghana 2003-05) began his journey towards guinea worm eradication by joining the Peace Corps. “In 2003 I joined the United States Peace Corps, and I was assigned to be a water and sanitation volunteer in HIV-AIDS education.”

AMMD™ by Amy Myers, MD Unveils Newly Refreshed Line of Wellness Products, by Amy Myers, in PR Newswire | January 23, 2025.

Designed for both comprehensive wellness and condition-specific needs, these science-backed products are meticulously formulated by Amy Myers (Paraguay 1995-98), MD, a former Peace Corps Volunteer, emergency physician, functional medicine expert, 2X New York Times bestselling author of The Autoimmune Solution and The Thyroid Connection, and author of the Amazon #1 bestseller, The Autoimmune Solution Cookbook.

Terrell Smith retiring after distinguished career at Vanderbilt, by Matt Batcheldor in VUMC News | January 23, 2025.

Terrell Smith, MSN, RN (Brazil 1976-78), Senior Director of Patient and Family Engagement, is retiring after more than three decades at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Smith was at the forefront of creating patient and family councils that advise individual Vanderbilt hospital entities from the patient/family perspective.

UConn Extension’s Mental Health First Aid Training Offers Hope and Support, by Stacey Stearns in UConn Today | January 24, 2025.

Maryann Fusco-Rollins (Guatemala 1992-94), an assistant extension educator with UConn Extension in Tolland County, brings transformative training to adults through the UConn 4-H program. After serving in the Peace Corps in Guatemala, Fusco-Rollins took a job at a crisis hotline, balancing patient intakes by day and hotline calls by night.

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