prior to his service in the diplomatic corps, hatcher served as an intelligence analyst with the department of the treasury, office of intelligence and analysis, where he focused on fighting the sources of terrorism financing. in the summer of 2004, hatcher conducted research for the center for east asian studies in vladivostok, russia, where he focused on russian attitudes towards chinese migrants. he later presented and published a paper detailing his findings, which included a scathing commentary about russian racism and xenophobia. prior to his research in russia, hatcher worked in the private sector as a business manager, and he served in the peace corps as a volunteer in kazakhstan (part of the former soviet union) where he taught economics at the taraz polytechnical college in taraz, kazakhstan. former soviet officials have long been skeptical of the peace corps as a cover for us spies, evidenced by russia’s decision to kick out the peace corps in 2002.