Jan. 8, 2026

#21 - Jody Olsen

Show Notes

Josephine (Jody) Olsen called her Peace Corps memoir 'A Million Miles' - and while the distance from her traditional Mormon upbringing in Utah and a rural Tunisian health clinic may not have been a literal million miles, it likely felt like even more. But those miles brought countless lessons, all of which she put to good use when, after decades of leadership roles within the Peace Corps, she became its 20th Director, serving from 2018 to 2021.

In March, 2020, because of the COVID pandemic, she led the successful nine-day evacuation of all 7,000 Peace Corps Volunteers from 61 countries to the US. Jody was a Peace Corps
Volunteer, Tunisia, 1966-1968, and has served the agency in five other senior positions. Her memoir about her Peace Corps service, A Million Miles, is now available.

Today she co-chairs Women of Peace Corps Legacy (WPCL), chairs the Peace Corps Park Advisory Committee and Univ. of MD, College of Education Board of Visitors, and
is on the Maryland Governor’s Commission for Service and Volunteerism. Jody received a BS from the University of Utah, and a Master’s and PhD from the University of Maryland.