Chip Peterson retired from the Learning Abroad Center in 2012 after a 32-year career in study abroad, including such areas as advising, policy development, academic oversight, program budgeting and management, new program development, curriculum integration, and faculty training. His passion for social justice-focused experiential learning found expression through decades of involvement in both HECUA (Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs) and the U of M’s Minnesota Studies in International Development.

A geographer and Latin Americanist by training, he lived for seven years in South America. He and his wife, Rosa Marie, have been members of UMRA since his retirement. He served UMRA as Secretary in 2015–16.