---
title: Lessons From a Life of Peace Corps Service
date: 2025-02-28T05:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/lessons-from-a-life-of-peace-corps-service"
section: Articles
---
# Lessons From a Life of Peace Corps Service

*February 28, 2025* — by [Emily Schuster](/author/emily-schuster)


> UMD Alumna and Former Peace Corps Director Reflects on the Importance of Building Global Relationships Based on Trust

*DSC08478 1920x1080 — College of Education Dean Kimberly Griffin (left) hosts Jody Olsen Ph.D. '79 for a discussion Friday about her recent memoir, “A Million Miles: My Peace Corps Journey.”*

In 1966, Jody Olsen Ph.D. ’79 joined the Peace Corps as a young newlywed, yearning to explore places very different from the conservative Mormon community in Utah where she grew up. She soon did at her first posting in Tunisia, spending time daily with a Muslim extended family and learning about their views on patriarchy, elders and in-home religious ceremonies as they built a deep friendship.

It was the beginning of a career in the Peace Corps spanning six decades, culminating with her service as director from 2018 to 2021. Now chair of the University of Maryland College of Education’s Board of Visitors, she returned to campus last week to lead a conversation on mentorship with Dean Kimberly Griffin and to discuss her recent memoir, [“A Million Miles: My Peace Corps Journey.”](https://uofupress.com/books/a-million-miles/)

This is Peace Corps Week (Feb. 23-Mar. 1), celebrating the independent government agency that promotes world peace and friendship and community-based development by integrating U.S. volunteers into communities around the globe. Olsen in an interview reflected on how the Peace Corps changed the way she views the world and herself, the commonalities she discovered across vastly different cultures, and how building relationships grounded in trust and respect can change communities and save lives.

**What made you dedicate so much of your career to the Peace Corps?**  I changed fundamentally as a Peace Corps volunteer because all I believed in was challenged. I learned not to think my way was the only right way but to understand and respect other traditions. In that process, I had to listen, be curious and be part of other people’s lives. I wanted to make it possible for others to have that kind of life-changing experience. The communities in which volunteers serve also give back and change. It becomes an exchange.

**How did your early experiences as a volunteer lay the groundwork for the rest of your Peace Corps career?**  It taught me to be humble. When you come in as director, you get assistants and a big office, and people call you Director Olsen. I always remembered that every staff person knew that I, too, had used a latrine at some point in my life.


*Jody Olsen with volunteers and friends in Senegal — Olsen relaxes with local friends and Peace Corps volunteers in Senegal. (Photo courtesy of Jody Olsen '79)*




**Topics:** [People](https://today.umd.edu/tags/people)


**Tags:** [Alumni](https://today.umd.edu/topic/alumni)


**Units:** [College of Education](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-education)