The Alliance for Ukraine is pleased to announce our newest volunteers who will be serving as Regional Officers for the organization. Regional Officers are volunteers based in communities around the country (or world) who serve as regional liaisons with the Alliance for Ukraine. They engage Ukraine RPCVs in their area in Third Goal activities, networking, membership and more. We’re excited to have this inaugural group on board!
Nicole Braddick is a Navy Veteran and served as a Youth Development volunteer for Peace Corps. She lived in the small village of Stovpyahy in Kyivska Oblast from 2017-2018. She worked at the Stovpyahy School helping teach English, health education, environmentalism and project management. She also loved to teach art and dance classes. She calls Houston her home. Currently she is an ESL Teacher by night and a Linguistics Tester by day. She loves to see new places and hope to see more of the world some day.
Jeffrey Janis has worked in the non-profit sector for his entire adult life. He focused most of his career on major gifts and he has raised more than $60,000,000. His has worked for organizations such as the United Jewish Appeal, United Way of Greater Los Angeles, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Los Angeles Ronald McDonald House. When he was 44, he became a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine and worked with non- profits helping them with fundraising, grant writing, and strategic planning. While in Ukraine, he was also the Chair of the Peace Corps group of volunteers working on HIV/AIDS and also taught American Sign Language to deaf Ukrainians. He currently is the UCLA Peace Corps Campus Recruiter.
Jeffrey has a B.A. in Psychology from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and a M.B.A. with a focus in nonprofit management from the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, CA. In his free time he is an avid traveller and has been to more than 50 countries.
Jake McGrew is currently teaching math as a Teach for America in the Central Valley of California. He is also the president of the RPCV-founded nonprofit Bridge to Ukraine. Jake taught English in northwest Ukraine as a PCV from 2013 to 2014. A year after Peace Corps Ukraine was temporarily suspended in 2014, he returned to his school in Ukraine on his own and was soon after sworn in as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer from 2015 to 2016.
Jake has a B.S. in economics and music from the University of Oregon and an MPA from Central European University. In his free time, he likes meeting new people and trying new things.
Matthew Russell was part of Peace Corps, Ukraine Group 10 and served in Donetsk from 1997 to 1999. Upon COS Matthew participated in the Peace Corps Fellows program at Western Illinois University, where he graduated with an MBA in 2004. Matthew sat for and passed the CPA exam in 2006. In 2009 Matthew joined USAID and served 4 tours overseas as a Financial Management Officer, 2 tours each in Egypt and Uganda. Matthew is currently an Internal Auditor with the State of Wisconsin. He has one son at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
Gretchen Upholt served as a Community Development Volunteer in Ukraine from 2008-2010. As a CD volunteer she worked with a number of local nonprofit and government organizations in her small village of Korop, in the Chernihivska Oblast. Currently based in Chicago, Gretchen is a trainer and consultant with FMA (Fiscal Management Associates), a consulting and capacity building firm focused on helping nonprofits build their fiscal and operational strength. In addition to her role as a Regional Officer for The Alliance for Ukraine, Gretchen serves as a member of the Finance Committee for the National Peace Corps Association.
Peggy Walton, a retired English teacher in a community college, first served in Peace Corps from 1994-1996 – Ukraine Group 3 in Dnipro (Dnipropetrovsk, at the time). She then served as a Response Volunteer in Lutsk from 2013-2014 when she and others were evacuated due to the political turmoil. She returned to serve as a Response Volunteer in Uzhhorod from 2015-2016. In each city, she was an English Teacher Trainer. Currently, she is an active hospice volunteer and board member of her community association in Baltimore.