When Carol Spahn began her Peace Corps career training at the Number 5 School in central Bucharest, Romania was still recovering from the dark days of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu’s rule. She never imagined that 29 years later she would be sworn in as the agency’s 21st director, leading its global effort from headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Spahn takes the reins at the Peace Corps during a challenging time. The U.S. agency — which encourages peace through community engagement — grappled with its future after it withdrew its volunteers in 2020 as COVID-19 spread. While it has pulled volunteers from trouble spots before, it had never done so globally in its 62-year history.
With no volunteers on the ground, Peace Corps — an agency with a $430.5 million annual budget this year — wrestled with its identity and what it should look like moving forward.
About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.
