Community News

Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Ukraine, Zambia

By JoAnna Haugen on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

BOLIVIA

The recently formed nonprofit La Alianza has selected Rebecca Hornbach as the interim executive director. Hornbach was hired by the organization’s eight-person advisory committee. She will be creating a multi-cultural center at the Community Center in Hailey, Idaho, to address the needs of the area’s Hispanic community. La Alianza is funded through grants, public contributions and private donations.

BOLIVIA

Jason Ryer (03-05) and Joel Lenorovitz have started mobileXware, a new business that encourages fitness and health through mobile devices such as cell phones, BlackBerrys and mp3 players. They have created a downloadable program called xFit which will offer a variety of programs that can be done anywhere and on-the-go. Future plans for the business include additional xFit compatible content modules featuring yoga, Pilates, free-weight, Swiss ball, kettle ball and other exercises. mobileXware is based out of Boulder, Colo.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, FIJI, JAMAICA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, WASHINGTON DC

Robert Reid (Dominican Republic 74-76 and 85-88, Fiji 76-79, Jamaica 88-89, Bosnia and Herzegovina 00-02, Washington DC 02-05) has dedicated more than 30 years to government and nonprofit sectors. He recently began his duties as resident country director in Mongolia for the Millennium Challenge Corporation. In this position, Reid will help key institutions and infrastructure to better support the country’s growing urbanized, market-based economy. He will also help Mongolians to increase their incomes by becoming healthier and better trained by using their land assets more productively and by increasing their capacity to trade with the world. In addition to his extensive work with the Peace Corps, Reid has also worked with USAID and Habitat for Humanity throughout the world.

MALAWI

Pittsburgh author Karen Lynn Williams (80-83) recently teamed up with Khadra Mohammed on the picture book Four Feet, Two Sandals, a story about two girls who become friends in a refugee camp on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Williams has worked internationally for children’s causes and is currently working with Mohammed on a second book, My Name Is Sangoel.

MAURITANIA

Matthew Britton recently accepted a position as a public diplomacy officer with the U.S. Department of State. He begins his training in early March and will be sworn in on April 18 in Washington, DC. Britton received his degree in graphic design from the University of Tulsa.

NIGERIA

Les Nuckolls (64-66) and his wife recently published Growing Up in Africa, a collection of short stories about raising their two children in the wilderness of Zambia where Nuckolls was a Fulbright scholar teaching at an African bush college. After serving on the Nigeria Peace Corps staff, he returned to UCLA as a department head and director of Peace Corps Training Programs. He most recently worked as a school district administrator in California.

UKRAINE

General director of Vision TV in Ukraine, Richard Caproni, is on the verge of offering satellite television service throughout the entire country—a new service that has been previously unavailable. This service will provide Ukrainians with a wider selection of Ukrainian and international channels offered in new package deals. Caproni has lived on and off in Ukraine since serving in the Peace Corps.

ZAMBIA

Medical student Katey Harris (02-05) of Seattle, Wash., is in her third year of medical school at the University of Washington and is currently participating in the WWAMI Rural Integrated Experience in Libby, Mont. The program allows medical students to spend 20 weeks in a rural setting completing training in family medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry and internal medicine. She is working at The Libby Clinic, an outpatient ambulatory clinic. When she graduates, Harris hopes to become a family doctor in either Montana or Alaska.

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