PRESIDENT

CHARLES GUSSOW (T-11)
Charles Gussow was born in Staten Island, NY and earned a Bachelor of Arts in History and Anthropology from Dartmouth College in 2001. After graduating, he served a year in AmeriCorps with City Year New Hampshire before joining the Peace Corps and heading to Turkmenistan. As a Volunteer, he lived in the town of Balkanabat (see below.) His primary assignment was Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), though he also enjoyed teaching geography lessons, training local educators and running youth leadership programs.

After leaving Turkmenistan, Charles worked for IREX as a Program Assistant in Washington, DC.  He helped administer the State Department's UGRAD undergraduate exchange program for Eurasian students and the US-Russia Volunteer Initiative, a USAID project which sent young medical and cultural preservation professionals between the United States and Russia.  In 2006, he left for the "other Washington" and now resides in Seattle with his wife Kelsey Beckner (T-11).  He currently works as a Program Assistant on the Global Health - Infectious Diseases team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Charles has been a member of Friends of Turkmenistan since returning to the United States.  He previously served on the Executive Committee as Newsletter Editor, a position he still holds on an interim basis. When not working with FoT, he occupies himself by running long distances, cooking messily, and spending large chunks of his paycheck in Seattle's used bookstores.

Charled served in Balkanabat (formerly Nebit Dag) is the regional capital of Balkan Welayat and the country's primary oil production center. The town is located about 100 kilometers from the Caspian Sea, at the foot of the Balkan Daglary mountain range and in the middle of a formidable desert.  The town was originally founded as a Soviet gulag for mostly non-Turkmen citizens who were put to work creating the industrial infrastructure for processing oil.  Since independence, the town's population has seen a large Turkmen influx, though many Russian speaking minority residents remain.  Currently, there are approximately 60,000 residents in the town.

VICE PRESIDENT

SHERYL WALLIN ABRAHAMS (T-11)
Sheryl Wallin Abrahams holds a BA in Biology and Anthropology from Rice University in Houston, Texas, and a Master’s in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From 2002-04, she served as a community health education Volunteer in Nurana village in Murgap etrap, Mary velayat. Her projects included a children’s nutrition coloring book, an informational booklet on breastfeeding, and a 5-day girls’ leadership day camp. After returning from Turkmenistan, Sheryl served as Texas Program Coordinator for the Student Conservation Association in Houston. She currently works as a research investigator for the Department of Maternal and Child Health of the UNC-CH school of Public Health.

Sheryl has been involved with FoT since 2005, and served on its Board of Directors from 2006-07. Originally from the Washington, DC area, Sheryl currently lives in Chapel Hill, NC with her husband Steve, a Duke University graduate student, and their guinea pig, Ginger. She enjoys cooking, exploring NC’s state parks, and cheering against the Duke basketball team.

Sheryl served in Nurana village, a former Soviet Collective farm located approximately half-way between the towns of Murgap and Bayramaly in Mary velayat, not far from the ruins of ancient Merv. Nurana continues to produce cotton, wheat and sugar beets. Its population of approximately 5000 is served by one central House of Health with 15 staff members, and one primary school. 

SECRETARY

EUGENE LIU (T-11)
Eugene Liu grew up in North Canton, Ohio, land of vacuum cleaners and ATMs. He earned his BS in physics at Stanford University. Following graduation, he headed off to Yoloten, Turkmenistan, as a T-11 health volunteer. There, he worked with a family doctor and the local Red Crescent to teach and setup preventative health programs, including a health and juggling club and a health camp for local students. Following his service, he started medical school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, and is hoping to graduate in about a year in the hopes of at last being a productive member of society.

Eugene served as vice-president of FOT last year, and is currently the organization's secretary. When not in the hospital or at school, Eugene enjoys juggling, biking long distances on his road bike, and making/searching for tasty things to eat.

Eugene served in Yoloten (old road), in the Mary region in southern Turkmenistan on the way to Afghanistan, is best known as an oasis watered by the Murgap River. Its streets are lined with trees, and its main street is a boulevard, with two rows of trees running right through the middle. It also boasts a hydroelectric dam, built to power Czar Nicholas' sanitorium in Bayram-Ali.

TREASURER

MATT RENAUD (T-8)
Matt Renaud hails from sunny Santa Barbara, CA. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration at the University of Notre Dame in 1999.  After graduating he worked as a tax accountant at a family owned business in Santa Barbara.  In 2000 he joined the Peace Corps as a Small and Medium Enterprise Consultant in Turkmenistan.

Matt’s primary assignment in the Peace Corps was assisting the operational efficiency and expansion of the Mary Education Center.  In addition he assisted entrepreneurs in starting up their own businesses, taught business courses at the Center, helped a local artisans co-op create an online gallery, and wrote the business plan for a new youth center in Mary.

After completing his Peace Corps service, Matt returned to Santa Barbara and worked with the family owned tax firm for an additional year.  In 2003 Matt earned his MBA at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.  Matt moved to Washington, DC in 2004 and took a job at ACDI/VOCA, and international development nonprofit.  Matt continues to work as the Finance Manager at ACDI/VOCA.

WEBMASTER

HEIDI PARKER (T-11)
Heidi is originally from Tracy, California, but she currently calls Santa Barbara, CA home. She earned her BA in Geography and Anthropology at UC Santa Barbara in 2000. After graduation, she worked as a cartographic artist in Santa Barbara until she joined the Peace Corps in 2002.

Heidi served in Murgap in Mary velayat where she worked as an English teacher, teaching grades 5-9 as well as some adult education courses. Murgap is a medium sized town located south east of the regional capital, Mary. Her Turkmenistan home was famous for having one of the country's worst toilets.

She is currently an Academic Advisor at a Fielding Gradutate University in Santa Barbara, CA, as well as a student in the MA in Organizational Management and Development program. In her free time, she enjoys the beach, camping, hiking and other outdoorsy stuff with her boyfriend, Steve and their golden retriever, Riley.