 hristopher Hedrick became the Peace Corps Country Director in Senegal in September of 2007. Peace Corps has nearly 200 Volunteers working across Senegal in forestry, agriculture, health, small enterprise development, eco-tourism and environmental education programs. He focuses on developing relationships with Peace Corps partners, pushing innovative programming and training approaches, providing administrative and financial oversight, and supporting Volunteers in their work in the field.
Prior to arriving in Dakar, he was the President and CEO of Intrepid Learning Solutions, a venture capital-backed training services firm headquartered in Seattle that has over 200 employees. He guided Intrepid's strategic direction, focusing on operations, finances, and client, board, and investor relations. Under his leadership, Intrepid was named by Inc. magazine as one of fastest growing companies in America.
Before founding the company in 1999, Hedrick was Science and Technology Policy Advisor to the Governor of Washington State, which was twice recognized as "the Digital State" for the nation's best use of technology in government and education. Previously, he was the Director of Strategy and Operations for the Gates Library Foundation, which later became the core initial program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Library Foundation was an outgrowth of Hedrick's work managing national philanthropic programs and education industry interactions at Microsoft. From 1993-95, he was the Director of Domestic Programs at the Peace Corps international headquarters. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer focused on rural community development in Dindefelo, Senegal from 1988-90.
He has also directed a congressional office, was assistant director of the Washington State agency tasked with improving the water quality in Puget Sound, and was an elected member of Olympia, Washington School Board. Hedrick graduated from Stanford University with honors and distinction and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he studied political history and was awarded letters in rugby and basketball. From 199-2007, he was a board member and treasurer of PATH, the largest recipient of Gates Foundation global health funding. Until his departure for Senegal, he was Chairman of the Board of The Evergreen State College and Chairman of the Board of the Digital Learning Commons. He speaks French, Pulaar and some Wolof.
Chris has five sons, Hassana (an adopted son born in Dindefelo, Senegal), Walker, Jason Dennis, Austin, and Jackson. JD, Austin and Jackson live in Dakar with Chris and his wife Jennifer Hedrick, who was also a Peace Corps volunteer in Kedougou, Senegal. Jennifer, who has an MBA in international finance, is experienced in overseas development, having worked for Citibank in Poland, and done work for the United Nations, Microsoft, and the Grameen Foundation in Africa and Asia. She is now the Director of Operations for the Dakar-based international NGO Tostan, which has a focus on women’s empowerment and education. It is considered the leading organization working to reduce female genital cutting and forced early marriage. Tostan has over 400 village-based facilitators in Senegal and others in Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Mali, Somalia and Djibouti.
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