Here is our illustrious leadership team. Read on below for our bios!
Josh Busby (’97-’99), President
Ben Bellows (’97-2000), Vice-President
Mary Weick-Brady (’82-’84), Treasurer
Tad Baldwin (’63-’65), Assistant Treasurer
Chris Gilson, Secretary
Josh Busby (’97-’99), President
Josh Busby (President) served in the Alternative Agriculture program from 1997-1999. His site was in the Tungurahua province, just north of Ambato in a little town up in the mountains called San Jose de Poalo. Josh worked with RPCVs Bob and Maggi Leventry to export organic quinoa to the U.S. among other projects. After Peace Corps, Josh finished his PhD in Government at Georgetown University and is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas-Austin where he researches transnational advocacy campaigns, climate change, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. His wife Bethany is also a poli sci professor, and they have a near 2 year old son, Will.
Ben Bellows (’97-2000), Vice-President
Ben Bellows (Vice-President) was a PCV in the Animal Husbandry program (1997-1999) and a PC Volunteer Coordinator (1999-2000) serving in the community of Chiguinda, Morona-Santiago. Ben’s work included a hodge-podge of agricultural technical support activities with individual, far-flung homesteads and group work with the Club de Madres in the health center and the Agro-Amigos, a close-knit group of farming families, in neighboring Bermejos. He served as an editor of El Clima and later, for his stint as PCVC, relocated to Quito to support the Animal Husbandry program nationally. Following service, Ben joined the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for several years, before returning to school at the University of California, Berkeley where he married his wife Nicole, finished his PhD in epidemiology, had two wonderful daughters and in 2009 relocated the family to Nairobi for a health systems research position in the Population Council, which has him working now with partner research institutions across East Africa and South Asia.
Mary Weick-Brady (’82-’84), Treasurer
Mary Brady (Treasurer) served in the health program from 1982-1984 in the canton of Echeandia, Bolivar Province. This town was in the subtropical area on the coastal side of the province about 3 hours down the mountain from Guaranda. Unlike more recent health programs, Mary delivered babies, sutured people injured from machete wounds, performed autopsies with the physicians in the community, and gave numerous vaccinations. She had a regular vaccination program for pets and for humans; she instituted a train the health trainer program in neighboring villages, and she was instrumental in getting a special education school started in Echeandia. After returning to the US, Mary moved to Washington DC and first worked in long term care and then she went into the public health program for the DC government. During this time, she received her Master’s degree in Nursing Administration and a certificate in international health. She worked part-time for a visiting nursing association and eventually went to the Food and Drug Administration where she has worked for almost 23 years focusing on medical devices and radiological products. Her work has taken her around the world to harmonize regulations and to develop international standards with medical devices. Mary was married and divorced, and then remarried in 2008. She has a daughter who is graduating from high school in 2013.
Tad Baldwin (’63-’65), Assistant Treasurer
Tad was part of Ecuador 6, the first credit union group in ’63 to ‘65, working first in Atuntaqui, Imbabura and later in Quito, broadening into the handicraft program as well. After several years in Panama with CHF Services as housing advisor, he returned to a master’s program at Penn in Urban Planning. Now retired and living in Washington, DC as an active volunteer, he spent most of his career producing affordable and mixed income housing in suburban Montgomery County, Maryland, first for the local government and later as president of a non-profit he helped form.One of the early leaders in the original formation of FOE in 1981, he helped revive the group before the 2002 NPCA Conference in Washington.