International Programs

Patrick Proden's jobs have taken him from one extreme to another: from the concrete jungle of Baltimore's rough inner city, to a tiny town in rugged Alaska with no indoor plumbing, to the hot and humid coast of Tanzania.

And now Oregon.

Proden, a former country director for the Peace Corps in Tanzania, is the new head of the Oregon State University Extension Service's operations in Multnomah and Washington counties. He is also the administrator for Extension's 4-H youth development program in both counties.

Proden, who grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, brings 15 years of
professional experience to his new job. As the head of the Peace Corps
in Tanzania, he was responsible for more than 100 volunteers and
managed a staff of 32 and a $3 million annual budget that supported
programs involving education, health, HIV/AIDS and the environment, he
said. Early in his career, he worked for the Peace Corps in Niger where
he advised communities on topics like erosion control, crops and animal
husbandry.