Board of Directors

Board-Elected (current term ends 2021)

Costa Rica 2006-2008

Maricarmen Smith-Martinez is a program manager at Bixal, a digital communications, design, and technology, company co-owned by an RPCV. As a Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), she oversees a multi-year contract for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) national housing counselor certification program. Part of the Bixal leadership team, she also leads business development efforts for Bixal’s international development portfolio.

Prior to Bixal, Maricarmen served the Atlanta area as a certified Financial Education Specialist for CredAbility, providing instruction in financial literacy topics such as budget, credit, and housing. Previously, she worked in Family Services for Atlanta Habitat for Humanity, managing the homebuyer application process and supporting families on the journey to homeownership. Committed to community engagement, Maricarmen has volunteered in various capacities: Atlanta Habitat Family Selection Committee, United Way Community Investment Volunteer, Finance Chair—New Leaders Council of Atlanta, and Atlanta Young Alumni. She earned her bachelor’s in Spanish and religion from Emory University in Atlanta and currently resides in Washington DC.

Maricarmen was elected to serve as Chair of the NPCA Board of Directors in 2018. She joined the Board in 2014, initially elected by NPCA affiliate groups to a term as Group Leaders Forum Coordinator and subsequently to a term as Affiliate Group Network Coordinator. She had previously served on the Board of Atlanta Area Returned Peace Corps Volunteers for three years, including two terms as president, and is currently active with the leadership of Friends of Costa Rica and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Washington, D.C. She was a Rural Community Development volunteer in Costa Rica from 2006-2008, working to strengthen community capacity in organizational leadership, financial management, and youth development projects.

Board-Elected (current term ends 2021)

Uzbekistan 2000-2001

Rhett Power co-founded Wild Creations in 2007 and quickly built the startup toy company into the 2010 Fastest Growing Business in South Carolina. Wild Creations was awarded a Blue Ribbon Top 75 US Company by the US Chamber of Commerce and named as one of Inc. Magazine’s 500 Fastest Growing US Companies two years in a row. He and his team have won over 40 national awards for their innovative toys. He was a finalist for Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2011 and was nominated again in 2012. He was recently named as one of the world’s top 100 business bloggers.

A member of the United States Department of State’s International Speakers Program, he travels the globe speaking about entrepreneurship, leadership, and management alongside the likes of Gates Foundation CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann, AOL Founder Steve Case, and President Barack Obama. He has been featured in the Huffington Post, Forbes, Business Insider, The Hill, TIME, and The Wall Street Journal.

Prior to founding Wild Creations, Rhett worked as an economic and small business development consultant for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), serving 7 years in the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia. Prior to that, he was Director of National Service Programs for Habitat for Humanity, which included being Habitat’s chief liaison with The White House, Congress, and the Corporation for National Service. He now has a rapidly growing coaching and consulting practice based in Washington, D.C.  

He served in the Peace Corps and is a graduate of the University of South Carolina. In addition to being the co-author of the best-selling book One Million Frogs, Rhett is a regular contributor to Inc.com, CNBC, Forbes, and Success Magazine. 

His best-selling book THE ENTREPRENEUR’S BOOK OF ACTIONS: Essential Daily Exercises and Habits for Becoming Wealthier, Smarter, and More Successful published by McGraw Hill is in stores now.

Board-Elected (current term ends 2022)

Ukraine 2008-2010

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 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 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 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: Upper Midwest Division (current term ends 2022)

Phillipines 2005-2006

Mary Owen-Thomas is a communications manager at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, where she primarily handles media relations. She is serving her second term as the NPCA board's Upper Midwest representative. Previously, she served about 8 years on the board of the Chicago Area Peace Corps Association (CAPCA).

Mary has worked in journalism for more than 15 years. While at the Chicago Tribune and Detroit Free Press, she was a metro reporter covering crime, courts, and politics. She also worked as a digital content producer at ABC7 TV in Chicago where she handled digital content on the web, mobile app, and social media. In addition, she has copy edited for the Global Press Journal, which features news stories by women around the world. During a brief stint in nonprofit, Mary was the Chicago program manager for the News Literacy Project, which teaches youth about how to be smarter news consumers in the Digital Age.

In Peace Corps, Mary was an education resource volunteer in the Philippines, working at a rural high school in Lobo, Batangas. She developed professional development trainings for journalism teachers across the island nation.

Mary was a founding board member of the Stewart House Urban Farm in Gary, Indiana, and briefly owned 7 backyard chickens and a pound of vermicomposting worms. She is a Detroit native who graduated from Michigan State University with a B.A. in political science and earned an M.P.A. from Indiana University-Northwest.

Ex Officio - President, National Peace Corps Association

Guatemala 1988-1991

Glenn Blumhorst is President and CEO of National Peace Corps Association (NPCA), a  501(c)(3) enterprise at the center of a community of more than 180 grassroots affiliate groups and 235,000 individuals who share the Peace Corps experience. Founded in 1979 and headquartered in Washington, DC, NPCA’s mission is “to champion lifelong commitment to Peace Corps ideals.” During his tenure, Glenn has led NPCA’s historic transformation from a dues-based alumni association to a community-driven social impact organization.

Prior to joining the NPCA, Glenn enjoyed an illustrious 18-year career with ACDI/VOCA, most recently leading the establishment and substantial growth of ACDI/VOCA’s worldwide Community Stabilization and Development practice area as Managing Director. He also served as Country Representative and Chief of Party on several major USAID-funded projects throughout Central and South America. His work has taken him to over 65 countries and enabled his near-native Spanish language fluency.

Glenn launched his career by serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala from 1988 to 1991. He holds a Master of Public Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, both from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is the 2018 recipient of the prestigious University of Missouri Faculty-Alumni Award.

Glenn is a private pilot with more than 400 hours of flight time.

Member-Elected: Northeast Division (current term ends 2021)

Ethiopia 2009-2013

Nikole Allen is a lecturer of health policy and management at the Yale School of Public Health and a program director at the Yale School of Medicine currently overseeing health and hospital management and preclinical education projects under the Yale-Liberia Health Workforce Program. In this role, Allen oversees the design, implementation, and evaluation of projects.

Previously, Allen managed the Health and Social Care Strategic Leadership Program with the National Health Service in England, the Hospital Management and Leadership Program for public hospitals in China, and oversaw implementation of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Leadership, Management, and Governance Project’s Senior Leadership Programs in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Allen has worked with teams and individuals from numerous countries and backgrounds addressing complex problems using strategic problem-solving methods. Before joining Yale University, Allen worked with the Ethiopian Hospital Management Initiative at the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Her work focused on improving key performance indicator reporting among hospitals, including measuring patient and staff satisfaction, the uptake of patient satisfaction best practices and the implementation of the World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist.

Allen holds a B.A. and Leadership Certificate from Western Oregon University and an M.P.H. from the University of Washington Department of Global Health. She served in the Peace Corps as a Health and HIV/AIDS Community Advisor in Northern Ethiopia with her husband from 2009-2013.

Member-Elected: West Division (current term ends 2020)

Federated States of Micronesia 1969-1970

Keith served in the Peace Corps upon graduating from the University of Redlands with a Bachelor of Art in Literature. He became involved in management with two national retail chains. His last corporate assignment was as a Director of Human Resources where he was charged with personnel responsibilities for over 300 stores. In 1987, he became the proud owner of a Proforma and for the next two decades provided marketing solutions to local businesses, which included promotional, print, and multimedia products. In the summer of 2004 Keith’s mother had fallen and broken her hip. Faced with the challenge of managing his aging parents, Keith made a decision to change career directions one more time and serve the senior community. He established Visiting Angels in June of 2005. Keith has completed a comprehensive course on priority senior issues conducted by the Society of Certified Senior Advisors. He holds the certification as a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA). 

In March of 2016 Keith was elected to the Personnel Commission with The Livermore Area Recreation  and Park District and in June of 2017, he was elected to the Board of Directors for the National Peace Corps Association.  

Board-Elected (current term ends 2020)

Thailand 1991-1993

Bridget Davis graduated from Loyola University and was a magazine writer and editor for four years before she joined the Peace Corps and served in Thailand from 1991-1993 as a TEFL volunteer.  Upon her return to her hometown of Chicago, Bridget became part of the Urban Teacher Corps and taught writing in Chicago’s inner city public school system. Thanks in part to a Peace Corps Fellowship, she also earned her Masters Degree in Education with a focus on curriculum development from DePaul University.  She then 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 1991-1993) who she met during her Peace Corps service. Bridget served on her daughters’ school Foundation Board for six years. She also supports various conservation efforts in Northern California and several educational causes focused on providing opportunities for underserved youth.

She loves hiking through the Redwoods of California and traveling the world with her family.

Board-Elected (current term ends 2022)

Thailand 1993-1995  

Juliana Essen is a social impact multiplier whose work advances the most promising solutions to global sustainability and wellbeing. As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand, Juliana worked with farmers to promote sustainable agriculture and with women to establish community-based microenterprises. As a public anthropologist (PhD, University of Minnesota), Juliana taught global citizens at Soka University while publishing on ethical development and economics. In 2015, Juliana launched Global Wellbeing Institute, a public benefit corporation that empowers mission-driven individuals and organizations to advance a Good Life for All. Juliana believes wholeheartedly in the potential of the Peace Corps community as a change-making movement, so she developed Impact Corps for a social entrepreneurship certificate (Portland State University) to make that happen. She launched Impact Corps as an NPCA affiliate group in 2019. Juliana lives in Laguna Beach, California with her husband, daughter, and black Lab, Buddy.

Member-Elected: MidAtlantic and Nationwide Division (current term ends 2021)

Somalia 1966-1968

Evelyn Ganzglass is on the leadership team of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Achieve 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.

Board-Elected (current term ends 2021) 

Headquarters Staff 2012-2015

Corey Arnez Griffin is the president and chief executive officer of Global Government and Industry Partners, LLC (2GIP), an advisory services firm specializing in facilitating public, private partnerships, ICT for Development and a range of international development services. Griffin previously held the position of Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships at Peace Corps, appointed by President Obama as a Senior Foreign Service Officer. In this capacity, Griffin was responsible for developing and executing the agency’s strategy to engage partners to support the thousands of Volunteers in their efforts to bring grassroots development solutions to more than 60 countries around the world. With partnerships with over 200 non-governmental organizations, universities, private sector firms, and other federal agencies, Griffin led a team of practitioners responsible for the development and management of Peace Corps’ partnerships with USAID, Rotary International, National Peace Corps Association, KOICA, Coca Cola, Google, Arizona State University, among many others.

Prior to his tenure at Peace Corps, Griffin spent 14 years at Microsoft Corporation working in various roles and leadership positions, including roles in consulting, operations, and sales. As Director of International Development, Griffin was responsible for Microsoft’s strategy for aid, trade, and finance agencies, including United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR), Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), and others. In this role, Griffin developed innovative public, private partnership models to drive Information, Communications, and Technology (ICT) solutions to developing countries. Griffin is noted for brokering a first-of-its-kind collaboration between Microsoft, USAID, PEPFAR, and the MCC in 2007 that facilitated broader, cross-agency ICT partnerships around the world.

As a passionate development professional, he has served on the board of directors for many international affairs organizations, including the United States Global Leadership Campaign (USGLC), the Society for International Development (SID), Washington, D.C. chapter and ATHGO. He served as a corporate representative to the Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU) and in 2008, Griffin was appointed by the former USAID Administrator, Henrietta H. Fore, to serve on the Advisory Committee on Foreign Voluntary Aid.

Griffin is a native of Washington, D.C. and was named by the Washington Business Journal as one of the region’s top minority business leaders of the year for 2008 and named one of the top 40 international development professionals under 40 by the Devex Group in 2010.

Board-Elected (current term ends 2020)

Costa Rica 1964-1966

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.

Member-Elected: The Americas Division (current term ends 2022)

Honduras 2005-2007, Peace Corps Response Panama 2015-2016

Katie served with the Peace Corps in Honduras from 2005-2007 working with environmental health and municipal development. After returning to the U.S., she was awarded a Shriver Peaceworker Fellowship, which allowed her to obtain a Masters degree in Intercultural Communication and Hispanic Studies from University of Maryland Baltimore County. She recently served with Peace Corps Response in Panama from 2015-2016 working to deliver remote medical care and developing a community health worker training program for indigenous communities in the Bocas del Toro region.

For over 10 years, Katie has worked with Baltimore’s Latino community in the fields of health, recreation, education, and community development. She is currently the Program Director and Hispanic Liaison for the Friends of Patterson Park, which protects and advocates for a public urban park by providing free programing and supporting open space initiatives. For the past four years, Katie has served as a commissioner on the Mayor of Baltimore’s Hispanic Commission, where she sits on the health sub-committee.

For many years, Katie has volunteered with Global Citizen Year, interviewing and selecting fellows to participate in a gap year abroad, as well as helping to develop a cross-cultural and re-entry training program. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Baltimore Improv Group (BIG), where she is also a performer, and has sat on the Latino Advisory Board of the Walters Art Museum.

Along with an M.A. in Intercultural Communication, Katie holds a B.S. in Psychology and Spanish from Towson University, where she was a scholar-athlete playing tennis. She is passionate about her work facilitating cross-cultural understanding, volunteerism, and the positive role that public parks play in community health and wellness.

Member-Elected: Asia and the Pacific Division (current term ends 2020)

Micronesia 1990-1992

Jed Meline served as a teacher/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 and 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/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.

Board-Elected (current term ends 2020)

Zimbabwe 1997-1999

Robert Nolan is the executive director of communications and content strategy at Carnegie Corporation of New York, where he oversees external relations, social media, and content. 

Previously he was editor-in-chief of new media at the Foreign Policy Association and producer of the PBS television series Great Decisions in Foreign Policy. In this role, he interviewed heads of state, Nobel laureates, foreign ministers, and other key players on the global stage. He also produced the 2009 documentary From Pharaohs to Facebook: Egypt Today, and has been a frequent contributor of opinion and analysis for U.S. News & World Report and The Huffington Post.

A former Peace Corps Volunteer in Zimbabwe, Robert is the author of The Quest for African Unity: 50 Years of Independence and Interdependence, a monograph about the African Union, and he’s written extensively on African politics, transatlantic relations, the United Nations, and public engagement on U.S. foreign policy.

Robert successfully completed a term membership at the Council on Foreign Relations and is an active member of the National Peace Corps Association and Network 20/20. He is an alumnus of the European Union Visitors Program, served as a U.S. delegate to the Atlantic Council’s “Young Atlanticist” convening at the 2010 NATO summit in Lisbon, and was awarded a Democracy Fellowship by the Polish Foreign Ministry.

Robert holds an MSJ from Northwestern University’s Medill School Journalism, and a bachelor’s degree from Boston College.

Member-Elected: Southern Tier Division (current term ends 2020)

Philippines 1975-1977

Tom Potter was elected to the NPCA board in June 2017. He represents NPCA’s southern region and is proud to acknowledge support by the First Coast Returned Peace Volunteers (FCRPCV) affiliate group, the 2017 Loret Miller Ruppe Award winners.

Tom is the Principal Scientist for Innovative Systems for Education and Environmental Technology (ISET), a consulting group focusing on environmental chemistry, risk assessment, and online education. He and his wife Beatriz founded ISET in 2017 after he retired from the USDA-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS). He led a multidisciplinary team for 19 years at the agency’s Southeast Watershed Research Laboratory evaluating how conservation practices and agronomic management control the fate and transport of pesticides and other agrochemicals at field, farm, and watershed scales. Tom has published and lectured widely on the topic and continues to be a leader in the field. He is also a member on the Board of Directors of the Suwannee Riverkeeper^®, an affiliate of the Waterkeeper^® Alliance. 

Prior to joining USDA-ARS, Tom was a graduate faculty member/research scientist at the University of Massachusetts, a consultant with a practice in environmental chemistry, and a senior chemist at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Throughout this period he focused on quantifying and evaluating the risks of environmental petroleum contamination traveling throughout the U.S., Canada, the Middle East, and Latin America lecturing on the topic. 

Tom received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Maine, MS in Soil Chemistry from Cornell University, and PhD in Environmental Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He and Beatriz divide their time between homes in Valdosta, Georgia and Tunja, Colombia. His passions include cooking, music, travel, and enjoying the outdoors by kayak, bicycle, and foot.

Member-Elected: West, Central, and Southern Africa Division (current term ends 2022)

Botswana 1986-1988

Faith Van Gilder earned a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and has spent most of her career as an editor at publications including U.S. News and World Report, Dayton Journal Herald, both Fort Wayne, Indiana newspapers, the Journal Gazette and News-Sentinel. In 2012 she joined Asher Agency, a marketing/PR/advertising company in Fort Wayne, where she is a Senior Account Supervisor, managing projects and media strategies for clients including local and national nonprofit organizations, school districts, and political candidates. 

A native of Defiance, Ohio, Faith and her husband David served in Kanye, Botswana from 1986 to 1988, where they both taught at middle schools. For the last several years they have been Indiana Peace Corps Advocacy Coordinators, as well as conveners of the NE Indiana RPCV group. 

In Fort Wayne, Faith is currently on the boards of directors of Wellspring Interfaith Social Services, Creative Women of the World, Friends of Cedar Creek and Friends of the Parks of Allen County. She has a longtime commitment to empowering women and girls, starting with being a Girl Scout troop leader. In early 2017 she along with three other women co-founded Advancing Voices of Women (AVOW) to increase women’s participation in the public sphere and foster civil conversations on controversial topics. For their efforts, the four were recognized by the Journal Gazette as "Citizens of the Year" in 2018.

Faith is a graduate of Leadership Fort Wayne, an Athena Award nominee, and recipient of the YWCA of Northeast Indiana Peggy Hobbs Award for Volunteerism. She and David have two daughters living in Indianapolis and Seattle. She is an avid reader and traveler and enjoys hiking with her two dogs in the woods near her home in Huntertown, Indiana.