Check out Sarah Chayes

Sarah Chayes is the daughter of law professor and Kennedy administration member Abram Chayes, and is of Jewish heritage. She graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover, in 1980, and Harvard University in 1984, with a degree in history. She later served in the Peace Corps in Morocco, returning to Harvard to earn a master's degree in history and Middle Eastern studies, specializing in the medieval Islamic period.
She has lived in Kandahar, Afghanistan since 2002. Having learned to speak the Pashto language, she has helped rebuild homes, set up a dairy cooperative. In May 2005, she established the Arghand Cooperative, a venture that encourages local Afghan farmers to produce flowers, fruits, and herbs instead of opium poppies, by buying their products and producing soaps and other scented products from them for export. She now works as Special Advisor to General McCrystal of the U.S. Military.

She works for the military because she finds them to be public-spirited in Afghanistan, ie, the military cares. But I mean i heard her speak on The Rachel Maddow show and I could not help thinking - here is an incredibly smart woman living out her convictions -- making a difference -- living in the middle of her life -- that is where I am again -- I am finding the center, I no longer want to be on the outskirts, the fringe. I want to be in the center -- of my own life, of this life, of my world, our world. Where are you?