Peace Corps member with ties to Englewood dies while serving in Africa

Elizabeth Alden Landis

The granddaughter of longtime Englewood community volunteer Joan Van Alstyne Johnson has died in a car accident while serving in the Peace Corps in Mozambique.

Elizabeth Alden Landis, of Yarrow Point, Wash., was 23.

Landis, who went by Alden, and Lena Jenison, of Wisconsin, died Dec. 20. Both were sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers Dec. 8, after arriving in Mozambique in September for pre-training services.

Both women were assigned to teach science at local schools and were expected to volunteer through December 2013.

?Alden and Lena were both committed and dedicated Peace Corps volunteers who were excited to teach in their new Peace Corps communities,? Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams said in a statement. ?This is a tragic loss for the entire Peace Corps community, including their fellow volunteers in Mozambique. Our thoughts are with both of their families during this difficult time.?

Van Alstyne Johnson and her daughter Keats Landis could not be reached for comment.

Landis comes from a long-time Englewood family. Her great grandparents moved from a farm in Brooklyn to the area that became the city?s first ward in the late 1800s.

Her great grandfather David Van Alstyne Jr. lead the Bergen County Republican Party and was a prominent state senator. His wife Janet Graham Van Alystne was a well-known civic activist and served as a board trustee for Englewood Hospital in the 1940s, where she also volunteered as a nurse?s aid during World War II.

Van Alstyne Johnson has long been involved in city organizations, leading The Community Chest, serving on the board at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, the Junior League of Bergen County, the Family and Social Service Federation, the Volunteer Center of Bergen County and the Garden Club of Englewood, which her mother also volunteered with.

She has also served as a trustee of the Elisabeth Morrow School, the American Anorexia-Bulimia Association, and Flat Rock Brook Nature Center Association and on the boards of American Red Cross Bergen Crossroads Chapter and Northern Valley League of Women Voters.

Source: http://blog.northjersey.com/bergenbeat/3200/peace-corps-member-with-ties-to-englewood-dies-while-serving-in-africa/

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