Jody Olsen
BS Sociology
Visiting Professor
University of Maryland-Baltimore School of Social Work
Jody Olsen, PhD, MSW, is Visiting Professor at the University of Maryland-Baltimore School of Social Work, director of the campus Student Center for Global Issues, and co-chair of the campus Global Health Interprofessional Council. She teaches international social work and is strengthening international opportunities for students and faculty at the school. She has participated in four inter-professional student summer health research projects in Malawi. She is currently a member of the Council on Global Learning, Research and Practice of CSWE and on the Boards for Kalamazoo College, NAFSA: International Educators, and Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO).
Before joining the faculty, she was Acting Director and Deputy Director of U.S. Peace Corps, 2001 - 2009. She began as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tunisia, and returned to Peace Corp three other times before becoming Deputy Director: country director in Togo, regional director for North Africa, the Near East, Asia, and the Pacific, and agency chief of staff. Between her Peace Corps work she was senior vice president of AED, a large international development organization, executive director of for CIES, the organization managing the Fulbright Senior Scholar Program, and Vice President at YFU, a student exchange organization. Jody Olsen has traveled to over 90 countries for work and has given over 1,000 speeches nationally and internationally. She received both her MSW and PhD from the University of Maryland and has an honorary doctorate from Michigan Technological University.