WorldView | Peace Corps Is Back
Winter 2023
Peace Corps Volunteers Begin Service in Viet Nam
The end of the year began a new era — with a swearing-in ceremony in Ha Noi with Director Carol Spahn.
By Steven Boyd Saum
Volunteers Have Returned to Service in Some Four Dozen Countries
By Steven Boyd Saum
Carol Spahn Sworn in as Peace Corps Director
She was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in December and in January officially sworn into office.
ANNOTATION
Peace Corps Is Back
Here’s where Volunteers returned to service in 2022–23 and where they have been invited to return.
Annotation by Pamela Fogg and Steven Boyd Saum
The Peace Corps Reauthorization Act: Why It Didn’t Pass in 2022 — and Why That Matters
The Future that Almost Was
The Peace Corps Reauthorization Act was the most sweeping legislation in a generation. It passed the House and was on the verge of success in the Senate when the clock ran out. Here’s why that matters.
By Jonathan Pearson, Joel Rubin, and Steven Boyd Saum
Posting Peace
Peace Corps Posters 1961–2022
This exhibition by ArtReach Gallery and the Museum of the Peace Corps Experience does more than trace marketing materials for the agency. In images and words, it explores how we think about and talk about the idea of peace itself. And how we make it.
Introduction by W. Sheldon Hurst
News and Updates
President’s Letter: Helping the Peace Corps Be Its Best
As we celebrate Volunteers returning to service in dozens of countries, we pay tribute to a leader here at NPCA who made a difference at a critical time for the Peace Corps community.
By Dan Baker
Be Good, Be Kind, and Be Lucky | From the Editor
Parting advice from a writer and friend
By Steven Boyd Saum
Coming Together in a Time of Crisis
The 2022 Loret Miller Ruppe Award for Outstanding Community Service honors three groups that have worked together to support the people of Ukraine.
Women of Peace Corps Legacy Honor Jaynice Del Rosario and Theresa P. Castillo
Meet the winners of the Kate Raftery Emerging Leader Award and the Deborah Harding Women of Achievement Award.
A New Fellowship for Global Peacebuilders
A scholarship named in honor of NPCA President Emeritus Chic Dambach.
By Steven Boyd Saum
Marking a Place in History
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.
IRAN: Protests, Repression, and Hope
From an essay by the editor of the Peace Corps Iran Association Advocacy Bulletin
By Paul Barker
Mapping a Life
A Life Unimagined: The Rewards of Mission-Driven Service in the Peace Corps and Beyond | By Aaron S. Williams
Aaron Williams went from a childhood on Chicago’s segregated South Side to leading the Peace Corps. A review of and excerpt from his memoir.
Travels and Ghosts
The 2022 Peace Corps Writers Awards: the people’s writer, love and marriage spats in Kazakhstan, mountain gorillas in Rwanda, a C-section by flashlight in Paraguay, and an epic journey by bicycle.
By John Coyne, Marnie Mueller, Clifford Garstang, and Steven Boyd Saum
An Accidental Stumble
Peace Corps Writer of the Year Award: Tom Bissell
By Steven Boyd Saum
People and Ideas
Leading USAID in West Africa
Jo Lesser-Oltheten is sworn in by USAID Administrator Samantha Power, who says, “In Jo, we have both a regional expert and an inspiring leader.”
By NPCA Staff
Reporting on Ukraine
Sabra Ayres is chief correspondent for the Associated Press in Ukraine. And Christopher Miller has moved from Politico to the Financial Times.
In Memoriam
Painting with Her Own Paint
A Remembrance of Patricia Cloherty
By Steven Boyd Saum
Care and a Moral Compass: Remembering Mary Broude
She was the epitome of a global citizen.
By NPCA Staff
From Wall Street to Guinea: Remembering Harris Bostic II
In San Francisco, he went on to support the work with hundreds of nonprofit organizations.
By Steven Boyd Saum
A Lifetime Journey Together: Stephen Reid and Djseswende Pasto Reid
From Senegal to Burkina Faso to New Hampshire
Creating Educational Opportunities in Kenya: Remembering Brad Broder
He sought to ensure that school fees wouldn’t be a barrier to youth.
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Get the print edition of WorldView
WorldView magazine brings you stories from and about the greater Peace Corps community, with connections to the wider world. We feature news, profiles, commentary and analysis, politics, arts, and ideas with a global perspective. We publish quarterly in print, with digital features throughout the year.
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Current edition: Winter 2023
Previous editions of WorldView digital:
Spring-Summer 2022 | 2022 Books Edition (April 2022) | Fall 2021 Special 60th Anniversary Edition | Summer 2021 | Spring 2021 | Winter 2021 | Fall 2020 | Summer 2020 | Spring 2020
More previous editions are available on the WorldView app. Print copies may be available as well upon request. Write us and ask.
Submission Guidelines
We welcome pitches and, on rare occasions, completed pieces. What are we looking for? Stories that speak to the Peace Corps community. That might be focused on work connected to Peace Corps, returned Volunteers, communities and countries where Volunteers have served, connections to experiences and work in the U.S. and globally. We’re interested in ideas and impact and stories that connect with readers on a human level.
About the Editor
Steven Boyd Saum is editor of WorldView. For more than two decades he has edited award-winning magazines in the San Francisco Bay Area. His journalism, essays, and fiction have appeared in Orion, The Believer, Creative Nonfiction, The Kenyon Review, Christian Science Monitor, on KQED FM, and in other magazines and newspapers in the U.S. and internationally. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine, where he also directed the Fulbright program and hosted a radio show. Send a letter to the editor: worldview@peacecorpsconnect.org.
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— Anna Waterfield (Tanzania 2012–14)
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