A Million Miles: My Peace Corps Journey

Jody Olsen | Tunisia 1966–68 University of Utah Press, 2024

This enthralling memoir from a former Peace Corps director follows the life of a curious and dedicated public servant, starting with her abandonment at age 3 and taking us through the next 76 exciting, joyful, and sometimes painful years of her life. Thankfully for the Peace Corps community, much of Jody Olsen’s life has included the agency, and her candid recollections are fascinating to read. 

But despite its title, A Million Miles: My Peace Corps Journey is as much about Olsen’s personal history as her professional one. She explores the dynamics of her childhood in a strict Mormon family, the death of her brother, reuniting with the mother who abandoned her as a child, and navigating a divorce after her husband’s coming out as gay. 

Early in the book, Olsen relates that she was encouraged to write two memoirs instead of one, but decided against it because her professional and personal lives intertwine. By choosing to embrace this fact, she gives the reader a narrative that chronicles a life of service, leadership, and cross-cultural understanding in various forms and from various angles. 

The part of her journey involving Peace Corps begins when Olsen and her new husband are sent to Tunisia in 1966, where she teaches English to 200 middle schoolers, gets stranded in the desert, and, after learning basic Arabic, teaches family planning to Tunisian women. The cultural differences she encounters bring her to question her own conservative religious assumptions and identity, and her service becomes an experience in self-reflection. 

Despite viewing herself as a timid introvert, Olsen takes on increasingly challenging opportunities, both in her personal life and in Peace Corps: she raises two children, obtains a doctorate in social work, and returns to Peace Corps as country director in Togo, regional director for Asia-Pacific, chief of staff, deputy director, and finally as director from 2018 to 2021. The story of how she and her dedicated staff worked remotely to evacuate 7,000 Volunteers from 61 countries in 10 days reads like a suspense thriller. 

A Million Miles is a must-read not only for returned Volunteers, but for anyone who wants to be inspired by a proven leader who has had to overcome significant challenges in her journey to living a fascinating life.