Reporting on Ukraine
Two returned Volunteers who served in Ukraine now play key roles as journalists reporting on that country. By NPCA Staff Sabra Ayres (Ukraine 1995–97) was named chief correspondent for Ukraine at the Associated Press (AP) in September. She manages and coordinates AP’s coverage of Ukraine, including text, photography, and video storytelling. Ayres has nearly two decades of reporting that covered U.S. state and national politics, international relations, and developing democracies—with bylines from Ukraine, Russia, Afghanistan, Europe, and India. Christopher Miller (Ukraine 2010–12) has joined the Financial Times as Ukraine correspondent. He has previously covered Ukraine for Politico, BuzzFeed News, and Radio...
Marking a Place in History
Celebrating Where Peace Corps Training Began By Tiffany James Photo at left: Students in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) with Roger Rhatton, a Peace Corps Volunteer from Bay Village, Ohio, 1965. Photo courtesy National Archives In the early years of the Peace Corps, many of the first Volunteers began training on a campus in Brattleboro, Vermont, which is home to the School for International Training. Now there’s a marker honoring that legacy — and the roots of the Peace Corps in the Experiment in International Living. Sargent Shriver, the first director of the Peace Corps, was himself a participant in the Experiment in...
Painting with Her Own Paint
A remembrance of Patricia Cloherty (1942–2022) By Steven Boyd Saum Illustration courtesy Columbia Teachers College When the New York Times and Wall Street Journal marked the passing of Patricia M. Cloherty, they saluted her as a trailblazing venture capitalist — all the more unlikely a pioneer given that she was a woman who never trained in finance. She learned that on the job. First came the Peace Corps which, she said, taught her “that I enjoy life enormously…And also that I am enormously flexible.” She had sights set on becoming a Volunteer in 1963 when Maria Von Trapp almost talked her out of it....
Harris Bostic II Left a Career in Wall Street to Serve with the Peace Corps in Guinea
A remembrance of Harris Bostic II (1963–2022) By Steven Boyd Saum After studying at Morehouse College, Harris Bostic embarked on a career on Wall Street. He left that to serve with the Peace Corps in Guinea, West Africa, as a microcredit advisor 1988–91. He returned to his hometown of Atlanta to serve as a program manager for the historic 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The Peace Corps was fortunate to have him back as regional director for the western U.S., 1998–2005. He went on to work with Prepare Bay Area, the Clinton Foundation, and others. Since 2016 he served as senior advisor at Tides...
Bradley Broder Established the Kenya Education Fund to Support Young Kenyans
A remembrance of Brad Broder (1976–2022) By NPCA Staff In 1999 Bradley Broder joined the Peace Corps, working in a village at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro for two years. He forged friendships, learned Kiswahili, and witnessed families forced to take extraordinary steps to survive. It was this experience and his connection to the people of Kenya that inspired him to work with a colleague in public health, Dominic Muasya, to create the Kenya Education Fund. Its mission: work to eliminate poverty by sponsoring increased educational opportunities, primarily in high school, for those unable to afford the required school fees. Since...
Remembering Stephen Reid and Djeswende Pasgo Reid
Their life together carried them around the world, then back to Stephen’s home in Concord, New Hampshire. By Steven Boyd Saum Concord, New Hampshire, was where Stephen Reid was born and raised and where, decades later, he returned with his wife and love of his life, Djeswende Pasgo Reid. In between were years and continents and family. Peace Corps service took Steve to Niger 1979–81, teaching middle school English in the town of Madaoua. He returned to work for the Peace Corps agency in D.C.; it was there he and Wendy met. She was studying as an undergraduate after stretches touring internationally with...
In Memoriam: Mary Broude
As a lifelong Volunteer, she served as a steady beacon of Peace Corps ideals. And her commitment to the Peace Corps community and desire to create a positive experience for RPCVs will be remembered as part of her enduring legacy. By NPCA Staff With heavy hearts, we announce that Mary Broude, who served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Korea 1969–70, passed away last week on Tuesday, November 8. She devoted decades to supporting returned Volunteers and Peace Corps ideals: as a board member of the NPCA affiliate group Friends of Korea (FoK), as co-founder of the Orange County Peace Corps Association, and...
WorldView Magazine Wins OZZIE Award for Best Cover
The magazine for the Peace Corps community earns top honors for a special 60th anniversary cover illustrated by artist Tim O’Brien. By NPCA Staff THERE WERE CHEERS for the Peace Corps community Tuesday night at the FOLIO Magazine gala in New York City. WorldView magazine earned top honors for the cover of the “Peace Corps at Sixty” edition, recognizing six decades of service by Peace Corps Volunteers around the world. Artist Tim O’Brien created the portrait of John F. Kennedy for the cover under the art direction of Pamela Fogg. The EDDIE and OZZIE Awards recognize excellence in journalism and design across all sectors of the...
Unfinished Business: From the Editor of WorldView Magazine
Hopeful work, as Volunteers return to serve alongside communities overseas. And crucial work to ensure Ukraine survives. By Steven Boyd Saum Illustration by Anna Ivanenko For so much of the Peace Corps community, the months since March have been brimming with optimism, bringing news of Volunteers returning to service in countries and communities across the globe. In Africa, they’ve returned to countries including Zambia and Madagascar, Ghana and The Gambia, Senegal and Sierra Leone. They have returned to the Eastern Caribbean and the Dominican Republic. In Latin America, Volunteers have been welcomed in countries including Paraguay and Peru, Colombia and Costa...
Tales of Cartography
Mapmaking with fabrics and dances and sloths By Nathalie Vadnais Consider the map. We’ve all used one to get from point A to point B, to navigate the geography of the place in which we find ourselves. We also live in a world profoundly shaped by the arbitrary drawing of borders on colonial maps decades or centuries ago. But change the way you map the world around you, and you might see and hear and taste anew. That’s an idea that resonates with the Peace Corps community — which is why Hannah Engel-Rebitzer launched the World Maps Collaborative, through which...