1. Gaddi Holguin Vasquez was born on January 22,1955 and was the 8th United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, in Rome, Italy.
18 Facts About Gaddi Vasquez
1. 2.
Gaddi Vasquez was nominated by President George W Bush and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on June 29,2006.
3.
Gaddi Vasquez kept a photo of him and his father on his desk at the Peace Corps.
4.
Gaddi Vasquez went to Orange High School in Orange, to Santa Ana College and then on to the University of Redlands.
5.
Gaddi Vasquez has served as commencement speaker at Chapman University, Vanguard University, University of Wisconsin at Madison, James Madison University, University of La Verne, University of San Diego, California State University, Fullerton, California State University San Marcos, Walsh University, Houghton College, University of Redlands, Concordia University, Irvine and Chaminade University in Hawaii.
6.
Gaddi Vasquez worked in the public sector for 22 years before his Peace Corps nomination, starting as a police officer for the city of Orange, California.
7.
Gaddi Vasquez later worked as deputy appointments secretary for Governor George Deukmejian, followed by service as Chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors.
8.
Gaddi Vasquez resigned this position in 1994 after the county's bankruptcy.
9.
The Orange County bankruptcy changed the course of his political ambitions, eventually leading Gaddi Vasquez to reach out to his Republican colleagues for help in re-creating his career.
10.
In 1988 Gaddi Vasquez addressed the Republican national convention and said that Hispanics shouldn't support Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis for President just because Dukakis spoke Spanish.
11.
Gaddi Vasquez visited 60 countries during his tenure as Director, meeting with volunteers in the field to advance the agency's mission and goals of promoting world peace and friendship.
12.
Gaddi Vasquez argued unsuccessfully for continued inclusion of the Peace Corps in that program, and the Peace Corps was removed from the National Call to Service program on December 22,2005, when the United States Senate completed congressional action on the Department of Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006.
13.
On July 25,2007, in Senate subcommittee hearings chaired by Senator Chris Dodd, Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter disclosed that approximately fifteen Peace Corps officials including then Director Gaddi Vasquez attended one of the political briefings at Peace Corps Headquarters.
14.
Gaddi Vasquez resigned as Peace Corps Director September 7,2006, after he was confirmed as the new United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome, Italy.
15.
Gaddi Vasquez has spoken out on hunger to groups in the United States.
16.
Gaddi Vasquez said his life had been transformed while Director of the Peace Corps by the things he had witnessed traveling all over the world and recounted that once while in the Caribbean he had encountered a boy to whom he gave a piece of candy.
17.
In October 2008, Gaddi Vasquez visited Colombia accompanied by seven Latin American journalists.
18.
Gaddi Vasquez visited a small sausage factory built with support from USAID that now employs 12 people and is providing food to the community.