Jay A. Nash (73-77) is the founder and chairman of StandProud, a non-profit organization that provides corrective treatment, leg braces and rehabilitative services to families with children who have been disabled by polio in developing countries that promote full integration of disabled people into their societies. Nash worked with USAID in Congo in 1998; while there he helped establish a brace shop where disabled youths could get free orthopedic equipment. He founded StandProud in the United States to help provide funding for that organization. Nash is a graduate of Amherst College and the University of Illinois. In addition to his work with USAID, he worked for Catholic Relief Services in Angola and the Dominican Republic.
Tim Will (Honduras 77-79, Fiji 79-80) has been awarded a $100,000 Purpose Prize award for his innovative work to support sustainable farming in rural North Carolina by bringing broadband to his county and linking local farmers to chefs in Charlotte through an online farmers’ market. The Purpose Prize is given to U.S. residents over the age of 60 who create innovative solutions to address pressing problems domestically and abroad.
Peter Tase (07-09) recently published a simultaneous dictionary with five languages—Italian, Spanish, English, Albanian and Guarani—through Lulu. He will be introducing the book in Latin American in 2010.
The U.S. State Department recently awarded Thomas Hull (68-70) with the Presidential Meritorious Service Award, which is given to past and present State Department officials for their leadership and advancement of U.S. foreign policy. Hull received the award for his work as a U.S. ambassador to Sierra Leone from 2004 to 2007. In this position, he helped ensure the presidential election was free and fair, and he helped to resume visa services at the embassy which had been terminated during the country’s civil war. He also advocated for the return of the Peace Corps to the country. Hull also received a Presidential Meritorious Service Award in 1993 for his work in transforming Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Hull retired from his diplomatic career in 2007. He is currently the Warburg Professor of International Relations at Simmons College in Boston.
Dennis Herlocker recently published Buffaloes By My Bedroom: Tales of Tanganyika. It tells the story of the adventures Herlocker and his wife, Cathy Lange, had while serving in the Peace Corps in what is known today as Tanzania. The couple met while serving, and they married at a small Catholic church in a Tanzanian town. For nearly 30 years after their service, they lived and worked in Africa, where their three children were born and raised.
For the past nine years, Daniel Suelo has intentionally lived his life without using money. He has spiritual reasons for avoiding any form of currency, but he also does it as a statement against a system he believes is corrupt. Suelo lives in a cave, which holds the few things he owns. He finds everything else he needs, including food and clothing, in trash receptacles in Moab, Utah.
RubberBanditz inventor Ari Zandman-Zeman has created a mobile gym, a portable elastic strength training gym that allows for full-body exercise use, which makes it possible to exercise anytime and anywhere. The company will be donating all returned materials to a local non-profit organization, and a portion of the proceeds will go toward building exercise band gyms in underprivileged communities.
Lawrence F. Lihosit (75-77) recently published Whispering Campaign: Stories from Mesoamerica, a book of six short stories. After serving in the Peace Corps, Lihosit worked and studied in Mexico for several years and also traveled extensively through Guatemala, El Salvador, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile.
Emily Arsenault (04-06) has just published her first novel, The Broken Teaglass, which she began writing during her Peace Corps service. The book is a combined mystery and coming-of-age story that takes place at an American dictionary company. Arsenault has worked as a high school teacher and children’s librarian.
In early 2009, environmental educator Bronwyn Mitchell (94-96) became the executive director of the Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE). The organization promotes environmental awareness by working with teachers, nature center employees, grantors and business people. MAEOE recently moved into the EnviroCenter, a completely green office building that reflects the organization’s mission and values. Mitchell’s background includes work on wetlands issues in Botswana, American Samoa and Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
