Creating Connections: Notes from the Field
The REACH Program
The people behind the USAID mission come from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, personal histories, geographical regions and communities large and small. What we share is dedication to a common goal: helping others to build a better future for their families, their communities, their countries.
REACH, Reach Every American Close to Home, is a voluntary program through which USAID staff share personal accounts of their experiences with our neighbors back home. Each story offers a glimpse of the challenges and triumphs of development efforts through a uniquely personal perspective. Click on the links below to read more on any of the featured REACH authors.
In addition to being posted online, each REACH piece is sent to the author’s hometown newspaper and alumni media outlets for potential publication.
 Transforming Societies through Democracy
To say that Kathryn (Davis) Stevens often unwittingly finds herself where history is being made might be an understatement. The 37-year old foreign aid official arrived in Tel Aviv in September 2000 to work on aid programs in West Bank and Gaza just as a new Palestinian uprising had begun. Read More ...
 World Traveler Leaves Heart in Crystal Lake
From helping Third World refugees to helping transition the fall of the Iron Curtain into lasting democracy, Karen Hilliard of Crystal Lake does not get home much. But she still calls the area home, despite a globetrotting career as a foreign service officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Despite two decades aiding democracy and living standards all over the world, Hilliard considers her work in Ukraine, where voters last year took to the streets in peaceful revolution against a rigged election, a crowning moment. Read More ...
 Promoting Progress Through Innovative Public-Private Partnerships
Richard Loudis is of a rare breed: second-generation US Agency for International Development (USAID) folk. As a teenager, he spent a year in Lahore, Pakistan, where his father was stationed. He’s been back twice since—first, as a teacher at the Lahore American School, and then as a University Overseas Population Intern working on a family planning research project in Karachi. Over the ensuing three decades, Loudis’ career has brought him to some of the most deeply troubled regions of the world. The commitment to international development clearly runs in the family. Read More ...
 A Development Legacy: Life Lessons from the Field
Yvette Malcioln had always dreamed of working overseas, but it was a two-year Peace Corps tour in Ghana that guided her to a career in international development. “I’d always believed in making the world a better place,” she reflects. “That experience showed me how it could be done.” Malcioln returned from Ghana and headed to Washington, DC, where she was hired by a government contractor as a Program Manager for the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) New Entry Training Program for International Development Interns (IDI). Read More ...
 The Heart of the Matter: A View of International Development from the Front Lines
Jose Garzon arrived in southern Peru on a Fulbright Scholarship during the drought of 1983. A doctoral student with a particular interest in development, Garzon had traveled to South America to conduct research for his dissertation. Before long, he had made a serendipitous contact with US Agency for International Development (USAID) workers stationed on the ground to administer humanitarian support. The USAID team was short-staffed and offered Garzon a temporary assignment to conduct drought relief monitoring. Read More ...
 Eco-Friendly Development Builds Hope for a Greener Future
As an undergrad at Old Dominion University in the early 1970s, Carl Mitchell was fascinated with the relationship between plants and animals and their environment. The budding ecologist was seriously considering a career in academia as the environmental movement began to gain momentum. Inspired by the notion that his passion could be harnessed to make a difference, Mitchell and like-minded friends founded a grassroots environmental activist organization to promote the importance of recycling and conservation. Read More ...
 An Accidental Career in International Development
(Bob Wallin) - First, a confession: I may seem to be the most unlikely person in the world to be talking about things international. An undergraduate English major from Port Neches, Texas, I came to Washington in 1968 to study for the ministry at the Virginia Theological Seminary. Realizing that my call to the ordained ministry was a wrong number, I left seminary in May 1970 and took a temporary appointment with the US Government as an editor-writer/assistant press officer for the first Commission on Obscenity and Pornography — the one appointed by President Johnson to try to determine scientifically if viewing such stuff caused anti-social behavior. The most helpful aspect of that experience was that it served as a unique conversation piece for interviews thereafter. Read More ...
 Take 2: The Unexpected Path To A Foreign Service Career
A decade ago, Claire Ehmann was studying African cinema in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on a Fulbright Scholarship. “This tiny, poor country possesses a rich cinematic tradition and tremendous cultural appreciation of the art form,” she explains. “The Pan-African Film Festival of Ougadougou was founded there in 1969 to create a forum for filmmakers across the continent – and they have hosted it ever since.” For Ehmann, the 1995 Festival was a compelling culmination of her experience abroad. The powerful historical and political themes of African film struck a deeply personal chord, and inspired her to pursue a career in international development. Read More ...
Building Back Better
Don Harrison claims that despite his extensive academic background in economics, it was the two years he spent in France that helped him get his foot in the door of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) back in September 1980. “You had to demonstrate experience living abroad on the employment application,” Harrison smiles. “Fortunately, no one asked for specific dates—I’d been in elementary school at the time!” Read More ...
 Teaching Tolerance: A Cornerstone Of Foreign Aid
In 1974, recent college grad Will Elliott was dispatched to South Africa to install equipment for General Electric in a booming steel town. There, Elliott was immersed in the oppression of apartheid over the course of his 15-month assignment, which he credits as one of the most formative experiences of his life. He returned to the United States committed to working for a more just and peaceful world. Read More ...
On the Frontlines: Reuniting Romanian Families
Randal Thompson’s aspirations for a life in academia changed abruptly during an educational trip to India nearly twenty-five years ago. Overwhelmed by the poverty and inequalities she had seen abroad, Thompson returned home determined to make a difference. On a serendipitous visit to her local library in Sacramento, Thompson spied a posting for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which sparked the beginning of a career that has spanned over two decades. Read More ...
People and Power Focus Of U.S. Aid Worker's Efforts in Bosnia-Herzegovina
Nearly 30 years later, Peter Flynn's wife still refuses to talk about their time in Laos. What started out as a routine overseas assignment with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) ended with a communist takeover of the government. The couple was placed under house arrest and eventually deported from the country with only one suitcase between them. Read More ...
For Columbia Resident, Lure of Foreign Service Still Strong After 40 Years
Over a career that has spanned nearly a dozen foreign posts, Bob Resseguie has maintained a singular, grassroots focus in finding ways to work with local folks to identify priorities and get the job done. After graduating high school in 1957, Resseguie headed off to college and a stint with the Peace Corps in Thailand , before joining the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in 1964. "I was looking for something exciting to do," he smiles. "And landed in Viet Nam!" Read More ...
 Engaging Muslim Communities in Building a Brighter Future
In January 2003, the US Agency for International Development's (USAID) Bureau for Europe and Eurasia assembled the Islam Working Group. This ad hoc advisory group was created to provide counsel to Bureau Assistant Administrator Dr. Kent R. Hill on issues related to Muslim populations throughout the region and to appropriately engage affected communities on development initiatives. Dr. Hill has long been involved in issues related to Islam and Democracy; since joining USAID, one of his top priorities has been to facilitate support for democracy and human rights in Islamic countries. The role of the Working Group is an important one, as USAID is currently engaged in activities in 10 Muslim countries across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Mohammad Latif, a Regional Environmental Officer with the Bureau, having expertise in community infrastructure was among those invited to participate. As a Muslim with professional experience in Muslim countries as well as in the non-Muslim World, Latif is uniquely qualified as an international expert to examine development initiatives in a cultural context. Read More ...
 U.S. Foreign Aid Makes a Difference
When the development community speaks of priorities for assistance to Armenia, the devastation of the 1988 earthquake remains a lingering concern. Fourteen years after the earthquake devastated their country, over 48,000 people in the Armenian town of Gyumri still live in the squalor of converted train box cars waiting for their homes to be rebuilt. For many, these makeshift homes, locally known as "domics," without running water or adequate heat, have been their homes since a massive 1988 earthquake flattened large parts of this small former Soviet republic nestled in the Caucasus Mountains east of Turkey. Read More ...
 Troubles to Triumph:
Building Sustainable Peace and Prosperity in
Northern Ireland
Established in 1986 by the Governments
of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland and the Republic
of Ireland, the International Fund for Ireland (IFI)
promotes contact, dialogue and reconciliation between
Nationalists and Unionists in Northern Ireland and the
border counties of Ireland. The U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID) manages the U.S. Government’s
contributions to the Fund in support of its efforts to
establish a sustainable peace in Northern Ireland. Read More
...
Holliston Native Helps USAID Temper Tensions
Abroad
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, there was tremendous
hope that the ancient Silk Road would reemerge, flowing
once again with commerce, ideas, and cultures to boost
the five new Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to a prosperous
future. Instead, the region foundered as infrastructure
deteriorated, jobs evaporated, and corruption and organized
crime flourished. Holliston native William Farrell, conflict
mitigation program manager with the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID), has spent the
past two years working with citizens, governments and
nonprofit partners to help alleviate tensions within
the region. Read
More ...
 Rebuilding
the Balkans
The great hope felt by the world in 1989 with the fall of
the Berlin Wall was legitimate cause for celebration. The
citizens of Central and Eastern Europe danced upon concrete
fragments, confident that Western freedom and economic opportunity
would soon be theirs. Enthusiasm quickly faded with the ensuing
collapse of many countries that had symbolically been east
of the Wall. As one of the most successful Communist states,
Yugoslavia suffered perhaps the most wrenching demise, splintering
into five countries and two less clearly defined, relatively
independent political entities, sparking a series of vicious
ethnic and nationalist wars. Read
More ...
 Patriots of the Cold War
In early 1991, Jerry Hyman, a democracy officer for the
United States Agency for International Development (USAID),
was the first representative of the agency to tour Bulgaria.
Charged with gathering information on the recent local elections,
Hyman traversed the country to meet with various political
leaders and ordinary citizens. The memory of one particular
day remains vivid. Read More
...
 When
Foreign Aid Works
I remember my first trip to the Presevo Valley in March,
2001. We drove down from Belgrade (Serbia) to Bujanovac in
the Valley. Just to the south of Bujanovac, we passed through
the VJ (Yugoslavian armed forces) armed checkpoint and passed
through a no-man’s-land to the next checkpoint manned
by ethnic Albanian separatists, past a bend in the road,
to the town of Veliki Trnovac. Read
More ...
 Tempering
Tensions Through Citizen Action
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, there was tremendous
hope that the ancient Silk Road would reemerge, flowing once
again with commerce, ideas, and cultures to boost the five
new Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to a prosperous future. Instead,
the region foundered as infrastructure deteriorated, jobs
evaporated, and corruption and organized crime flourished.
William Farrell, conflict mitigation program manager with
the United States Agency for International Development (USAID),
has spent the past two years working with citizens, governments
and nonprofit partners to help alleviate tensions within
the region. Read
More ...
 Foreign Service Makes
Impact That Lasts A Lifetime for Backbay Native
Equipped with a business degree
from Northeastern University and commitment to service, Dick
Goldman set out from his Backbay neighborhood in 1969 to
join the Peace Corps in Liberia. His newly-acquired business
skills and zest for adventure proved valuable in working
with budding agricultural cooperatives in a remote part of
West Africa. Three years as a witness to the desperate struggle
for survival made a life-long impact. Read
More ...
 On the Front Lines:
Snapshots from a Life in Foreign Service
It was less than a year since
James Goggin had arrived in this small, landlocked nation
to begin his new post as Country Representative for the
US Agency for International Development (USAID). After
returning home from work late in the evening on September
11, 2001, he received an urgent call to report immediately
to the American Embassy. The Embassy had no television,
but everyone in the room had cellphones ringing with news
from family back home as the tragedy unfolded. Read More ...
 On the Front Lines
of Public Health: Family-Centered Strategies To Improve
Child Survival
Originally from Fergus Falls,
MN, Mary Skarie has been working in public health for more
than thirty years. An undergraduate experience in India,
working with women and children in primary health care
settings, sparked Skarie’s interest in public health.
Inspired, she went on to graduate from Antioch College
with a BA in philosophy, receive nursing degrees from Cornell
and the University of Arizona, and earn a Master’s
of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. Read More ...
 Teaching A Man to Fish:
Notes from the Field
Four decades ago, Donald Richardson
set out for Antofogasta, Chile as one of the first Peace
Corps volunteers. Richardson spent two years in this coastal
city, helping fisherman to adopt more effective fishing
techniques and organize a cooperative to sell their catch
at market. Read More ...
Pipelines for
Peace: Bringing Water to Middle Egypt
Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand,
Bahrain, Malawi . . . Cincinnati. Over the past three decades,
Tim Alexander has called each of these places home. After
graduating from Princeton High School and the University
of Cincinnati, Alexander left Ohio to pursue a master’s
degree in international development and regional planning.
Within ten years, his studies and sense of adventure had
landed him a succession of foreign posts with the United
Nations, the US State Department, and the US Agency for
International Development (USAID). Read More ...
 U.S.
Foreign Assistance Makes a Difference
Imagine living in a country where you could not own property:
you could not buy or sell a home or leave it to your children;
you could not own the land you farmed; you could not own
the property on which you did business. Indeed, you would
have a very hard time doing any kind of business at all,
as there would be no banking system as we know it, no possibility
of getting a mortgage or other credit, no judicial system
to enforce a contract. Read More
...
 The
Building Blocks of International Relations
(Read the write-up in the Bowling
Green News, 9/12/02)
As we approached the airport the scene from above appeared
one of tranquility and beauty. Small villages sprawled throughout
a rural landscape, country houses with tiled roofs and farm
animals roaming in nearby fields. Read
More ...
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