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James Arena-DeRosa New England Regional Director of Peace Corps

jarena-derosa@peacecorps.gov

James Arena-DeRosa, New England Regional Director of Peace Corps, has over 20 years of international development experience and has worked with community organizations and government agencies in over 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

A native of Boston, Massachusetts, James received his bachelors in Anthropology at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. and now teaches a graduate course in International Policy and Advocacy at the Brandeis University Masters Program in Sustainable International Development

Prior to his work at Peace Corps, James served as the Director of Public Advocacy at Oxfam America – where in the late 1980s he developed one of the first advocacy programs in the country for an international development organization.

In this role James established a Washington presence for Oxfam, and served as the lead advocate to the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Congress, the United Nations and the White House. Before Oxfam, James was Special Assistant to the Massachusetts Secretary of State and after training with the United Farmworker leadership worked on several state and national political campaigns.

An active member of his community, James served as an elected member of the Holliston Finance Committee with oversight responsibilities for a $30 million budget, and for many years coached Little League Baseball. He has served on the boards of the Italian American Charitable Association and the Dante Alighieri Society, and worked his way through college as a disc jockey. A devoted father of two sons - Anthony and Alessandro - James plays on the Peace Corps softball team is a passionate Red Sox fan who lived to see them win the World Series in 2004.

In his current service with the Peace Corps, James has served almost 8 years as New England Regional Director in the Boston Office, and was extended to a final tour that will conclude in the spring of 2008.