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.

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.  

Board-Elected (current term ends 2024)

Azerbaijan 2010—12

James Baldwin is Chief Financial Officer for Metropolitan Family Services, joining the agency in March 2020. As CFO, Baldwin is responsible for managing Metropolitan’s financial assets and strategies.

Previously Baldwin was with the Haymarket Center in Chicago, where he served as CFO since August 2017, overseeing all financial operations, insurance billing and information technology for the $25 million behavioral healthcare provider. There his accomplishments included designing and implementing financial turnaround from five successive years of average deficits of $300,000 to a surplus of more than $1 million in the following two years, doing so through sustainable program budgeting and revenue optimization.

Before his role with Haymarket Center Baldwin was Chief Accounting Officer for Heartland Alliance in Chicago. There he was responsible for all accounting, finance, compliance and grant management for the consolidated entities and affiliates of a diverse international alliance of nonprofits with more than 1,500 staff, $200 million in assets, and combined operating budgets of more than $150 million.

Prior to that, Baldwin was Comptroller for Heartland Human Care Services, where he turned a $1.3 million operating loss to surpluses of more than $1 million in four years.

Baldwin is a Board Member of the Chicago Area Peace Corps Association, having served from 2010-12 with the Peace Corps in Azerbaijan as a Community Economic Development Advisor. During that time he administered microfinancing benefiting women entrepreneurs and groups of farmers. He also serves as a Board Member of Career Transitions Center.

Baldwin earned his MBA in Finance and Operations Management from Loyola University, and his B.A. in Accounting and Business Administration from Augustana College.

Board-Elected (current term ends 2024)

Comoro Islands 1992–1994

Carla Brown-Ndiaye is an explorer whose unceasing curiosity about people, cultures and countries is what led her joining the Peace Corps, where she taught English to high school students and to aviation professionals. She has also supported maternal and child health projects in her community. One of the highlights of Carla’s experience in the Comoros was that she had the rare opportunity to climb to the top of Karthala, a live volcano.

Carla is an international development professional who has spent more than 25 years living and working in sub-Saharan Africa. Her deep connection to the Continent began with a trip to Kenya and was solidified by a 6 year stay in Benin, where she witnessed first-hand the links between Africa and the continental slave trade. Carla has also lived and worked in Malawi, Senegal, The Gambia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Cote d’Ivoire.

Carla’s worked at Catholic Relief Services as a Country Representative and was the Head of Programs at the Catholic Medical Mission Board. Carla managed an annual budget of up to $20 million and oversaw education, public health, agriculture, micro-finance, water and sanitation, justice, and humanitarian aid programs. She was also the Director of the Family Resource Center in Brooklyn, NY where she implemented homeless prevention programs.  

Carla is fluent in English and French and holds a master’s degree in both International Affairs and Public Health from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from Boston College. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.