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| LPCA Board of Directors 
Ryan Mast - President
Guatamala (2002-2004)
Originally from Illinois, Ryan Mast served as an agriculture extentionist in Guatemala from 2002 to 2004. During his time in country, he worked with multiple organizations, women’s groups, and local schools educating on the topics of sustainable agriculture practices, environmental health, and nutrition. In addition to his regular assigned duties, he also served as president of the Volunteer Advisory Counsel and Volunteer Trainer for the agriculture program. After the Peace Corps, Ryan moved to New Orleans and received a MA in Latin American Studies from Tulane University. He currently continues to work and reside in the city.
Bruce Ingber - Vice President, Service Project Coordinator
Bruce Ingber was raised in Boston, Mass. graduating from Northeastern University in Boston (biology major) in 1968. He continued his education going to UMass grad school in plant pathology September, 1969. After entering a UMass /Peace Corps program in the School of International Studies, Bruce joined Peace Corps in June, 1969 (in-country training) and went to Malawi. He was assigned to Bunda College of Agriculture in Lilongwe, Malawi. Besides assistant teaching biology and chemistry labs for two years, he was asked to do research on tomato and potato varietal studies. Some research articles were published in the Bunda Research Bulletin and helped him obtain a Master’s degree from UMass when I returned there in 1971. He started working for USDA, Agricultural Research Service in 1972. For most of that time, Bruce has been an electron microscopist working at Stoneville, MS, Beltsville, MD, and now New Orleans (since 1982). His research has included imaging cotton, textiles, fungi, nematodes, termites, and various other odd things. Oddest was investigating effects of IUD’s on sheep in the 1970’s.
Sarah Harelson Truxillo, MPH
Vice President, Social Events Co-Chair
Bangladesh (2003-2006)
Originally from Bethesda Maryland, moved to California for College, Bangldesh for Peace Corps and New Orleans for Masters, Life, and met her husband! They recently bought a closet in the Quarter and hope to never leave unless it's for another International Opportunity!
Sarah's project during her Peace Corps service in Bangladesh was teaching English to secondary school girls. After Peace Corps she extended her time in Bangladesh with Family Health International working on HIV prevention measures. Sarah is currently employed by Tulane University’s Payson Center for International Development and Technology transfer as a Program Manager of the East African Programs. Sarah loves this community and hope to continue to serve in the capacity time affords!
Devon McGuinness - Vice President, Social Events, Co-Chair
Devon McGuinness was a business / non-profit volunteer in Ukraine 2003 - 2005. After her stint with the coolest cats in Lutsk, she worked in Kyiv with American Councils and then as a consultant for an IT firm in Manhattan. Devon hails from Brooklyn, NY via the NY/NJ/CT metropolitan area and moved to NOLA to study Urban and Regional Planning at the University of New Orleans as part of the Fellows/ USA program. She enjoys horseback riding, gardening, Vietnamese po’boys and many of the finer aspects New Orleans has to offer.
Brian Luckett - Treasurer
Aimee Lyons - Secretary
Togo (2002-2004)
Aimee doesn't really come from any place in particular. She gets a bit antsy around the two year mark...hence, Peace Corps was a perfect fit. After serving as a Community Health and AIDS Prevention volunteer, Aimee moved to NYC where she worked for the Population Council before heading down to New Orleans for grad school at Tulane. She recently graduated with her MSW/MPH and is currently interning in Rwanda in hopes of one day becoming gainfully employed.
Michael Hornsby - Membership Coordinator
Mozambique (2000-2003)
Michael Hornsby grew up in Texas and served as an education volunteer in Mozambique from 2000-03, a period he followed with a trip to Jazzfest with his bags packed. Since settling for a bit, he's made a living with a variety of jobs including animal handler, bartender, prep-cook, fence builder, musician, and cemetery groundskeeper. He is a student of international development at Tulane University because he's ready to get back out to learn some new languages, meet some new folks, and maybe eat something with a name that he'll need serious help to pronounce. Send him your email address and he'll keep you up to date on the latest from LAPCA.  Michael Grodsky -- Web Coordinator Turkmenistan (2003-2005)
Michael was born and raised in Mobile, Alabama. He joined the Peace Corps after graduating from Indiana University and living in San Francisco for two years. Michael completed his service in Turkmenistan and returned to the US in December 2005. He moved to New Orleans in January 2006 to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina and has been here ever since. 
Mike Madej - Grant Coordinator
Kenya (2006-2008)
Mike hails from Ann Arbor, Michigan. He joined the Peace Corps in 2006 and his service took him to Coastal Kenya. After returning from Kenya Mike moved down to New Orleans where he briefly served in AmeriCorps and worked as a program manger with a GED preparation program. Currently Mike is working as the Recruitment/Training Coordinator for CASA New Orleans. 
David Wessel - Director at Large, 50th Anniversary Liaison
Columbia (1962-1964), Crisis Corps Volunteer - El Salvador (2001-2002)
Dave has served as the LPCA Newsletter Editor, Vice President, Treasurer and was the LPCA President from 1997-2000. He was born in 1938 in Miami Beach, Florida. Dave came to New Orleans to attend Loyola University and earned his Bachelors in History in 1962.
He served in Columbia as a Community Development Peace Corps Volunteer from 1962-64 and then taught at Warren Easton High School in New Orleans from 1964-65. Dave went on to earn his MA in Latin American History at Indiana State University in 1969.
He was the Executive Director of Junior Achievement in Terre Haute, Indiana from 1965-70 and in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida from 1970-1976. He was a Manufacturer's Rep. in New Orleans from 1976-1979 and was in Real Estate Sales from 1979 -2004. Additionally, Dave is the Founder of Grace House of New Orleans, which is a non-profit treatment center for alcohol and/or drug addicted, indigent females. He served as President and Executive Director of that organization from 1986-1992. He has been married to Linda Trusty since 1965 and has four grown children.
Joshua Norman - Newsletter Editor
Togo (2002-2004)
Josh was born and raised in New Jersey. (No jokes, please.) He joined the Peace Corps in June, 2000, less then one month after graduating from NYU. While in the Peace Corps as an agroforestry volunteer, Josh focused on Apiculture education and business promotion, which was a painful learning experience. After the Peace Corps, Josh bounced around from DC, to Harlem, to the Mississippi Gulf Coast before ending up in New Orleans. Currently, Josh is a reporter at two small community weekly newspapers.
John Westra - Baton Rouge Liaison, Co-Chair
Guatemala (1984-1986)
John Westra is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at Louisiana State University where he conducts research and delivers extension programming related to how agricultural and environmental policies influence farm management decisions and how those decisions affect income from farming, natural resource use and environmental quality. Current research and extension efforts include a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project to increase our understanding of the linkages of human and natural systems in agricultural landscapes to water quality (hypoxia) and cooperative agreement projects with USDA-ARS on economic efficiency and nutrient reduction effectiveness of drainage water management systems and other resource-conserving practices.
Prior to LSU, Westra was an Assistant Professor at St. Olaf College in Minnesota where he taught courses in Natural Resource and Environmental Economics. He received a PhD in Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota (2001) and an MS in Agricultural Economics at the University of Maine (1991). After receiving a BA in Psychology at Grinnell College in Grinnell Iowa (1984) Westra served in the Peace Corps for two years working with Guatemalan farmers to help them build and manage fish ponds.
Westra enjoys playing soccer and cycling, as well as leading Scouting activities for his sons, when not watching his sons’ soccer matches.  Veneeth Iyengar - Baton Rouge Liaison, Co-Chair
Phillipines
Veneeth spent the last seven years of his career in the nonprofit and IT offshore outsourcing industries. He has worked in corporate development, mergers and acquisitions, operations and sales for two large publicly held companies in the technology industry. Veneeth was formerly a United States Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines and was involved in the formation of several nonprofits and start-ups in Asia. His passion is entrepreneurship and building value for nonprofit organizations. Veneeth graduated from Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management with a Bachelors degree in Economics. He lives in Baton Rouge.
Ruth Mentley - Lafayette Liaison
Senegal (1965-1967)
Armed with a liberal arts diploma, Ruth joined the Peace Corps in 1965 and served in Senegal, West Africa as a Community Development Volunteer. There she worked with a Catholic Mission that was based out of Nacey, France. Ruth’s primary job consisted of conducting basic pre and post blood and albumin tests and giving basic child nutrition classes. Some of her favorite activities while serving in Peace Corps were bike rides to Basse Gambia where she and other volunteers and friends were able to purchase fluffy bread, ginger beer, Lion's Golden syrup and orange squash.
After returning from Peace Corps in1967, Ruth began her teaching career in the small New York village of Copenhagen, near the Tug Hill Plateau. After escaping from the tiny New York village she traveled to Turkey where she taught English (ESL) for three years. Ruth then returned to the States and studied at the University of Utah where she graduated an MA in ESL. After graduate school she went to work at a new independent Navajo school near Ramah, New Mexico called Pine Hill. Eventually Ruth married and settled permanently in Lafayette, LA where her husband became a Math teacher and Ruth taught college English as well as several levels of ESL.
Ruth has enjoyed many activities with her husband including but not limited to bee keeping, SCUBA diving and camping. One of her greatest joy’s has been watching her daughter grow up to become an independent, creative young woman. 
Tony Li - Ex-Officio Liaison/Tulane MI Coordinator Vanuata (2004-2008)
Tony was born in New York, but grew up in SOUTH Jersey! After graduating from Drexel University with an Engineering degree he decided to join Peace Corps. During his time overseas in Vanuatu, he taught Math and Science as a secondary education volunteer and worked on alternative energy projects such as wind, solar and biomass power. Currently, Tony is attending Tulane’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine majoring in Tropical Medicine. He is also the Master’s International Coordinator representing Tulane. | |
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