APRIL WEBINAR
THURSDAY, APR. 15, 2021, 7 PM - 8 PM CDT
PEACE CORPS IN SOUTH KOREA
This month, GKF board member Kathianne Crane and former GKF board member Richard Stevenson will be discussing their experiences as Peace Corps volunteers in South Korea during the 1960s and 1970s.
Kathianne served as a Peace Corps volunteer in South Korea in 1967-1968. She was assigned to teach English at Taegu Girls Middle School in Taegu, a provincial capital in south east Korea. She will talk about her experience as a volunteer in the education program during the beginning years of Peace Corps in Korea. She will also discuss the history of Peace Corps in Korea from 1966-1981, and the unique continuing relationship between the former volunteers and Korea.
Richard lived in South Korea from 1970 to 1974. He spent his first two years as a Peace Corps volunteer serving in a public health center in Buan Gun, Jeollabuk Do, in rural southwest South Korea, which will be the focus of his discussion. He will address his reasons joining Peace Corps, functions within the WHO Model Tuberculosis Control Program in which he served, adjustments to a totally foreign setting, contributions to the population he served, and benefits he gained by so serving.
ABOUT KATHIANNE CRANE
Kathianne, of Clayton, Missouri, was educated at Washington University, majoring in political science, and St Louis University School of Law. In 2013, after 23 years on the bench, she retired as a judge on the Missouri Court of Appeals, where she was the first woman to serve as chief judge of a Missouri appellate court. While on the court she also chaired several statewide Missouri Supreme Court committees. Her prior legal career included ten years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and eight years in private practice. She brings 37 years of non-profit board experience, currently serving on the board of The State Historical Society of Missouri and having previously served on the boards of Legal Services of Eastern Missouri (Treasurer and Vice President), Nerinx Hall High School (Board Chair), The Scholarship Foundation of St Louis (Secretary and Vice President), and The Family Support Network.
ABOUT RICHARD STEVENSON
Richard received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis. Aside from his two years as a Peace Corps volunteer under the auspices of the Ministry of Health, Republic of Korea, Richard also spent a third year with the Seoul National University demonstration public health center near Chuncheon, Gangwon Province. He then remained a fourth year on the staff of two training programs for new, incoming Peace Corps-Korea volunteers. Upon return to the United States, he retired following 42 years serving in a variety of programmatic and organizational management positions with the American Lung Association of Eastern Missouri and the St. Louis affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
ABOUT LIZ LENIVY (MODERATOR)
Liz is an attorney with the Simon Law Firm, P.C., in St. Louis and focuses her practice on medical malpractice, product defect, and mass tort litigation. Born in South Korea, Liz moved to the St. Louis Metropolitan area at the age of three. She graduated from St. Louis University with a B.A. in English and a certification in Legal Studies. She is also a 2015 graduate of St. Louis University School of Law, where she attended as an 1843 Scholar. She is a board member of the Young Friends of Legal Services of Eastern Missouri and a member of several professional organizations including the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, the Missouri Asian American Bar Association, and the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys. During her senior year at SLU, she was elected President of the Korean Student Association and focused her tenure on raising funds and awareness for North Korean refugees.