Peace Corps Breakfast: Global Issues of Environment, Health & Community

Join the UW-Madison Global Health Institute and Peace Corps at UW-Madison Wednesday, September 29 from 8:00-10:00 a.m. for Peace Corps Breakfast: Global Issues of Environment, Health & Community. 

The seminar features Returning Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCV) Kate Schachter, Jamie Cummings and Claire Eldred. The speakers will look at how their Peace Corps experiences have shaped their lives and professional careers.

Register here.

Schachter has broad experience working with Peace Corps after making a personal commitment to her country and the Peace Corps concept in 1961 with President John F. Kennedy’s challenge. She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana from 2004 to 2007. That was followed by active participation on the leadership team of the RPCVs of Wisconsin–Madison, from 2007 to the present. Schachter was also elected as a National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) Board member and Group Leaders Forum Coordinator from 2010 to 2013. In 2016, she returned to volunteer service as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer – Republic of Georgia, and is a co-founder and Group Leader of the RPCVs for Environmental Action.

Cummings graduated with a B.A. in Psychology and completed his pre-medical studies at UW-Milwaukee in 2013. Following graduation, he worked as an Emergency Department Technician before joining the Peace Corps as a Community Health Advisor to Madagascar in 2016. For two years, Cummings served the rural communities of Moramanga, Madagascar, where he supported local health agencies to raise awareness about prenatal and maternal health, water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and malnutrition. In 2018, he extended his service with the research organization Centre ValBio in Ranomafana, Madagascar and worked with a mobile health team that delivered health care to geographically isolated villages surrounding the Ranomafana National Park. Following his close of service in 2019, Cummings moved to Madison where he worked as Nursing Assistant at University Hospital, and is currently a Physician Assistant student at the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

Graduating from UW-Madison with a B.A. in Anthropology and an African Studies certificate, Eldred is a humanitarian aid worker specializing in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and health program management in conflict settings. In the U.S. Peace Corps, she served as a rural community health advisor in Benin focusing on maternal and child health, malaria prevention and water and sanitation projects. In addition, Eldred ran several camps, school clubs and mentoring programs working with youth on issues of gender equality and empowerment. In 2016, she earned her Masters in Public Health (MPH) with a certificate in Public Health and Humanitarian Assistance from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Since earning her MPH, Eldred has worked internationally on health programming in complex emergencies with various international NGOs including Save the Children, IRC, Women’s Refugee Commission and Doctors of the World in DRC, Nigeria, Mali and Bangladesh.

Register here. This in-person event will be held in Room A228, Russell Labs.