Catching Up with Former IBD Director Kristi Raube
As part of our ongoing series, IBD is profiling program alumni to learn “Where are they now?”. From the classroom to the field: this week we met with Kristi Raube, former Director of the IBD program and the current head of Peace Corps South Africa.
Those who know IBD from prior to 2018 will remember Kristi Raube, who led the program from 2011 to 2017. Upon retiring from Berkeley, she took a wild leap and accepted a position as the Peace Corps Country Director for the Republic of Liberia. Before her Berkeley-Haas career, Kristi was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Togo, where she trained community groups in health and agriculture projects, and coordinated logistics for Peace Corps training and new volunteers. As Kristi noted, “I’d worked in over 80 countries but missed being “in” a culture. When my youngest son left for college, my husband and I realized we didn’t need to stay in the Bay Area. I really believe in the mission of the Peace Corps and wanted to get back to my roots.”
Kristi spent 2 and half years as Country Director for Liberia, and then 3 years in Kenya reopening Peace Corps after it had been shut down for 7 years following the Westgate Shopping Mall attack. Kristi recalls, “It was very hard to restart a post- we had 4 people, no car, no office. But it was like running a startup and really exciting to recreate an entire organization.” She is now the Country Director for South Africa, which is unique in that it serves as one of 3 posts in the world that is also a regional hub overseeing medical and safety for the region’s Peace Corps volunteer.
She explains, “30 years ago Mandela invited Peace Corps to the country with a focus on HIV/AIDs, and education. The country has the highest number of people with HIV of anywhere in the world. Our volunteers primarily work in the rural community to increase awareness through education. We also teach early grade literacy, quite a challenge in a country with 12 official languages. In 4th grade, all schooling moves from tribal languages to English only, and 85% of 4th graders can’t read for meaning”.
As Kristi wraps up her tenure with the Peace Corps we’re looking forward to what global challenges she plans to tackle next.
Here is a link to the newsletter announcing Kristi’s departure from IBD to the peace corp back in 2017 https://haas.berkeley.edu/international-business-development/blog/posts/hello-liberia-ibds-executive-director-kristi-raube-takes-on-a-new-adventure/
