Nickname: Wes

E - mail: epeterson1 - unl - edu

I’ve enjoyed reading the bios and finding out what everyone has been doing. I’m currently a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. My wife Andrea (Andi) makes fabulous hand-crafted jewelry (check out her stuff at www.K-ACreations.com). I got here by way of UC-Berkeley where I learned about free speech, spent my junior year in France and got a BA in anthropology. The next stop was Benin (West Africa) where I worked on an agricultural project as a Peace Corps Volunteer. After that, I directed a few Peace Corps training programs in various places and then went to Princeton for a Masters in Public Affairs. After a couple of years working for a non-government organization in Togo (West Africa), I did a PhD in agricultural economics at Michigan State. My first academic position was at a French graduate business school near Paris and after that, I took a position at Texas A&M where I met Andi. We moved to Lincoln in 1990 and, with the exception of a sabbatical in Delaware, have been here ever since. I’ve been able to do a fair amount of international travel mostly in Africa and Europe for research and consulting. In recent years, I’ve served as an election monitor/observer in Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Ukraine. Andi and I have also traveled for pleasure and we hope to do more of that in the future. Meanwhile, I’m writing a book and playing my guitar (badly) while Andi oversees the house renovation and makes beautiful jewelry. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the reunion.