CRPPT Leadership

Dr. Helen Lowman is Professor of Practice in the Political Science Department, Public Administration Program, at Texas State University. She also serves as the Director of the Center for Research, Public Policy, and Training and Senior Advisor to the Associate Director of Volunteer Recruitment and Selection at the Peace Corps. Prior to joining the faculty at Texas State University in 2022, she was President and CEO of Keep America Beautiful. In this role for approximately five years, she ran the nonprofit, with more than 3 million volunteers and 650 affiliate organizations, that envisions every community to be a clean, green, and beautiful place to live. 

Dr. Lowman is an innovative and experienced leader in international development, environmental sustainability, and organizational change. In July 2010, Dr. Lowman was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as Regional Director for the Europe, Mediterranean, and Asia region where she oversaw Peace Corps programs in 21 countries. In 2014, Dr. Lowman became Associate Director of Volunteer Recruitment and Selection, overseeing the largest department in the Peace Corps, with staff in eight US-based recruiting offices and Peace Corps Headquarters who were tasked with recruiting, assessing, and placing between 3,000 and 5,000 volunteers in more than 60 countries annually. Dr. Lowman was then appointed by President Obama as Director of Individual and Community Preparedness Division (ICPD) for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the US Department of Homeland Security, in October 2015. In her role as Director of ICPD, she oversaw programs that partner at all levels of government, the private sector, and community organizations to increase citizen and community preparedness and encourage the development of disaster resilience across the United States. 

During her career, Dr. Lowman has served as Country Director and Associate Director of the Peace Corps program in China, acting Country Director in Mongolia, and as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand. She has also held senior leadership positions at AFS Intercultural Programs/USA and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Dr. Lowman has served on numerous boards including, but not limited to, Pyxera Global, World Neighbors, Better World Leadership Council, Osgood Center for International Studies, and the Council on Standards for International Travel Education. 

Dr. Lowman completed her undergraduate studies at Austin College in Sherman, Texas, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in international studies and Spanish. She obtained a master’s degree in international studies from the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies, and both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Leadership and Change from Antioch University. In 2022, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Austin College. 

Lisa Cohen (she/her) is a coach, educator, and progressive philanthropist who spent over 25 years working in intercultural education. As head of global training for each AFS Intercultural Programs based in New York and later US Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington, DC, Lisa supported organizational and leadership development, formal and experiential learning, training design, and navigating difference. She co-founded the Intercultural Competence, Diversity & Inclusion initiative at Peace Corps in 2014. In late 2019, along with her husband, she co-founded Open Horizon, a family foundation based in Alexandria, VA, which collaborates locally and nationally with nonprofit partners to advance racial and social justice. Since April 2020 she has been co-host of a monthly virtual roundtable on race and belonging. The granddaughter of German Jews who fled to the US in the 1930s, she is aware of her unearned privilege as a white person in the US and is committed to being a lifelong learner. She holds a B.A. in History from Cornell University and an Ed.M. in International Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She was born in Panama, where she spent the first three years of her life, and has also lived in Argentina, Portugal, and Denmark. She has worked and traveled in over 40 countries. 

The Honorable Larry Gonzales was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2010, serving a total of four terms before retiring from elected office in 2018. Gonzales has been featured in national publications, TV news programs, and radio talk shows. Rep. Gonzales served on the powerful House Appropriations Committee three times, twice serving as Subcommittee Chairman appropriating funds for forty-two state agencies. Chairman Gonzales was twice appointed to serve on the budget conference committee, one of only five House members to write the final version of the 2016- 2017 and 2018-2019 state budgets. Additionally, after having served as a Member of the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission, Gonzales was appointment to serve as Chairman of that Commission. In that role, Chairman Gonzales oversaw the critical restructuring of twenty-four state agencies to ensure their stated mission was being met effectively and efficiently. In 2017, Larry founded Desk 138, LLC, a business consulting and public affairs company specializing in issue advocacy and business strategic planning. Current clients include global IT companies, various business entities, food banks, autism behavior therapists, primary care doctors, among others. Larry graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993 with a B.A. in Government, and in 2014, graduated from Texas State University with a master’s in public administration. Continuing his academic career, Larry earned his Certified Public Manager (2012) and Certified Mediator (2007) status from Texas State University and was nominated and participated in the UT Austin School of Law Fellows Program, Dispute Resolution (2012). Larry and his wife Marie have been married for 29 years. Marie recently retired as Executive Director of Special Education for Round Rock ISD after a career in education which spanned 29 years. Together they have two children - Leah, 24, a doctoral student at UT Health Science Center in San Antonio, and Alexander, 22, a Visual Communications student who helps run Lazarus Graphics, a graphic design firm Gonzales started in 1996. 

Carrie Hessler-Radelet is the President & CEO of Global Communities, an international non-profit organization dedicated to bringing together local ingenuity and global insights to save lives, advance equity and secure strong futures. Prior to Global Communities, Carrie served as the President & CEO of Project Concern International (PCI), which merged into Global Communities on April 6, 2020. Prior to that, Carrie served as the Acting and then Confirmed Director of the Peace Corps (2012-2017) and Deputy Director (2012-2015), leading America’s iconic international volunteer service organization with programs in over 65 countries. At Peace Corps she and her team led historic reforms to modernize and strengthen the agency to meet the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. Before being appointed to the Peace Corps by President Obama, Carrie worked as the Vice President and Director of the Washington D.C. office of John Snow, Inc. (JSI), overseeing the management of public health programs in 85 countries around the world. Her decades of global health work also included serving as the lead consultant on the first Five-Year Global HIV/AIDS Strategy for the President George W. Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), working with USAID in Indonesia on maternal and child health and HIV programming, founding the Special Olympics in The Gambia, and serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer with her husband in Western Samoa. Carrie is passionate about empowering communities to discover their own sustainable, innovative solutions to ensuring positive health and wellbeing and reducing poverty. She holds a Master of Science in Health Policy and Management from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics from Boston University. 

Elisa brings nearly 25 years of community engagement, business operations, and public service experience. Since 2017, she’s held a wide range of leadership roles in Meow Wolf. Among her accomplishments, she served as the inhouse legal counsel for three years, led the company’s COVID response during two active construction projects, and also set up Meow Wolf’s workplace safety program, while overseeing corporate facilities and insurance during a time of great transformation for our company. Elisa currently manages planning and policy efforts with a focus on social impact and government affairs. In addition to managing Meow Wolf’s community engagement work at the corporate level, she also oversees the department’s budget. Before joining Meow Wolf, Elisa served at the highest levels of government, advancing civic engagement and public service. She spent time working in the US House of Representatives and Senate as a legislative and community counsel to elected officials from California, Colorado, and Nevada. She also worked at the local government level as an advisor to the City and County of Denver. In Barack Obama’s White House, Elisa worked in Presidential Personnel and also as the Counselor to the Director & White House Liaison at the Peace Corps. She advised presidential candidates (Kerry-Edwards, Hillary for America, and Obama-Biden) during national elections on topics ranging from Latinx community outreach, civil rights, and telecommunications and technology policy. Most recently she served on the Biden-Harris White House Office of Management & Budget Transition Team. Elisa is a graduate of Stanford University and also the University of Southern California Law Center and Annenberg School of Communication where she obtained a JD and MA in Entertainment Management. She lives in Santa Fe, NM, where her family has been for many many generations and is thrilled to be a part of the Meow Wolf team.