Please note this is a hybrid event - you have the option of attending in person or virtually. Registrations are required for all attendees. For in-person attendees, the event will run from 11:30 - 2 pm and will include lunch (11:30 - 12 reception; 12 lunch). The speaker portion of the event for virtual attendees will begin at 12:45 pm (virtual attendees will be sent a link for the event and instructions on how to participate in Q&A via email).
Join us for a panel discussion on the past, present and future of the Peace Corps. The panel will feature three former directors of the Peace Corps: Jody Olsen (2018-2021), Carrie Hessler-Radelet (2012-2017), and Mark Schneider (1999-2001. (Ambassador Gaddi Vasquez, who was previously scheduled to join us is no longer able to.)
Dr. Josephine (Jody) Olsen, PhD, MSW, was sworn into office as the 20th Director of the Peace Corps in March 2018. Dr. Olsen began her career as a Peace Corps Volunteer, serving in Tunisia from 1966-1968. She has since served the agency in multiple leadership positions—as Acting Director in 2009; Deputy Director from 2002-2009; Chief of Staff from 1989-1992; Regional Director, North Africa, Near East, Asia, Pacific from 1981-1984; and Country Director in Togo from 1979-1981. Prior to returning to the Peace Corps in 2018, Dr. Olsen served as Visiting Professor at the University of Maryland-Baltimore School of Social Work and Director of the University’s Center for Global Education Initiatives. In this capacity she developed and directed inter-professional global health projects for students in dentistry, law, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work. She also oversaw health research projects in Malawi while teaching courses on international social work, global social policy, and global women and children’s health. Throughout her career, Dr. Olsen has championed the expansion of service, learning and international opportunities for Americans of all backgrounds.
Carrie Hessler-Radelet is the President & CEO of Project Concern International (PCI). PCI is a global development organization working with families and communities to enhance health, end hunger and overcome hardship in 16 countries.
Prior to PCI, Hessler-Radelet served as Director of the Peace Corps (2012-2017) and Deputy Director (2012-2015), leading America’s iconic international volunteer service organization with programs in over 65 countries. At Peace Corps she led historic reforms to modernize and strengthen the agency to meet the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.
Before being appointed to the Peace Corps by President Obama, Hessler-Radelet worked as the Vice President and Director of the Washington D.C. office of John Snow, Inc. (JSI), overseeing the management of public health programs in 85 countries around the world. Her decades of global health work also included serving as the lead consultant on the first Five-Year Global HIV/AIDS Strategy for the President George W. Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), working with USAID in Indonesia on maternal and child health and HIV programming, founding the Special Olympics in The Gambia, and serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer with her husband in Western Samoa.
Hessler-Radelet is passionate about empowering communities to discover their own sustainable, innovative solutions to poverty. She holds a Master of Science in Health Policy and Management from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics from Boston University.
Mark L. Schneider is a senior adviser with the Americas Program and the Human Rights Initiative at CSIS. He has had a public service career spanning government, international organizations, civil society, and academia, and his areas of expertise include post-conflict reconstruction and nation building, U.S. foreign policy in the twenty-first century, human rights, and Latin American and Caribbean issues. He served as senior vice president and senior adviser of the International Crisis Group (ICG) from 2001 until March 2017. With ICG, he traveled multiple times to Afghanistan and Pakistan; Nigeria, Guinea, and Liberia; Kenya, Somaliland, and Ethiopia; the Balkans; Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Haiti. He has testified frequently before Congress on conflict issues. In government, Schneider served as director of the Peace Corps from 1999 to 2001 and as assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development for Latin America and the Caribbean from 1993 to 1999. From 1981 to 1993, he was chief of the Office of Analysis and Strategic Planning at the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization. He was principal deputy assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs from 1977 to 1979 and a foreign policy adviser to Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) from 1970 to 1976. Schneider received his B.A. in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley, his M.A. in political science from San Jose State University, and an honorary doctor of laws degree from American University. He received the Bernardo O'Higgins Medal for human rights work from the government of Chile in 1993; the Gran Cruz, Orden al Merito, from the government of Chile in 2000; and the George W. Eastman Medal for Public Service from the University of Rochester in 2000. He has lectured at various universities; had articles and essays published in academic journals, newspapers, and magazines; and appeared on CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, NPR, and numerous other radio and television networks. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of American University for 10 years.
The DACOR Executive Committee has instituted a requirement that all visitors to the DACOR Bacon House, for both DACOR events and members’ private events, must be fully vaccinated. When registering for in-person attendance, you will be required to attest that you are fully vaccinated and will ensure that any guests you bring to the House are also fully vaccinated.
