Carrie Hessler-Radelet

Carolyn "Carrie" Hessler-Radelet is the President & CEO of Global Communities. In 2017, she served as the President & CEO of Project Concern International (PCI)], a San Diego–based international development and humanitarian assistance organization, and spearheaded the merger of the organization with the Silver Spring, Maryland–based Global Communities in 2020. Prior to leading PCI, Hessler-Radelet was the 19th director of the Peace Corps, from 2014 to 2017. She was the Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Peace Corps from April 2010 to December 2015, serving as Acting Peace Corps Director from September 2012 until June 2014 when she was elevated to Director. She resigned on January 20, 2017, to join Project Concern International (PCI) as its President & CEO.

Education Hessler-Radelet received a B.A. in political science and economics from Boston University in 1979. She earned a Master of Science in health policy and management, with a concentration in international health and marketing, from Harvard School of Public Health in 1990. There she helped to design a national public awareness campaign on disaster preparedness. She was appointed on June 23, 2010. She was confirmed as director on June 5, 2014. As Peace Corps director, Hessler-Radelet has led an extensive organizational reform effort, most notably to enhance the health and safety of trainees and volunteers (including the development of a sexual assault risk reduction and response program); improve the quality of Peace Corps’ technical training and program support for volunteers; increase the impact and operational efficiency of agency operations; strengthen intercultural competence, diversity and inclusion; enhance the visibility and image of Peace Corps; attracted record numbers of applicants; and expand and strengthen public-private partnerships to increase funding, enhance brand image and strengthen technical programming.

Service in presidential delegations

Hessler-Radelet led or joined two presidential delegations. On January 13, 2012, President Barack Obama announced the delegation to attend the inauguration of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia. On January 16, 2012, Hessler-Radelet, then Peace Corps deputy director, traveled to Monrovia as part of a presidential delegation led by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and also including then United States Ambassador to Liberia Linda Thomas-Greenfield and United States Senator Christopher Coons, of Delaware, among others. On February 20, 2013, President Barack Obama announced the delegation to attend the inauguration of Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone. Hessler-Radelet led the delegation.

President and CEO of Project Concern International and Global Communities In February 2017, Hessler-Radelet was named President and CEO of Project Concern International, a San Diego-based international development organization, by the board of directors. In 2019, Project Concern International merged with Global Communities, and in October 2022 Hessler-Radelet was named the president and CEO of Global Communities.

Honors and awards

Hessler-Radelet has received honorary degrees from Austin College (2013), University of Puget Sound (2015), Boston University (2016), Michigan Technological University (2016), Virginia Wesleyan University (2016), and Williams College (2016). She received the Society for International Development, Award for Outstanding Leadership in International Development in November 2016.

Personal life

Hessler-Radelet and her husband, international development economist Steven Radelet, served together as a couple in the Peace Corps and have two grown children.