Mission Statement

We, the Ethiopia/Eritrea Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (E/E RPCVs), are a network of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who have served in Ethiopia and Eritrea. We welcome Peace Corps staff, host country nationals, family and friends to join us.

Our mission is to:

• foster community, understanding, and respect, among our members;
• promote a better understanding of the Ethiopian and Eritrean people; and
• support projects in Ethiopia and Eritrea as an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

We are an affiliate group of the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) and, like the NPCA, we value lifelong commitment to Peace Corps ideals of better understanding of all peoples.

We welcome and encourage all in the Peace Corps community to join and engage with us, with NPCA and with other NPCA affiliate groups. Join us!

Cindy Mosca

President

After the Peace Corps (Ethiopia 1967-1969) Cindy returned to teaching art but eventually went into the field of ESL. She became the Director of the Bilingual Program, Cicero, Illinois. She has a son and a daughter who live in the Chicago area. She and her partner, Dennis live in Bloomington, Indiana. They both love to travel and you can find a record of it (including a 2019 return to Ethiopia) at https://ourbetter.blogspot.com/ 

Leo Cecchini

Vice President

Asmara 1962-64

Leo was one of the first half dozen RPCVs to enter the US Foreign Service at the Dept. of State. He served 25 years as an economics officer in posts on four continents, in the process learning four foreign languages. He retired from State to be the head of the well known PR firm Hill and Knowlton’s operation in Turkey. From that initial venture into private business he has worked in a variety of enterprises – fish processing in Mozambique, trading firm in Orlando, Florida, Wall Street currency trader, New York City, clothing business in London, UK, wine importer, Washington DC, property sales in Florida, tourism business in Spain. He is currently working with a Spanish doctor/hospital administrator on a new medical tourism business in Spain. He is on the Board of Directors of DACOR (Diplomatic and Consular Officers Retired) or as he likes to call it, “The Old Diplomats’ Club.” Leo’s wife Sandra was also an American diplomat and they have two daughters, Chiara and Sabrina.

Randy Marcus

Treasurer

Asella [Arrusi] 1966–68 — Ethiopia VII: ATP

Randolph Marcus taught secondary school students in Asella, Ethiopia from 1966 to 1968. He joined the Foreign Service in 1969. He began his State Department career as a USAID civilian advisor in South Vietnam. Later postings included economic and political work at US Embassies in Togo, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina, In Washington, he served as an economic affairs delegate with the US Mission to the Organization of American States and an advisor on Latin America in the Office of Counterterrorism. Following his retirement from the Foreign Service, Mr. Marcus worked for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Defense Intelligence Agency as a counterterrorism analyst. He also spent a year as a Red Cross volunteer at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda.

Chris Conley

Webmaster

Hawassa, 2011-2013

Chris Conley served as a Health Information and Communications Technology Advisor volunteer in Hawassa, SNNPR, Ethiopia from 2011-2013. Today he works as an administrative manager for a children’s nonprofit organization, web designer, and interactive fiction author in Baltimore, Maryland.

Charles (Chuck) Kreiman

Member

Asella 1968-70

Chuck Kreiman chose the Peace Corps over the State Department in the spring of 1968. He was assigned to the secondary school in Asella, Ethiopia. Returning to the USA in 1970 and with the help of his Peace Corp non-competitive civil service status, he was hired as an Urban Intern with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Over the next three decades he worked in HUD affordable housing and community development programs at various locations, ending up in Denver. Since he retired at the end of 2003 he has been a part time consultant providing technical assistance on HUD programs. In addition to the Ethiopia and Eritrea RPCVs Chuck is also a member of RPCVs of Colorado, and the National Peace Corps Association. He has been the Chair of the Denver-Axum Sister Cities Committee for the past several years.

Stephan Cristofar

Liaison to the Ethiopia & Eritrean Embassies

Asmara, 1962-64

Stephen Cristofar was born and raised in NYC, moved to Virginia 50 years ago, married with 3 children & 5 grandkids. Graduate Economist & Executive with US Postal Service, with stints in Switzerland with the UN. Retired & living with wife in Virginia, have visited about 60 countries.

Santosh "Tosh" Umesh

Member

Semema, Tigray, 2017-19

Santosh Umesh, or Tosh, is a current graduate student at the Thunderbird School of Management, studying global management with a focus on healthcare delivery. During his time with the Peace Corps he served in the northern Tigray region where he taught English as a second language to 11th grade students at the village’s local secondary and preparatory school. In addition to classroom teaching, he also engaged in various secondary projects. He started an awareness campaign against open-defecation at his site, where he collaborated with local administration to educate about proper sanitation and created signage to deter open-defecation. He also served as Media and Communications Chair for the Peace Corps Ethiopia “Developing Racial/Ethnic Allyship with Multicultural Support” (DREAMS) Committee with a focus on building and maintaining a strong social media presence to continually promote diversity. He was the Editor-in-Chief for DREAMS countrywide newsletter “The Quarterly Cup”. He created, organized, and facilitated trainings that are still being used to help bridge barriers of experiences between PCV’s of color and others. Finally, he started and initiated a weeklong anti-cheating campaign at the local primary school to combat the prevalence of cheating in the Ethiopian school culture. Tosh is also a former AmeriCorps City Year volunteer and current communications chair for the Rotary Club of Downtown Phoenix Thunderbird.

Karen DeWitt

Member

Wolleso/Ghion, 1966-68

Karen DeWitt is a 30- year award-winning TV- print- radio journalist, columnist and foreign correspondent. She also has been communications director for a state political campaign, national nonprofits, and a major utility.

She blogs at On Fallow Ground and is currently the Director of the Digital Newsroom and a lecturer at the School of Global Journalism and Communications at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland.

A recipient of the R.W. Seton Fellow at Kansas State University (1989-90), Ms. DeWitt has lectured at numerous colleges and universities.

She spent five months in Japan as a 1995-96 Japan Society Fellow.



A Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia from 1966 to 1968, she loves learning, living, and traveling abroad, and speaks multiple languages.

She is the author of “Elvis’ First Bike,” included in “Elvis Monologues,” a collection that together, says editor Lavonne Mueller, “have ironically presented all the things that the real Elvis isn’t.”