Genna Wangsness
Genna spent two years as a volunteer secretary from 1965-67, the first year in the Tehran Peace Corps office and the second assigned to Shiraz with Jay Crook to set up and operate a southern regional Peace Corps office. In 1967, she and Roger Wangsness married, remaining in Iran for four years, their daughter Alison and son Christopher born in Tehran. After two years in Ithaca, NY, where son Brian was born, the family moved to Virginia, with Roger working at U.S. Housing and Urban Development in DC and Genna at Georgetown University where she was secretary/office manager in the office of the university president. In 1997, Genna and Roger moved to Folkston, Georgia, the “Entrance to Okefenokee Swamp,” and opened a bed & breakfast. Retiring in 2006, they moved to DeLand, Florida. PCIA appointed Genna historian in 2012. In 2023 Genna completed a decade of work on the history of the Peace Corps in Iran with the publication of Land Between Two Waters: The Peace Corps Fourteen Years in Iran.