Community News

Bolivia, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Indonesia, Romania, Sierra Leone, Togo, Western Samoa

By JoAnna Haugen on Monday, May 7th, 2012

BOLIVIA

Jennie Stapp, who recently became the library director at the Montana State Library, is the youngest person with the job title in the United States. Prior to this position, she was the digital library director and chief information officer, where she took on the task of digitizing the 55,000 items in the state library’s print collection. She has a bachelor’s degree from Rocky Mountain College and a master’s degree from the University of Arizona.

CHINA

Michael Levy’s memoir, Kosher Chinese: Living, Teaching and Eating with China’s Other Billion, is one of the winners of Barnes & Noble’s annual Discover Great New Writers awards. The book recounts his Peace Corps experience as a basketball-playing, kosher vegetarian. Levy is a teacher in Brooklyn, New York.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

Xpert Financial, Inc., has hired Jim Anderson as its new president and COO. He has more than 25 years of financial experience, specifically in the areas of investment banking, commercial banking and investment management. Most recently, at Silicon Valley Bank, Anderson founded and served as president of SVB Analytics. Other positions at SVB include serving as president of eProsper; founder and president of SVB Securities; and founder, president and chief investment officer of SVB Asset Management. Prior to SVB, Anderson was managing director of technology investment banking for CIBC Oppenheimer and a software engineer for Electronic Data Systems. Anderson received his bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York and his master’s degree from the American Graduate School of International Management.

ECUADOR AND WASHINGTON, DC

Howard Dodson, Jr. is the new director of the Howard University Libraries and its flagship Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. In April 2010, Dodson retired from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City after 25 years of work. In July 2011, he became a consultant to the Howard system. Dodson was a member of the commission that recommended building the National Museum of African American History and Culture and a former consultant to the National Endowment for the Humanities.

EL SALVADOR

Rob MacWhorter has been named as the new supervisor of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. He has been working as the supervisor of the Dixie National Forest in Cedar City, Utah. Prior positions with the Forest Service were in Klamath Falls, Eldorado National Forest, Bend Ranger District in the Deschutes National Forest, Mount Hood National Forest, Ochoco and Fremont National Forests and the agency’s Washington, D.C., office. MacWhorter is a graduate of West Virginia University School of Forestry, and he completed graduate level coursework at the University of Montana.

GHANA

Ken Hackett will be awarded the 2012 Laetare Medal in May 2012, the oldest and most prestigious honor given to American Catholics. Hackett began his career with Catholic Relief Services in 1972 in Sierra Leone. He served in several posts throughout Africa and Asia, including a stint as the regional director for Africa. He was appointed president of the organization in 1993, a position he held for 18 years until his recent retirement in December.

GUATEMALA

The South Carolina Department of Commerce announced that William Ford Graham (99-01) will lead the agency’s Europe Office in Munich, Germany. Graham, who has been with the agency since 2008, has been working as the director of international investment, where he is responsible for the international recruiting strategy and leading the department in large-scale economic development efforts. Prior to his work with the Department of Commerce, Graham worked as general counsel for a real estate development and investment firm and served as a law clerk in the 5th and 14th Judicial Circuits of South Carolina. He received his bachelor’s degree from Tulane University and his juris doctor and master’s degrees from the University of South Carolina. Graham is a board member in Indian Waters Council’s Three Rivers Scout District and immediate past president of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of South Carolina.

INDONESIA

Victor Godfrey was the winner of the 2012 Dan Lennon Award. He is the 23rd winner of the award. Godfrey is in his 50th season of coaching track and field, which started when he was serving in the Peace Corps. He has coached at Madison, Minn.; Watertown, S.D.; the University of Wisconsin-Parkside and for the country of Bahrain. Godfrey retired from teaching in 2003, but he has remained the head coach for Watertown.

ROMANIA

Jimmy Ilseng is the newest study abroad and exchange student adviser at Baylor. A graduate of Texas Tech University, Ilseng completed graduate work at Vanderbilt before beginning his job at Baylor.

SIERRA LEONE

Cindy Nofziger has won the 2012 Jefferson Award for her work in Sierra Leone. In 2004, she founded Schools for Salone, a non-profit organization that has built 14 schools, two secondary school libraries and several water wells. The organization has also sent more than 25,000 books to Sierra Leone and published “Salone Stories: Ten Sierra Leonean Tales for Children”. In addition, Schools for Salone will be hosting their fourth annual teacher training workshop for teachers this summer.

TOGO

The Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood of the North Country New York, Inc., has appointed Betsy Brown as the president and CEO. Brown has worked on federally funded planning-service programs in Latin America and the Caribbean, West and East Africa and several countries in the Soviet Union. Most recently, she has been running a consulting practice, volunteering for Planned Parenthood and working as a member of a mobile Wellness Outreach Team.

WASHINGTON, DC

Governor Richard F. Celeste (79-81) has joined the Board of Trustees of CHF International, an international development and humanitarian assistance organization. Celeste served as the director of the Peace Corps from 1979-81 then went on to serve as U.S.  Ambassador to India. He recently retired from his position as the twelfth president of Colorado College in Colorado Springs. Celeste holds a degree from Yale University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University.

WESTERN SAMOA

Rob Shaffer has completed and published his 659-page book, Samoa: A Historical Novel, which spans nearly 3,000 years of the nation’s history. Shaffer has been researching and writing the book for more than 40 years.

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