List of Peace Corps volunteers

This is a list of notable persons who have been members of the United States Peace Corps, along with their terms of service. Those listed on this page should meet Wikipedia's basic criteria for notability. The Peace Corps volunteers category page may include a more extensive list of individuals.

Business

• Patricia Cloherty, Chairman and CEO, Delta Private Equity Partners, former Chairman of The U.S. Russia Investment Fund, Deputy Administration for the U.S. Small Business Administration (Brazil 1963-65)
• Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix (Swaziland 1983–85)
• Michael McCaskey, chairman of the board, Chicago Bears (Ethiopia 1965–67)
• Bob Haas, Chairman Emeritus of Levi Strauss & Co., son of Walter A. Haas Jr., and the great-great-grandnephew of the company's founder, Levi Strauss (Ivory Coast 1964–66)
• Alberto Ibargüen, President and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (Venezuela, 1966–68)

Journalists

• T. D. Allman, journalist/author (Vanity Fair; New Yorker; NYT) (Nepal, 1966–68)
• Peter Hessler, author of River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze; Oracle Bones; Country Driving. Staff writer, New Yorker (China 1996–97)
• Roger K. Lewis, Washington Post columnist, architect, author, cartoonist (Tunisia, 1964–66)
• Maureen Orth, journalist, author, and a Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine (Colombia, 1964–66)
• George Packer, journalist, novelist, and playwright. He is best known for his writings for The New Yorker about U.S. foreign policy and for his book The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq (Togo 1982–1983)
• Ben Bradlee Jr., journalist and writer. He was a reporter and editor at The Boston Globe for 25 years (Afghanistan 1970–1972)
• Tony D'Souza, novelist, journalist, essayist, reviewer, travel and short story writer (India 1966-1968, Côte d'Ivoire 2001–2002)
• Leon Dash, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for the Washington Post (Kenya 1969–1970)
• Arnold Hano, editor, novelist, biographer and journalist, best known for his non-fiction work, A Day in the Bleachers, frequent contributor to such publications as The New York Times, Sport, Sports Illustrated, and TV Guide (Costa Rica 1991–1993)
• Laurence Leamer, associate editor at Newsweek anc contributor to Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, and Playboy (Nepal 1964–1966)

Literature and Non-fiction

• Mildred D. Taylor, African-American writer known for her works exploring the struggle faced by African-American families in the Deep South (Ethiopia 1965–67)
• Kent Haruf, author of Plainsong, The Tie That Binds, Where You Once Belonged, Eventide, Benediction, Our Souls at Night (Turkey 1966–68)
• Paul Theroux, author of Mosquito Coast and Great Railway Bazaar (Malawi 1963–65)
• Mildred Taylor, author of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, winner of Newbery Award (Ethiopia 1965–67)
• Roland Merullo, author of Leaving Losapas, In Revere, In Those Days, Breakfast with Buddha, (Micronesia 1979–1980)
• Bob Shacochis, author of Easy in the Island, winner of the American Book Award (Eastern Caribbean 1975–76)
• Moritz Thomsen, author of Living Poor (Ecuador 1963–65)
• Richard Wiley, author of Ahmed's Revenge and Soldiers in Hiding, winner of PEN/Faulkner Award (Korea 1967–69)
• Howard Ashman, American playwright and lyricist (Burkina Faso ? – ?)
• George B. Hutchinson, Author of In Search of Nella Larsen (Burkina Faso 1975–1977)
• Charles Murray, American libertarian political scientist, author, and columnist. Well known for Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950–1980 and his controversial book The Bell Curve (Thailand 1965–1968)
• John Perkins, Author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (Ecuador 1968–1970)
• Mark T. Sullivan, author who writes mystery and suspense novels with James Patterson (Niger ?–?)

Art

• Martin Puryear, sculptor (Sierra Leone 1964–1966)
• Wayne Chabre, sculptor (Lesotho 1969–1970)
• Joel Shapiro, sculptor (India 1965–67)

Music

• Kinky Friedman, Texas singer, songwriter, novelist, politician (Malaysia 1967–1969)
• Mary Kim Joh, Korean-American music composer, academic and medical research scientist. (Liberia 1977–78)^[1]

Television, Film, Theater, and Radio

• Chris Matthews, host of NBC's Hardball (Swaziland 1968–70)
• Bob Vila, Host of Television show "This Old House" (Panama 1971–73)
• Bob Beckel, political analyst, Bob Beckel & Associates (Philippines 1971–72)
• Taylor Hackford, movie producer of Ray, An Officer and a Gentleman; and The Devil's Advocate (Bolivia 1968–69)
• Joanie Laurer (chyna), American professional wrestler, glamour model, pornographic film actress, and bodybuilder. (Costa Rica 1993–95)
• Richard Sanders, actor best known for playing Les Nessman on WKRP in Cincinnati (Brazil 1966–69)
• Marco Werman, Werman is the host of Public Radio International's The World (Togo, 1984–87)
• Marissa Aroy, Filipino-American director and producer. She directed the documentaries Sikhs in America ( Dominican Republic 1995–1997)
• Rajiv Joseph, American playwright and a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist (senegal 1996-1998)
• Milt Kogan, actor (Upper Volta 1970–1972)

Activism and Aid

• Ken Hackett, president, Catholic Relief Services and former United States Ambassador to the Holy See (Ghana 1968–1971)
• Sapreet Kaur, civil rights activist and executive director of the Sikh Coalition (Uganda, 1998–2001)
• Cindy Marano, economic justice and women's rights activist (Ecuador 1967–1969)
• Carl Pope, former Executive Director of the Sierra Club (India 1967 – 1969)
• Gregory Stanton, He is the founder and president of Genocide Watch, the founder and director of the Cambodian Genocide Project, and the founder and Chair of the International Campaign to End Genocide (Ivory Coast ?–?)

Government

• M. Peter McPherson, served as a special assistant to President Gerald Ford, administrator of USAID (Peru 1965–1966)
• Timothy Kraft, retired political consultant; campaign manager in 1980 for U.S. President Jimmy Carter (Guatemala 1963-64)
• John T. Morton, Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 2009–2013 (Chad ?–?)
• Peter Navarro, American heterodox economist, who currently serves as the Assistant to the President, Director of Trade and Industrial Policy, and the Director of the White House National Trade Council (Thailand 1973–1976)
• Robert Pastor, member of the National Security Council (Malaysia 1970–72)

Education

• James H. Fowler, American social scientist specializing in social networks, cooperation, political participation, and genopolitics (Ecuador, 1992–1994)
• Victor H. Mair, American Sinologist and professor of Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania (Nepal 1965–1967)
• Suzanne Preston Blier, Allen Whitehill Clowes Professor of Fine Arts and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University (Benin 1969–71)
• Allan Gibbard, Richard B. Brandt Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan (Ghana 1963–65)
• Clark Gibson, Professor of Political Science, University of California, San Diego (Nepal)
• Roger K. Lewis, Professor Emeritus of Architecture, University of Maryland (Tunisia, 1964–66)
• William G. Moseley, Professor of Geography, Macalester College (Mali 1987–89)
• Joseph Opala, Historian at James Madison University, studied the "Sierra Leone-Gullah Connection" (Sierra Leone 1974–77)
• Michael A. Rice, professor, University of Rhode Island (Philippines 1981–1985)
• Donna Shalala, president of the University of Miami, former Secretary of Health and Human Services (Iran 1962–64)
• Michael J. Snarskis, Archaeologist, University of Costa Rica (UCR), Discoverer of Guardiria - the first area of human occupation in Costa Rica^[2] (Costa Rica 1967 – 1969)
• Robert H. Frank, Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management and a Professor of Economics at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He contributes to the "Economic View" column, which appears every fifth Sunday in The New York Times (Nepal 1963 – 1965)
• Dirk Ballendorf, Guamanian historian and professor of Micronesian studies (Philippines 1961–1963)
• Guy Consolmagno, American research astronomer, Jesuit religious brother, and Director of the Vatican Observatory. (Kenya 1983–1985)
• José Gómez, labor and civil rights activist and educator (Brazil 1968–1969)
• Bruce Cumings, American historian of East Asia, former chair of the history department at the University of Chicago (Korea 1967–68)
• John Haugeland, chair of the Chicago philosophy department (Tonga 1966–1968)

Science and Medicine

• Mae Jemison, American engineer, physician and NASA astronaut (Sierra Leone and Liberia 1983–85)
• Joseph M. Acaba, American educator, hydrogeologist, and NASA astronaut (Dominican Republic 1994–96)
• Ina May Gaskin, Certified Professional Midwife, author, known as the "Mother of Modern Midwifery" (Malaysia 1963–65)
• Charles Snead Houston, high-altitude medical researcher and mountaineer (first Country Director, India 1962–65)
• Gene Carl Feldman, oceanographer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Western Samoa 1974–1977)
• Carle M. Pieters, noted American planetary scientist (Malaysia 1967–1969)

Other

• Lillian Carter nurse, mother of President Jimmy Carter (India 1966–68)

See also

• National Peace Corps Association

References

External links

• Official Peace Corps Web Site: Notable RPCVs
• Peace Corps Library: List of Notable RPCVs
• Peace Corps Writers