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Lenta Jarrett with Carlos Pascual, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine
Lenta "Lynn" Jarrett (MBA 1983) retired from her job as a technology manager with Union-Tribune Publishing Company in 2001 to join the Peace Corps.
Living in Ukraine from 2001 to 2003, Ms. Jarrett was assigned to the Women's Center and the Business Incubator on the campus of one of the universities in the city of Lviv. She consulted and advises small-to-medium size businesses owners and worked with business start-ups, and was also involved in human rights issues, addressing the trafficking of women into slavery and domestic violence.
During her service in the Peace Corps, Ms. Jarrett was invited to attend a meeting at the U.S. Ambassador's residence with the visiting U.S. Secretary of Treasurer, Paul O'Neil. Lynn was asked to make suggestions on how U.S. foreign aid money given to Ukraine should be spent.
While living in Ukraine, the National University graduate met many artists and visited several ceramics factories. Discovering the excellent quality of the art work there, she decided to start a business in San Diego at the end of her Peace Corps service.
Ms. Jarrett eventually opened up a small import shop called "Arts of Ukraine" located in Solana Beach. This not only gives her a challenge and the opportunity to sell the Ukrainian art in the United States, but it also helps the artists and factories that she buys from in Ukraine. She employs a university student in Ukraine to assist with buying, packing and shipping the products.
In addition to the import shop, Lynn has been working on short-term assignments in Eurasia since completing Peace Corps Service. These assignments are funded by U.S.A.I.D., an arm of the State Department. The first assignment was a 4-month one working back in Ukraine in helping to advise the owner of a sportswear manufacturing company on how to expand his business into a chain within the country. She introduced him and other business owners to a business plan, something that was foreign to them and then helped that owner to write his plan. The idea for this assignment was to help increase employment in the area.
Another assignment she took on early last year was a Human Rights mission to Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. Trafficking of Women is a major concern in that country. Last August Lynn took yet another assignment in Central Asia, this time in Turkmenistan, to help increase women's employment in the marketplace by teaching advertising, packaging and marketing in 2 different cities.
Ms. Jarrett is traveling on another assignment to Turkmenistan this month, where she will advise women in business and help to establish a co-operative gift shop. She is on the Board of Directors of the San Diego Peace Corps Association and volunteers at the Red Cross and the U.S.D. Joan Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice.
