Karen Wiese, Director, grew up in Grinnell and graduated from the College, where her mother worked, in 1973. She spent the next two years in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia, then earned her M.S. in agricultural economics from Iowa State University in 1980. She entered the United States Foreign Service, where she worked in rural development for five years, with postings in Egypt, Morocco, Italy, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. After doing similar work for a private consulting firm based in Vermont, she returned to her home town of Grinnell in 1995 to organize this office. Her life is now controlled by the schedule of the Chicago Cubs.