Board of Directors

Board Chair; Board-Elected (current term ends 2024)

Honduras 1975–78

John Lee Evans grew up in the Pacific Northwest and attended the University of Madrid in Spain as an undergraduate for one year. He served in the Peace Corps in Honduras 1975–78, where he worked with rural schoolteachers and agricultural cooperative leaders in a community development agency. Following the Peace Corps, he co-founded a language institute in San Diego that utilized accelerated learning techniques to teach Spanish to local professionals. He has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and has been in private practice for 30 years, which has included working with immigrant communities. He is a member of the Cultural Diversity Committee of the San Diego Psychological Association. He has presented at the American Psychological Association on cultural and political involvement. In 2008, he was elected to the San Diego Unified School Board, overseeing a diverse student body of over 100,000 students with an operational budget of $1.2 billion. He was elected to the board for a period of 12 years and served as President of the Board for three years. He led the Vision 2020 initiative that focused on increased academic achievement and equity and earned numerous national awards.

Member-Elected: Asia and the Pacific (current term ends 2023)

Micronesia 1990–92

Jed Meline served as a teacher and health Volunteer in Chuuk, Micronesia, in 1990–92. Like so many others, it was a life changing experience that shaped his career. Since completing his Peace Corps service, Jed has worked in the U.S. and abroad on international development & humanitarian assistance practice and policy. He is currently at The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria as the Senior Advisor to the Board Vice Chair.  

Prior to joining the Global Fund, Meline was a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development for almost 20 years in numerous positions overseas and in Washington, D.C., including as Staff Director for the House Democracy Partnership, a bipartisan Commission of the U.S. House of Representatives and as professional staff member and Brookings Fellow on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. At USAID headquarters, he was Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance Bureau among other roles. Previously, he served for two years on the National Security Council Staff as the Director for Health and Humanitarian Assistance and as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs. 

Overseas, his previous positions include Senior Development Advisor responsible for all USAID programs in Libya, Deputy USAID Mission Director in Nepal, and Health Officer in the Philippines and Tanzania. 

He lives in Bethesda, Maryland with his wife Megan and two children.

Member-elected: Northeast U.S. (current term ends 2024)

Yemen 1995

Before co-founding Odonnell Company, Eileen O'Donnell pursued her passion for creativity and making a difference as an international volunteer, spending time in the Middle East as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and working in education and health in Asia with Global Service Corps. Between volunteer and cause work, Eileen worked to gain skills in communications and advertising, working in Connecticut and New York City as an Art Director for many years.

Eileen is an active partner at Odonnell Company, where she leads with her brother and partner, Dan O’Donnell. Together, they are growing a culture and company around creative and innovative ways to make an impact, and drive change for the better in the areas of public health, mental health, early childhood and education, equity, social justice, and the environment. Through decades of research and work with behavioral experts, they have developed a unique framework for behavior change, integrating brain science and promoting connection around the values we all share as humans.

Eileen lives in Connecticut with her family—including two daughters—where views of the water and weekend runs along the ocean allow time to energize and imagine the possibilities for the world when people come together for change. 

Treasurer; Board-Elected (current term ends 2025)

Ukraine 2008–10

Gretchen Upholt served as a Community Development Peace Corps Volunteer in Korop, Ukraine, where she designed project frameworks and wrote grants in partnership with a number of local government and non-government organizations based in her 4,000 person county seat. In addition to her site work, Gretchen sat on the committee tasked with making funding decisions for the USAID-funded SPA grant program. Gretchen joined the Finance Committee of the NPCA in 2018 and was elected to the board in 2019.

Currently Gretchen is a lead consultant for the Midwest office of BDO FMA, a consulting firm focused on building the financial and operational capacity of nonprofits. In that role Gretchen is responsible for the business development and growth strategy of the Midwest region. In addition to her focus on business development, Gretchen splits her time between playing an active role as trainer, coach, and curriculum developer for BDO FMA’s cohort training initiatives and as consultant to nonprofit clients across the country, helping nonprofit leaders improve their financial management skills and processes.

Before joining the BDO FMA team, Gretchen served as the head of the Volunteer Department at the Thabyay Education Network in Thailand. Gretchen’s widely diverse nonprofit experience includes working on the corporate citizenship team at the TCC Group, designing and implementing a pilot research study on nonprofit talent costs for the Talent Philanthropy Project, as a project manager with the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, and as Chorus Manager for The Choral Arts Society of Washington.

Gretchen holds a Master of Public Administration in Public and Nonprofit Management from NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Arts and Cultural Management from American University in Washington, D.C. She currently lives in Chicago and is active in a number of local organizations in the Chicagoland area.

Affiliate Group Network Coordinator (current term ends 2024)

Bolivia 2000–02

Kristina Owens (Bolivia 2000–02) is a second generation Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. Her dad, Robert Owens served in Peru 1970–73 where he met Kristina’s mother a host country national. Kristina’s sister Wendy (Paraguay 2000–02) also served. Kristina's service focused on agriculture and environmental education. Her Peace Corps service has provided a framework for the trajectory of her career. She began her career as a biologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. While in D.C., Kristina began volunteering for the NPCA advocacy program in 2008 and has not stop. From 2009 to 2012, she served on the Board of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Washington, D.C. (RPCV/W), where she led RPCV/W’s effort to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps on September 25, 2011, with a Wreath Laying, Program and Walk of Flags. 

In 2012, she joined the NPCA Board Directors as the Mid-Atlantic/Nationwide Member elected Director.   She was an active member of the Governance and the Chair of the Advocacy and Policy Committee. After finishing her term in 2015, she continued serving as Board Emeritus on various initiatives such as the Peace Corps Connect to the Future and Advocacy. After over 10 years living and working in D.C., she returned home to Rochester, New York. After finishing another graduate degree in Public Policy, she worked in higher education encouraging science, engineering, and deaf and hard of hearing students to consider the Peace Corps. Now she is pursuing an additional degree to teach English to new language learners at the elementary school level. 

Board-elected (current term ends 2023)

Korea 1969–70

Mary Broude grew up on a North Dakota farm where she learned, at an early age, that world affairs and events can significantly impact whether it’s a “good” or “bad” year on the farm. This exposure inspired her curiosity to learn and experience as much of the world as possible.

Mary completed a B.A. at St. Olaf College and then taught at Seoul National University as a Peace Corps Korea Volunteer (K-7). It was soon clear the world was small when two of her students, a few months after being in her classroom in Seoul, were in her Dad’s classroom at North Dakota State University!

After returning to the U.S., Mary taught high school German in Minneapolis before moving to Southern California. She transitioned her career to roles in Organization Development and Management Training at The Walt Disney Company and later in healthcare organizations. She also consulted for medical device start-up companies. Along the way, she completed an M.S. in Educational Administration at CSU Fullerton and MBA at UC Irvine. She was also an adjunct lecturer at CSU Long Beach and University of Phoenix.

Mary is active in Dining for Women, a women’s giving circle funding grassroots organizations that empower women and girls and promote gender equity in the developing world. She is on the Leadership Council for the Center for Critical Korean Studies at UC Irvine, co-founder of the Orange County Peace Corps Association (RPCV group), and past Board member for Friends of Korea, Women Helping Women and St. Olaf Alumni.  

Board-Elected (current term ends 2023)

Thailand 1991–93

Bridget Davis, a graduate of Loyola University, was a magazine writer and editor for four years before she served in the Peace Corps as a TEFL Volunteer in Thailand. Upon returning to her hometown of Chicago, Bridget became part of the Urban Teacher Corps and taught writing in Chicago’s inner city public school system. With support from a Peace Corps fellowship, she earned a master's degree in education with a focus on curriculum development from DePaul University. Afterwards, she worked as an associate director for Wharton Executive Education in Philadelphia. She also worked for a distance-learning company in Baltimore with Columbia‘s Teachers College and the University of Pennsylvania. 

Bridget currently lives in Northern California, has two daughters and is married to Cully Davis (Peace Corps Thailand 1991–93 and current member of NPCA's Advisory Council) who she met during her Peace Corps service. Bridget previously served on the NPCA Board from 2017–2020 as well as her daughters' school foundation board for six years. She supports various conservation efforts in Northern California, including Peninsula Open Space Trust, YearUp, and several education causes focused on providing opportunities for underserved youth.

She loves hiking through the redwoods and along the coast in Northern California with friends and her dog, Bear, and traveling the world with her family.  

Member-elected: Europe, North and East Africa (current term ends 2024)

Bulgaria 2002–04

Kevin Elliott graduated from the University of California Davis in 2000 — where he had the opportunity to interview the campus Peace Corps recruiter and several Davis alumni RPCVs for an article in the student newspaper. His research for the article cemented his desire to join the Peace Corps, and he was off to Uzbekistan a year later to put his English major to use as a secondary TEFL Volunteer. After 9/11 led to the evacuation of the Central Asia Volunteers, Kevin resumed his service as a Community Economic Development Volunteer in Bulgaria in 2002.  
 
Kevin’s commitment to Peace Corps and NPCA has continued in the 21 years since he first applied to serve as a Volunteer. He was a recruiter in Southern California and Arizona for five years where he cultivated relationships with various NPCA-affiliate groups to assist with recruitment efforts. After his tour of service ended, Kevin moved to Ireland to attend the Trinity College Dublin MBA program and used his noncompetitive eligibility (NCE) to get a job with the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Boston Office of Multifamily Housing. While in Boston, Kevin served as the first President of HUD’s RPCV group where his focus was on recruiting new RPCVs and educating management about the benefits of NCE.
 
In his spare time, Kevin enjoys playing the tuba in several amateur community bands and attending as many "TubaChristmases" as he can each November and December. During the pandemic, he took up golf and became obsessed (that obsession is not necessarily evident in his current game, but he is working on it). Kevin is honored to serve his fellow RPCVs as a member of the NPCA board and looks forward to helping the organization move forward.

Member-Elected: The Southern Tier (current term ends 2023)

Colombia 1977–79

Dr. Sue Forster-Cox is a Professor Emerita with the Department of Public Health Sciences at New Mexico State University. She taught a range of courses including U.S. & Mexico Border Health Issues, Rural Health, Foundations of Public Health Education. She also oversaw the Field Experience requirement for all student's within the department. Her research and community interests include public health workforce development and addressing food insecurity in New Mexico.  

Her career spans 40 years, beginning as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia, working as a malarial parasitologist and later with an American nurse, helping to manage her small community clinic. She started the shelter and program for people experiencing interpersonal violence in Gallup. She has worked with various tribal communities and their health programs in Nevada and New Mexico. From 2002 to 2020, she was a professor of public health at New Mexico State University (NMSU), on the U.S. & Mexico border. While at NMSU, she established and administered the Paul C. Coverdell Peace Corps Fellows/USA Program and the Master’s International program for the College of Health and Social Services. Dr. Forster-Cox is a 2014 Obama appointee to the U.S. & Mexico Border Health Commission, serving as a private member from New Mexico. She is on the Board of the Roadrunner Food Bank and the National Peace Corps Association. 

Member-Elected: MidAtlantic and Nationwide Division (current term ends 2024)

Somalia 1966–68

Evelyn Ganzglass is on the leadership team of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Archives Project and a member of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Washington, D.C.

Evelyn retired in 2018 after a 40 -year career in domestic and international workforce development policy and practice. Much of her work focused on strengthening connections among workforce development, education, economic development, and social service policies and programs. From 2016-2018, she was co-director of the Connecting Credentials, a Lumina funded collaborative effort of more than 100 national organizations to make degrees, certificates, industry certifications, badges, and other credentials easier to understand, use, and interconnect. For 10 years prior to that, she held a number of senior management positions at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), a national nonprofit that seeks to advance the economic security, educational and workforce prospects, and family stability of low-income children, families, and youth. including being the founding director of CLASP’s Center for Postsecondary Education and Economic Success.

Before joining CLASP, Evelyn directed the Global Workforce in Transition project at the Educational Development Center, Inc. This project is the U.S. Agency for International Development’s lead global initiative for helping developing and transition countries increase the relevance and responsiveness of their education and training systems to changing economic needs.

Evelyn worked at the National Governors Association (NGA) for more than 20 years. From 1991 to 2002 she was the director of the Employment and Social Services Policy Studies for the NGA Center for Best Practices. In this position, she was responsible for the association’s research and technical assistance activities focused on promoting effective state practices and policy innovation related to workforce development, youth development, social services, welfare reform, criminal justice, and performance management. She led major NGA initiatives related to cluster-based economic development, e-learning, youth development, skill standards, adult literacy, school-to-work transition, and policies to help low-income working families advance out of poverty.

Evelyn lives in Washington, D.C. with Marty, her husband of 55 years with whom she served in the Peace Corps. They have two children and two grandchildren. Evelyn volunteers as co-director of an Interfaith Refugee Resettlement Initiative in Montgomery County that is assisting Afghan refugee families.

Member-elected Director: West U.S (current term ends 2023)

Dominican Republic 1967–69

Kim, formerly the NPCA Board Chair, served as Interim President and CEO of NPCA on a pro bono basis from June 6–August 28, 2022. 

Kim served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic doing rural community development from 1967 to 1969, after graduating from Washington State University. After leaving Peace Corps, Kim held several different positions in affordable housing across the nation.

These included working as a Housing Specialist with the Fauquier Community Action Agency in Warrenton, VA; Serving as a Special Field Representative of the Rural Housing Alliance (RHA) and Executive Director of Delta Housing Development Corporation for four years in Indianola, MS. He then served as Associate Director for Housing and Community Development at RHA in Washington, DC, before serving as the Director of the HUD Rural Assistance Initiative in Spokane, WA. Following HUD, he served as the Executive Director of the Yakima Housing Authority in WA, and as Manager for Single Family Housing at the Portland Development Commission in Oregon.  

In 1983 he was appointed by Governor John Spellman as an original Commissioner on the WA State Housing Finance Commission after helping create the Commission in the state legislature. In 1984, he was appointed as the first Executive Director of the Commission, where he also served as the Executive Director of two affiliate agencies. Kim retired from the Commission at the end of 2019.

Kim has over 35 years of legislative experience in the WA legislature; more than 45 years of advocacy in Congress; and, he has served on the boards of numerous nonprofit organizations, public agencies, and advocacy organizations during his career.  

Board-elected (current term ends 2025)

Ukraine 2004–06

Jeffrey Janis is committed to public service taking on both volunteer and professional leadership roles in local, national and international organizations. He dedicated his career to financial resource development, empowering donors to achieve their philanthropic goals and organizations to accomplish their missions. Focusing primary on major gifts fundraising, Jeffrey has worked for organizations such as the United Jewish Appeal, United Way of Greater Los Angeles, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Los Angeles Ronald McDonald House. 

When he was 44, Jeffrey fulfilled his lifelong dream and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine where he helped non-profits with fundraising, grant writing, and strategic planning. His secondary projects included Chair of the HIV/AIDS group, and he taught American Sign Language to deaf Ukrainians. He currently works for UCLA as the Peace Corps Campus Recruiter. 

Jeffrey has a B.A. in Psychology from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and a M.B.A. with a focus in non-profit management from the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, CA.  He is an avid traveler and has been to more than 50 countries. 

Member-Elected: The Americas (current term ends 2025)

El Salvador 2010–12

Malorie Jones is a native of Kentucky, but currently resides in Tampa, Florida. This is her first time serving on the Board and is eager to meet as many RPCVs as possible. She graduated from both the University of South Florida with a degree in international relations and Thunderbird School of Global Management with an International MBA. One of her greatest honors was serving in El Salvador as a health and sanitation Volunteer from 2010–12 and has been able to go back almost every year.

Over the last 12 years, Malorie has worked in both private and public sectors in the United States and overseas. Most of her career has been a series of new projects where she’s required to enter a new environment with new teammates and find solutions that benefit all. Starting with the Peace Corps in El Salvador to today, she takes the time to establish connections with her peers, find common goals, and create an environment where all parties prosper.

Board-Elected (current term ends 2023)

Costa Rica 1964–66

Chip Levengood, a retired international investment banker, served as a Rural Community Development Volunteer in Costa Rica from 1964 to 1966. His experience in the Peace Corps led him to an international career which has included living and working throughout Latin America and Europe.

In addition to his service on the NPCA Board, Levengood is the Chairman of Relief International (RI) a medium size international NGO that works in about 20 of the most fragile countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. RI focuses on enterprise development, WASH, education, and health, principally for women and girls. This Spring, Chip stepped down as the Chairman of US Vote Foundation after 10 years of service; he remains a Board member. Originally formed as Overseas Vote Foundation to assist U.S. citizens abroad and the military to vote, US Vote provides voting services for all U.S. citizens, leases data to civic society organizations and advocates for increased participation by voters. Chip also is the Co-President of the Yale Club of Spain and coordinates interviews of all Spanish and Portuguese applicants for undergraduate admission.

Chip and his wife Katharine have two sons and three grandchildren. He and Katharine split their time between Philadelphia and Madrid.

Upper Midwest (current term ends 2025)

Kiribati 2000–02

In 2000, after informing his Peace Corps recruiter of personal seasickness, seafood allergies, and disdain for heat, Mike was assigned to the Equatorial Pacific Island Nation of Kiribati. Eventually, the country grew on him, and he fell in love with everything there. Located in the mid-most part of the Pacific Ocean, Kiribati is the only nation whose territory encompasses all four quadrants of the Earth. As a result, it is the first nation to greet each new day. Due to its geological structure, it is one of the first nations predicted to vanish because of global climate change. Over decades, Mike has recorded Kiribati's environmental changes and transnational migration patterns while collaborating with governments, international media, non-profit organizations, and citizens worldwide to raise global consciousness of the climate crisis from the front lines.
 
A former AmeriCorps VISTA and Fulbright Scholar, service to others through teaching and experience are central to his life. He works at the University of Cincinnati.

Member-Elected: West, Central, and Southern Africa (current term ends 2025)

Botswana 1986–88

Faith Van Gilder — a native of Defiance, Ohio — earned a journalism degree from Bowling Green State University, where she met her husband, David. The two served in the Peace Corps as middle school teachers in Kanye, Botswana, from 1986 to 1988. Her career has included stints as editor at the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, senior account supervisor at Asher Agency (a Fort Wayne marketing firm), and currently, Chief Officer of Marketing & Development at Girl Scouts of Northern Indiana-Michiana. 

Faith serves on the boards of Wellspring Interfaith Social Services, Friends of Cedar Creek, and Advancing Voices of Women (AVOW) — which she co-founded in 2017 and earned her recognition by the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette as "Citizen of the Year" in 2018. She is a graduate of Leadership Fort Wayne, an Athena Award nominee, and a recipient of the YWCA of Northeast Indiana Peggy Hobbs Award for Volunteerism. 

Faith and David live in Huntertown, Indiana, and have two adult daughters. They are also Indiana Advocacy Coordinators for the Peace Corps, as well as conveners of the Northeast Indiana RPCV group.   

Board-elected (current term ends 2025)

Paraguay 1979–81

Rev. “Beto” Whitaker is an advocate for the poor and marginalized.  He has worked diligently with various local and national stakeholders in addressing social determinants, utilizing data to improve health outcomes, and promoting a national culture of health. Throughout his 30-year career Beto has heralded health equity and quality health care for all.

Currently, Beto directs the East Providence Health Equity Zone, one of 11 in the state of Rhode Island. The health equity model brings together a Collaborative of various stakeholders charged with the task of identifying and prioritizing issues that impact health outcomes. He is also actively engaged with a project that demonstrates both the importance and efficacy of clinical and community linkages.

Beto is a voting member of the New England Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council (NECEPAC) of the Institute of Clinical and Economic Review (ICER). He serves on the board of Brockton Area Multi-Services Inc and the Committee on Ministry of the MA Conference of the United Church of Christ. Additionally, Rev. Whitaker serves as the Senior Pastor at St. Mark Congregational Church in Boston.

He holds a master’s degree in urban ministry from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and just completed a second master’s in public health. Beto served in Paraguay from 1979–81.