Our Board and Leaders

Charles “Chuck” Kaminski (Iran 23, Kermanshah 1969-70) was born in Brooklyn, New York and obtained his B.Arch. from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. Joined the Peace Corps in 1969 and trained in Morrison, Colorado. Spent one year as a PC Volunteer and stayed another year in Tehran teaching English at the Iran-America Society. Career included running an architectural office and being a staff architect/project manager at the University of California, San Diego prior to retiring in 2013. My late husband, Jeffrey Shorn, was also a RPCV (Iran 14, Kerman/Ahwaz 1966-68). Trustee of the San Diego History Center and Board Member Emeritus of Lambda Archives of San Diego. Co-chair with Bill Brandon of the Future of PCIA Task Force that is examining how PCIA will strategically approach the future as the membership ages out. “My PC experience was one of those “ah” moments as a 23-year old discovering a world not imagined before. I would like to think I would bring my planning and organizing skills and offer new possibilities as a Board member.”

Jackie Spurlock served in Peace Corps Iran from 1974-76 where she taught English in Iranian public schools. After Peace Corps, she and husband Mike remained in Iran, where Jackie was a librarian at the University of Isfahan, ultimately leaving Iran in 1978. Jackie has returned to Iran three times since Peace Corps, in 2006, 2008, and 2019. Those trips were life changing, and she feels a sense of urgency about countering the negative images of Iran in the press and media with a more informed and nuanced picture. She helped organize the first reunion of Iran Peace Corps volunteers in over 25 years, held in Portland, OR in 2011. From this event grew the Peace Corps Iran Association, formed in 2012, of which Jackie was the first president. Jackie is passionate about improving understanding of Iranians on the part of Americans, defusing fear, educating, informing, and peacebuilding. Jackie is a retired public librarian, and lives in Portland, OR. [email protected]

Marie Mitchell along with her husband Charlie, originally from western Kansas, were sent to Mahallat, in the central part of Iran after language training in Borujerd. Mahallat is about 30 kilometers northeast of Khomein. They taught English to first year Rahnamai students. After they earned Masters from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, they returned to Iran and taught English for the Army-Air Corps in Esfahan. In 1978, the revolution and the death of their son forced them to leave. They taught at Wichita State before moving to Tempe, Arizona. Marie taught English as a Second Language at ASU from 1980 to 2013 except for 4 years in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. ASU sent her to Kosova in 2002 and Baghdad, Iraq in 2010 for English teaching/training. After Charlie’s passing in 2022, she continues to spend time volunteering at the Musical Instrument Museum, riding motor scooters, and traveling the world.

Ed Seiders trained with group 18 in Clearfield, UT, and served in Noshahr, on the Caspian Sea, in Mazandaran Ostan, from the end of 1967 to early 1970 in a municipal development program (mostly .engineers and architects). Ed graduated from Drexel University in 1966 with a degree in mechanical engineering, so after Peace Corps he went to work for Jovan Consulting Engineers, in Tehran, mostly working on oil field projects for NIOC. He spent six years with Jovan. He subsequently joined a U.S. engineering company and moved to Tehran when the company opened an office there. In Tehran he met his wife, Stella. The couple were living in Tehran it the time of the revolution. Over the years Ed’s work has taken him to almost all countries in South America, Nigeria and Cameroon in Africa, Yemen in the Middle East and to Pakistan.

Skip Auld taught English to 200 9th grade boys, ages 12-20, in Mahallat, Iran in 1973-1974. A year after returning home, he began a career in libraries as a clerk-typist at Duke University Libraries. Since 2010, he has been Chief Executive Officer of the Anne Arundel County Public library system based in Annapolis, Maryland. Skip met his spouse at Duke & they have a son and daughter in their 30s.

Paul Barker taught English in the Bidokht High School for two years and then at the Tribal HS in Shiraz for two years, and then worked as a Team Leader/Field Officer for the PC Iran TEFL program for one year. He met his wife, Nora, in Bahrain where she taught nursing as a PCV. After earning an MA in Islamic Studies at UCLA and a brief teaching experience in Portland, Oregon, he and Nora lived and worked in the greater Middle East and East Africa for 32 years, where they raised their 3 children. He retired from full-time work in 2014. Paul and Nora live in the forest west of Eugene, Oregon and travel quite a bit – with an emphasis on bicycle touring.

Bill served in Shiraz, 1964-67. He was assigned to a youth club, where his most productive
activity was teaching English to young students whose families couldn’t afford the tuition at the
Iran-American Society. In his second year he also taught Western Philosophy at Pahlavi
University and continued at the youth club.

On his way back overland after completing his PC service, he spent a year at the London School of Economics and Political Science where he earned an MSc in the history of political theory and received a three-month internship in a bank
in Tours, France. Forty years later he again lived overseas for ten months as a Fulbright Fellow
on the faculty of a medical school in Muscat, Oman.

His principal contributions since joining the PCIA Board in 2021 have been to help lead the
systematic strategic planning effort in 2021-2022, service on the Program Committee planning
the 2025 in-person conference, and liaison to the filmmakers making a documentary about the
Peace Corps in Iran. In 1999 he organized and led a group of Returned Peace Corps
Volunteers to Iran as part of an effort to promote reconciliation under the auspices of the
National Peace Corps Association and Friendship Force. In 2003 he served as president of the
Charlotte Area Peace Corps Association, his local NPCA affiliate.

I was in the Peace Corps in Iran from 1968 to 1970 serving in Zahedan and teaching English as a foreign language in both of the girls’ high schools there.

It was a very good experience for me as I was able to befriend many of my faculty colleagues .  Also as Zahedan is the capital of Sistan and Baluchestan province,  there were many government officials working there just as I was and I was therefore invited to many Iranian celebrations and activities.

The relations between Iran and the U.S. have certainly been strained for some time and not necessarily improving of late. Therefore, the Peace Corps Iran Association has the unusual opportunity to bridge some of these gaps as its members have positive experiences from the past to bring to the present and future Iran/America relations. I would very much like to be able to contribute to their continuing efforts to find common ground upon which to build and improve this relationship.

Joan was a volunteer in the Iran TEFL program from 1964 — 1966. She taught English in the middle and high schools of Rasht and then Lahijan, living with an Iranian family. After returning to the United States she took her doctorate in history from the University of Michigan in 1978 and taught humanities and history at a community college near Ann Arbor, where she met her husband. Joan retired in 1996 and has published several books. Currently she serves on a nonprofit board focused on adult literacy. For exercise, she shovels manure at her daughter’s horse farm

Jim served in Tuyserkan, 1968-1971, as a TEFLer. He worked with in-country summer training programs in 1969 and 1971, and met his future wife, Virginia, during that second program. Following PC service, he taught history and English at Alam High School, Mashhad, 1971-1973. After five years teaching in Australia, where their two sons were born, he returned to the US to complete a PhD in the history of American foreign relations. He taught for thirty-two years at Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he led a successful effort to create a Middle East Studies program. He has taught courses on Iran, Islam and the Middle East. Jim retired in 2018, and he and Virginia, now live in San Luis Obispo, California.

Jeanette Grayson Gottlieb served in Iran from 1965 to 1967 in the 1EFL (reaching English as a Foreign Language) program. Since returning she has been involved in Third Goal projects, such as school enrichment programs to bring the world into inner city classrooms and also sharing Iranian culture with community groups. She is active with her local Returned Peace Corps group and the local Persian Speaking Cultural Community. She also teaches part time for the YMCA aquatics and volunteers as instructor and Instructor Trainer for the American Red Cross.

After training in Borujerd, Brad Hanson taught English at the Khaf HS near the Afghanistan border 1973-75, and at Tribal HS in Shiraz 1975-77, including one year after Peace Corps departed Iran. He then studied at UCLA and the American University in Cairo to earn an MA in Near Eastern Studies. He joined the Foreign Service, serving most of his 30-year career abroad in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Yemen, and Australia, but also a few years in the US at the US Mission to the UN in NY and at the Department of State. One year in Washington he earned an MA in Strategic Studies from the National Defense University. He loves to travel, especially by bike thru new territory, and to study new languages. Since retiring in 2012 he has tried to remain engaged with Afghans and on Iran-related issues.  Along with Skip Auld, Brad serves as co-chair of the 2025 conference in Washington, D.C.

Katie Hug(Wilhelm) served in Peace Corps Iran from 1970-1972, along with then-husband John Wilhelm. After training in the TEFL program in Hamedan, they were both assigned to girls’ schools in Birjand in Khorassan. After returning to the States, Katie earned a Master of Music degree in piano performance and pedagogy and taught at both Kent State University and Malone College in Canton, Ohio; as well as maintaining a full complement of students in her home studio.

She was with her second husband Greg Hand for twelve years until his death from brain cancer in 2020. She has resided in Cleveland Heights, OH for 43 years.

John Krauskopf, a Peace Corps volunteer in Iran from 1965 to 1967, taught English in the boys’ secondary schools in Ahwaz. He also helped establish an adult English program for faculty and staff of the education ministry there. In 1968, he joined the staff of three Iran Peace Corps training projects conducted by the Experiment in International Living (EIL) in Vermont and Iran. After ten years of involvement with international students at EIL, Krauskopf spent more than two decades as the foreign student adviser and later the director of the English as a Second Language Institute in Millbrae, California. In 2014 he published his personal memoir, “Iran — Stories from the Peace Corps,” a collection of Iranian cross-cultural anecdotes. In 2016 he served as a cultural interpreter on the first National Peace Corps Association “Next-step Travel” program to visit Iran.

John Salamack began Peace Corps service in Iran in 1965, serving as an English teacher in Bojnoord, Khorassan, several hours travel from the provincial capital, Mashhad. After Iran, he worked for Peace Corps in Washington, DC for several years in the Office of Volunteer Support and then became the Peace Corps Training Director in Morocco and Yemen. Subsequently, he was Director of the Save the Children Federation in Yemen, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Somalia, the Dominican Republic, Egypt and Italy. He now is Executive Director of a nonprofit organization he helped create, Clothes Helping Kids, Inc. based in Albuquerque, NM.

Doug served in the OMRAN rural development program in Semnan province in Semnan, Damghan, and Shahrud (1966-1967) where he worked on bath houses, schools, water supply systems, etc. After Peace Corps service, Doug began his career in education as an elementary teacher in such places as Chicago and Berlin before returning to Iowa. He served as an elementary school principal for 19 years finishing his career as Superintendent of Schools in southeastern Iowa. He traveled to Iran as a tourist in 2002 and again in 2014. A founding member of the Peace Corps Iran Association, Doug was PCIA treasurer until early 2019

Kerry Segel served as a PCV in Khonsar Iran from 1969 to 1971, then taught at the University
of Isfahan from 1971 to 1973 and Jundi Shapour University from 1975 through 1978, where he
met his wife, Ezat. He completed an M.A. in Foreign Language Education (1975) and a Ph.D. in
Education/Reading (1986). From 1986 until his retirement in 2021 he was a professor of English
at Saginaw Valley State University, where he developed the ESL endorsement program. He also
created and taught courses in Middle East literature in translation and was a founding member
of the Golshan-e-Parsi literary society. He is currently translating Persian-language travelogs
written by his mentor in Khonsar, Dr. M.H. Tasbihi.

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.