Staff

Doug Alexander

Appellate Specialist and Partner, Alexander Dubose Jefferson & Townsend LLP

Doug Alexander is widely regarded as one of the premier advocates specializing in practice before the Supreme Court of Texas and is listed by Texas Super Lawyers as one of the Top 10 lawyers in Texas. Doug is the 2013 recipient of the Texas Bar Foundation’s Gregory S. Coleman Outstanding Appellate Lawyer Award; was selected as the 2013 Austin Appellate Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers in America; and is listed in the Texas Lawyer Go-To Guide as one of five “Top-Notch Lawyers” in Texas for Appellate Law.

Doug is recognized as a leader in the appellate bar. He has been selected by his peers for inclusion in Best Lawyers in America in Appellate Law; is listed in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in Appellate Litigation; and has been inducted as a Fellow into the by-invitation-only American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.

Over the course of his career, Doug has served as:

President of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society;
Chair of the Appellate Section of the State Bar of Texas;
Adjunct Professor of Appellate Advocacy at the University of Texas School of Law;
Member of the Civil Appellate Practice Commission of the Texas Board of Legal Specialization; and
Law Clerk to the Honorable John R. Brown, former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Doug has been Board Certified in Civil Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 1990. He is a sought after author and speaker on appellate practice, and has published numerous articles, including the seminal writing, Petition Practice Before the Supreme Court of Texas.

David Baron

Physician, Primary Care Center, Cambridge Health Alliance

David was an AMIGOS volunteer in the Dominican Republic in 1980 through the Ohio Chapter, which was the second largest chapter in the country at the time. The training and in country experience were outstanding, and inspired him to volunteer in the Peace Corps after college. His sister and brother-in-law were also AMIGOS volunteers in different countries and that time period, and it had a great impact on all of them. They all became physicians partly because of the inspiration from these experiences. More recently, David’s second daughter Sophie was a volunteer in Nicaragua in the summer of 2010.

David reconnected with AMIGOS in 2009, when he was asked to join the Board of Directors. He became the Medical Director of the organization in 2013. He has thoroughly enjoyed working with exceptionally interesting and talented board members, and devoted, passionate, and intelligent staff. David says that it is his privilege to serve in these roles for AMIGOS to support this fantastic mission of making the world a better place by focusing on our youth.

Peter Benziger

President Emeritus, Lighthouse Marketing Services

Peter was an AMIGOS volunteer in Honduras in 1967, Country Director for Guatemala in 1969, and Country Director in Paraguay in 1972.  He worked with the Boston Chapter in the 1970s and served as a member of the International Board of Directors. Peter was the recipient of the 2009 Dr. Philip C. Johnson, III, Veteran Service Award, which is presented annually to a former volunteer for distinguished service to AMIGOS.

Peter graduated from Dartmouth College and holds an MBA in International Business from The School for International Management (Thunderbird) in Arizona. He completed portions of his undergraduate and graduate studies in Mexico and Spain.

Peter has worked internationally in senior management positions with Pepsico, Unilever, General Mills, and Pillsbury. He founded Lighthouse Marketing Services which conducted outsourced marketing management services involving branding, advertising, market research, and web marketing.

His sports passion is sailing and he holds a 100-ton Coast Guard Captain’s license. In January of 2010, Peter and his wife, Margie, departed Miami on a 9-year, 42,000-mile adventure – visiting 44 countries as they circumnavigated the world on their sailboat, Peregrina.

Peter has two daughters who were born in Puerto Rico, a 5-year-old granddaughter and he is looking forward to the birth of a grandson in December 2022.

Elizabeth Blowers-Nyman

Executive Director, U.S. Vaccine Public Policy and Government Relations, Merck

Elizabeth joined the AMIGOS leadership in 2013 as part of a long history with AMIGOS.

Elizabeth is the Executive Director, U.S. Vaccine Public Policy and Government Relations for Merck. She joined Merck in 1998.

Prior to Merck, Elizabeth served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal. There she worked in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of Nepal’s nationwide polio eradication initiative. She holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree with a concentration in Health Policy and Management from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from Boston College. During graduate school, Elizabeth spent time at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) working in Measles Elimination Activity.

Elizabeth has a long history with AMIGOS, starting as a Volunteer in Paraguay in 1991. She then went on to serve as a Project Supervisor and two time Country Director [at that time, she oversaw multiple projects – 2 in Paraguay in 1993 and the 3 in Costa Rica in 1994], field staff representative to the International Board of Directors and AMIGOS Fellow. From 2005-10, she returned to AMIGOS as a member of the Board of Directors and AMIGOS Fellow.

Ed Cazier

Reservoir Consultant, Suyapa Consulting, LLC

Ed Cazier is a petroleum geologist with over 35 years of experience in the upstream and midstream oil and gas business. His principal work areas are development planning, 3D geomodeling and business development.

He spent 24 years with BP in a wide variety of technical, commercial and management roles. While at BP, he had the opportunity to live in a number of exotic locations, and work on a large number of high-profile development projects in Alaska, Colombia, Venezuela, Russia and Texas.

During 2008 – 2012, Cazier worked for Maersk Oil in Copenhagen, Denmark on projects in Qatar and Kazakhstan, and worked for Cobalt International Energy during 2012 – 2018 on projects in Angola and the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico.

He currently works as a Geological Advisor at Murphy Oil on development projects in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico.

Cazier has bachelor’s degrees in geology and French literature from Colgate University, a master’s in geology from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MBA from the Jones School at Rice University. He is a certified petroleum geologist and a reviewer for the Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

His AMIGOS experience includes work as a volunteer (Honduras, 1976; Ecuador, 1977), field staff (Route Leader: Honduras – 1978; Assistant Project Director: Honduras – 1979; Project Director: Panama – 1981) and board member (International Board: 2003 – 2012; Foundation Board of Trustees: 2013 – present). He is also the father of two Amigos: Maria Isabella and Brendan, and met his wife (Suky) while working on field staff in Honduras.

Sarah Collins

Associate Vice President, Principal Gifts - Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health

Sarah Collins is Associate Vice President, Principal Gifts at the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health in Palo Alto. The Foundation supports clinical care, research, and education at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford and the child and maternal health programs of Stanford University School of Medicine to improve the health of children and expectant mothers, locally and worldwide. Sarah has worked in children’s health philanthropy for more than 18 years.

Sarah’s AMIGOS service includes Paraguay (Volunteer 1994), Honduras (Volunteer 1995, Project Supervisor 1997), and the Dominican Republic (Assistant Project Director 1999). She also volunteered with the Peninsula chapter from 2001-2003 as a Training Director, Recruiting Director, and Board Member. Sarah holds an AB in Human Biology from Stanford University and lives on the Peninsula with her husband and two daughters.

Alma Del Toro

Founder & President, Blue Bull Energy LLC

Alma is the Founder and President of Blue Bull Energy “BBE,” a US-certified minority-women owned business. Alma created Blue Bull Energy (BBE) in 2016 to incubate her vision of an energy company that develops business as much as communities. Alma holds a Law Degree from Mexico and a Master’s in International Business from the US. Prior to BBE, Alma has 17 years of experience with BP, where she held several leadership positions and acquired business development and deep operational and commercial knowledge. While at BP, Alma lead transactions in over 10 different countries across Chemicals, Downstream and Upstream business’ where she managed over $4bn USD capital projects and lead large multidisciplinary teams across the world.

Within a short period of time, Alma built a successful brand, developed a mix portfolio and secured contracts with International Oil Companies (IOC) and National Oil Companies (NOC) such as BP, Equinor/Statoil, Petronas, Ecopetrol and other International Service Companies like Cotemar. BBE has formed alliances with some of the most influential consulting firms in the world, with Governmental Agencies and IOCs and NOCs and thanks to her mantra of helping anyone you can, every time you can, built an incredible industry network.

Given Alma’s humble upbringing, Alma is committed to developing and creating opportunities for others; therefore, BBE’s philosophy is to work side by side with its clients to ensure the know-how stays in house as part of BBE’s local talent development agenda. On the community front Alma serves as a Board Member of several USA NGOs and organizations such as “MECA” and “Amigos las Americas.” In addition to serving families in need Alma is committed to protecting the Environment. BBE adopted an Endangered Sea Turtle Conservation Center in Campeche Mexico.

Eric Donnelly

CEO and Director, Crossroads Impact Corp

Eric Donnelly has served as a director and as Chief Executive Officer of Crossroads Impact Corp since December 2017. Mr. Donnelly has spent his 25-year career focused on supporting small businesses and developing low to moderate-income communities with an emphasis on Hispanic homeownership. He served as CEO of Capital Plus Financial (a national Certified Community Development Financial Institution “CDFI”) from 2014 to 2021 after having been hired by the company’s founder in 2012 to scale the 25-year social enterprise. Mr. Donnelly grew the company into one of the largest CDFIs in the country and under his leadership has achieved its B Corp certification further reinforcing the company’s commitment to community impact as well as shareholder value growth. He is an active Hispanic entrepreneur and leader whose passion it is to improve underserved and underbanked market segments. Mr. Donnelly is a graduate of Southern Methodist University with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. Mr. Donnelly is the lead independent director of the board of InBankshares, a community bank based in Raton, NM serving the New Mexico and Colorado Front Range markets. He was a participant in the BBVA Momentum program for Social Entrepreneurs, a 2017 graduate of the Stanford Latino Entrepreneur Initiative and a continuing mentor to Latino entrepreneurs participating in the Stanford program. He is also on the board of One Million Truths, an interactive platform that allows Black Americans to share their personal experiences and ongoing struggles with racism.

Stephanie Falkenstein

Senior Vice President of Marketing, Cognoa

Patricia Grad

Senior Managing Director, Head of Investor Relations, Arsenal Capital Partners

Patricia is Senior Managing Director and Head of Investor Relations at Arsenal Capital Partners in New York.

Prior to joining Arsenal Capital Partners, Patricia served as Director at Actis, and before that as the Head of Investor Relations at Irving Place Capital. She started her career in the alternative assets research group at Cambridge Associates.

She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a bachelor’s degree with honors from Wesleyan University.

Patricia has been working with AMIGOS for nearly 25 years, first as a participant in Ecuador in 1993. Since then, she has served as a chapter president and the chair of the board of directors.

Sarah Heck

Public Policy and Public Affairs Leader

Sarah Heck (San Francisco, CA) served as head of entrepreneurship for Stripe, enabling entrepreneurs globally to start and grow internet businesses, and an advisor to the Obama Foundation. Previously, Heck was director for global engagement on the National Security Council, leading global entrepreneurship policy and youth demographics, among other roles. She also held several positions at the US Department of State focusing on public diplomacy, countering violent extremism, entrepreneurship, and technology in diplomacy. Before that, Heck worked at Kissinger McLarty Associates and was Paraguay country director for Amigos de las Américas. She’s a Truman National Security Project Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations term member, and board member of Young Professionals in Foreign Policy.

Angela Graves

Photographer

Mike Gridley

Managing Director, Akkadian Ventures

Mike is a Managing Director and Partner of Akkadian Ventures. Previously, he was a member of the founding team of Industry Ventures, where he served as a Managing Director since 2004. Mike led Industry’s investments in Facebook (FB), Twitter, Pandora (P), LifeLock (LOCK), Jajah (Acquired by Telefonica), Cloudmark, Lowercase Capital (Twitter, Uber, Instagram), Walden Venture Capital (Pandora, Glam, SoundHound) and Madrona (Isilon), among others. He also helped grow Industry Ventures from less then $10 million AUM to over $1 billion AUM.

Prior to Industry, Mike worked at BV Capital (formerly Bertelsmann Ventures) in San Francisco, a $275 million international venture capital fund. At BV, he sourced, structured, and managed direct venture investments. Earlier in his career, Mike worked in Business Development at Personify, a CRM analytics software company.

Mike holds a BA from University of California, Berkeley, where he was a Regents and Alumni Scholar, and an MS from the London School of Economics.

Michael Hafner

Managing Director, Greenhill

Mr. Hafner is a Managing Director at Greenhill & Co. He principally advises clients in the energy sector as well as financial sponsors.

Prior to joining Greenhill, Michael was Head of Energy for EMEA at UBS in London. Prior to that, he was a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank, first in Houston, then as Head of Energy EMEA based in London. Prior to that, he was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, where he spent 14 years based in New York and Houston.

Michael holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an AB from Dartmouth College. He lives in Houston, Texas with his wife and three sons, all of whom participated in AMIGOS programs.

John Hahn

Vice President, Goldman Sachs

John advises endowments, foundations, and nonprofit organizations. John joined Goldman Sachs as a municipal securities credit analyst in 2009, overseeing $35 billion in risk assets. John previously served as a healthcare bond analyst at Moody’s Investors Service overseeing a portfolio of hospitals covering $8.6 billion in debt outstanding. John was also a part of the Higher Education and Not-For-Profit ratings team at Moody’s. John is an Eagle Scout and a Presidential Management Fellow finalist and has a BA from Bowdoin College and an MPA/ID from Harvard University. John resides in Mclean, Virginia, with his wife and two children. 

Kate Janeway

Lawyer and Executive Coach

Kate Janeway is a lawyer and an executive coach. She works with leaders of environmental and social change organizations. She specializes in organizational effectiveness, leadership development and succession planning. Kate began her career in law but soon began searching for more effective ways to have an impact on the environmental and social issues that concern her. In her quest, she has spent decades leading organizations and serving on boards of directors. Kate holds a BA in American Studies and Humanities from Stanford University, a JD from Georgetown Law Center, and an MPA in Environmental Policy and Natural Resource Management from the University of Washington. She is a certified Hudson Institute Coach.

Kristin Kaper

Country Director, Peace Corps

Kristin has served as Peace Corps Country Director in the Dominican Republic since September 2016. Prior to that, she served for two years in the Inter-America and Pacific Region as Chief of Programming and Training and three years as the Director of Programming and Training in Peace Corps/Panama. Before joining Peace Corps, Kristin obtained her Master’s degree in public health from Tulane University and spent time interning with CARE International in Guatemala and Save the Children in El Salvador. In 2000, she moved to Washington, DC to work on a USAID-funded family planning evaluation project. Then in 2002, Kristin moved to Texas to work with the non-profit Amigos de las Americas (AMIGOS) as Regional Director for Brazil, Paraguay, Honduras, and Nicaragua. She became the Director of Latin American Programs for AMIGOS in 2005 and eventually Vice President of Programs in 2009. Her background is in youth leadership development and international health.

Michael Kercheval

Executive Director, C.U. Real Estate Center at Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado

Mike Kercheval is the Executive Director of the Real Estate Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. He runs the business school’s real estate program, managing and promoting the relationships between the real estate industry and the academic community, focusing on education, career development, and industry best practices.

Earlier, Mike was President and CEO of the International Council of Shopping Centers (the world’s largest commercial real estate trade association), a real estate portfolio manager and investment banker in New York, and CEO of Lend Lease Latin American Realty Advisors. He was a senior economist with Equitable Life, taught Economics at Columbia University and served as staff economist for the Colorado Governor’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Growth Management.

With AMIGOS, Mike was the Northeast Chapter Development Director (1978-80), Regional Director for Central America and the Caribbean (1976-78), Country Director Nicaragua (1974-75), Assistant Country Director Colombia (1973) and Colombia volunteer (1972).

Mike holds graduate degrees in economics from Columbia University and a BA in economics, political science and international affairs from the University of Colorado.

Katherine Lorenz

President, Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation

Katherine Lorenz is president of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation.

She is the leader of the Next Gen of the Giving Pledge, and Inside Philanthropy recently named  Lorenz one of the most powerful heirs in philanthropy.

Previously, she served as senior advisor for the National Center for Family Philanthropy and deputy director for the Institute for Philanthropy. Prior to that, Lorenz lived in Oaxaca, Mexico for six years where she co-founded Puente a la Salud Comunitaria, a non-profit organization working to advance food sovereignty in rural Oaxaca. She continues to be involved with Puente’s work as an active board member. Before founding Puente, she spent two summers living in communities in Latin America with Amigos de las Américas (AMIGOS). She has also served on the AMIGOS Program Committee and as a trustee of the Foundation for AMIGOS.

Additionally, she currently serves on the boards of directors of the Environmental Defense Fund (vice-chair), the Tinker Foundation, and the Endowment for Regional Sustainability Science, and formerly was a Fellow and later Board Chair at the National Center for Family Philanthropy, Board Chair of The Philanthropy Workshop, a board member of Exponent Philanthropy, Resource Generation, the Amaranth Institute, and a member of the National Academies’ Roundtable of Science and Technology for Sustainability. Lorenz serves on the advisory council of Boldly Go Philanthropy, the Leadership Council of the Greater Houston Community Foundation, the National Advisory Committee of USC’s Irene Hirano Inouye Philanthropic Leadership Fund, and as a senior advisor for Philanthropy for Marsh Creek Social Works.

Lorenz holds a B.A. in economics and Spanish from Davidson College.

Catherine McKay

Organization Development Advisor, Shell Downstream

Catherine’s work with Shell (formerly ‘Royal Dutch Shell’) began in 2007, and she currently serves as Organizational Development Consultant. She has designed and led global initiatives focused on leadership, including a 2-year stint designing and testing Shell’s approach to managing safety globally. Prior to Shell, Catherine worked as a consultant in healthcare and public education. She holds a BA from Columbia University and an MEd from Seattle University. Catherine credits AMIGOS for teaching her the foundations of systems thinking, appreciative inquiry, team dynamics, cultural sensitivity, personal safety, environmental and energy awareness, and leadership development, all of which play into the role she has with Shell today. 

Catherine has a long history with AMIGOS, beginning in 1990 as a Correspondent Volunteer in Oaxaca, Mexico. She served as Project Supervisor in Cuenca, Ecuador, in 1992; Assistant Project Director in Oaxaca in 1994; and Project Director in AMIGOS’ first ever fuel-efficient earthen stove project in Guanajuato, Mexico, in 1995. She served as Training Director of the Seattle Chapter for 6 years and International Office Training Director for 4 years.  

Megan McTiernan

Social Impact Advisor, McTiernan Strategies

Kellie Motsinger

Retired

Kellie has recently retired from working in the healthcare insurance industry for over 25 years. Most recently she had been working in a national position as a Vice President of Broker Relations with Cigna. While her most recent position concentrated on the broker/consultant relationship side of the business, most of her experience over the years has been with employers.

Kellie has worked with a broad range of employer sizes (150–10,000+ employees), industries, and insurance needs. Her various roles have worked with the employer in both Sales Management and Account Management capacities. Her different positions also provided her the experience of working and living in multiple regions of the country (Ohio, Georgia, and Texas).

Kellie graduated from the University of Akron with a B.A. in Biology/Medical Technology. Kellie now resides in Houston, TX with her husband Chad.

Mariela Poleo

Manager and President, Simon Bolivar Foundation

Mariela Poleo is an international energy executive with experience in major capital projects and asset management, currently leading a nonprofit foundation for Citgo Petroleum Corporation. Mariela is a global citizen, born in Venezuela and having lived in Venezuela, England, and Norway before moving to Houston, Texas in 2011. Her travels are the result of an extensive career with Equinor ASA and its predecessor, Statoil, where she has supported major strategic decisions relating to projects and assets, in multiple countries and with financial oversight of multibillion-dollar projects.

Mariela holds a Master of Science degree in Engineering Management and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Architecture, as well as an Advanced Management Program at IESA and has done many courses in the oil industry, and leadership.

Mariela is currently the manager and president of the Simon Bolivar Foundation, where she led the transition of an economic model where there is greater impact by supporting a higher number of vulnerable populations, victims of disaster, poverty, and conflict. During her tenure, she has launched several processes to provide immediate access to resources to help mitigate COVID 19 in Venezuela, and support health and nutrition programs in Venezuela and Latin America region. She also served as the Interim General Manager for Government and Public Affairs, where she headed the corporate social responsibility programs in four main pillars, education, environment, disaster relief and resilience, and health. She is also leading the 2020 CITGO ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) reporting.

Ms. Poleo served Equinor ASA and its predecessor Statoil in multiple roles for 21 years, including Head of Finance and Control, Exploration North America and Development & Production USA Offshore, as well as other key roles in major international assets.

Mariela’s passion is travelling and learning about new cultures, empowering women, and helping others.

William S. Reese

CEO Emeritus, IYF

Bill Reese served as the Chief Executive Officer of the International Youth Foundation (IYF) from January 2005 until his retirement in December 2018. Having joined IYF in 1998 as Chief Operating Officer, Bill oversaw IYF’s operations and programs supporting positive youth development in more than 70 countries. Under Bill’s leadership, IYF invested in scaling and sustaining proven practice programs focused on workforce development and youth-led entrepreneurship, as well as leadership development for young founders and CEOs of social enterprises.

Before joining IYF, Bill spent 12 years as President & CEO of Partners of the Americas, the largest citizen-run, volunteer organization working to promote economic and social development in the western hemisphere. Bill served for 10 years with the Peace Corps, first as a volunteer in an urban community development project in Salvador, Brazil, and later as director of Brazil operations. He was deputy director of the Latin American and Caribbean Region, before heading a special task force that managed the international celebration of the Peace Corps’ 20th anniversary in 1981.

Bill served on the U.S. Government’s Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid from 1991 to 2009. He was appointed chair by the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and served nine years, the longest serving chair in the 70-year history of this federal advisory commission.

Previously, Bill was treasurer, board chair, and chairman of the Standards and Membership Committees of InterAction, the trade association/coalition of 200 US-based non-profits working in international development and humanitarian assistance. He also was treasurer of Episcopal Relief and Development, and board secretary of Women Thrive Worldwide. Over the last three decades he has served on the boards of the Independent Sector, the Basic Education Coalition, Eureka Communities, Amigos de las Americas, the Brazilian American Cultural Institute, the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange, the Washington Office on Latin America, the International Development Conference, the Rondon-Roosevelt Center (in Rio de Janeiro), Fundación para la Educación Superior/USA, COLEAD (Coalition for American Leadership Abroad), Child Hope International, and the Friends of the Art Museum of the Americas (OAS). He was vice chair of the Debt for Development Coalition and Finance for Development, Inc.

A Dean’s List graduate of Stanford University in 1970, Bill majored in political science and Latin American relations. He did graduate work at the George Washington University’s School of International and Public Affairs and taught U.S. diplomatic history. He attended the Stanford Executive Program at the Graduate School of Business in 1995. He resides in Washington, D.C. Bill and his wife, Suzanne M. Frederick, have four adult children.

Scott Roberts

International Business, Retired

Scott grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and earned a BS from U of Arizona and a PhD from U of Washington, both in Chemical Engineering.  He and his wife, Catherine,  split their time between Houston, TX where she is co-founder of the Rutherford BH Yates Museum, and Scottsdale, AZ.  Their son, Chris, was an AMIGOS volunteer in the 1980s in Ecuador.

Scott retired from Royal Dutch Shell in 2008 after working 35 years in their downstream oil and chemicals businesses.  His career ranged from technical assignments in research and engineering to business management roles in supply, trading, and chemicals to senior management roles such as President of Shell Mexico, VP Lower Olefins business, VP NW Europe Manufacturing, and EVP Global Chemicals Manufacturing.  He has lived and worked in 5 states as well as in Costa Rica, Mexico, United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.

He has served as Chairman of the International Board of AMIGOS and as a board member for AMIGOS Foundation,  NACME (National Action Council for Minority Engineers), ANIQ (Mexican Chemicals Manufacturer’s Association), Institute for Civility in Government, and Shell Alumni Association of Houston.  He has also served on Chemical Engineering advisory boards for Cornell, Colorado School of Mines, and U of Washington. Currently, he volunteers as a Trail Ranger for Pinnacle Peak Park in Scottsdale.  In 2020, Scott and Catherine were honored by the University of Washington College of Engineering with the Diamond Award for Distinguished Service.

Patty Russell

Founder and Managing Director, Russell Advisory Services

Patty Russell has more than 15 years of experience working in strategic planning and evaluation in the social sector. As founder of Russell Advisory Services consultancy, she works with private, corporate, and community foundations to develop data-driven philanthropic strategies on issues ranging from educational attainment and affordable housing to global health and development. Patty also partners with corporate leaders to develop shared value strategies that align strong business outcomes with measurable social impact.

Previously, Patty was a managing director with FSG, a mission-driven consulting firm that works with clients to achieve large-scale, lasting social change. At FSG, she led the Catalytic Philanthropy practice, advising foundations on strategy, program design, evaluation, and operational improvement. She has blogged and written extensively on philanthropy and shared value, including articles in Stanford Social Innovation Review and Forbes. Patty holds a BA from Middlebury College and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

AMIGOS experience: Volunteer (Ecuador ’88, Mexico ’89), Route Supervisor (Dominican Republic ’93), Project Director (Paraguay ’94), International Office (’92, ’95).

Tessie San Martin

CEO, FHI 360

Dr. Tessie San Martin is the Chief Executive Officer of FHI 360, an international nonprofit working to improve the health and well-being of people in the United States and around the world. 

A vocal advocate for gender equality, she has dedicated her career to creating a better and more just world for people everywhere. 

Prior to joining FHI 360, Dr. San Martin was CEO and President of Plan International USA, an international development and humanitarian organization that partners with adolescent girls and children around the world to overcome oppression and gender inequality. 

Previously, Dr. San Martin served as group vice president at Abt Associates and as director for the Operations Group of the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. 

She has more than 30 years of experience working as an executive in the public and private sectors, bilateral and multilateral development agencies and academia, focusing especially on economic growth and political reform. She has been a forceful advocate for aid effectiveness, serving as co-chair of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network and a board member of Friends of Publish What You Fund. 

Dr. San Martin has a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University. She is fluent in Spanish and has a working knowledge of French. 

She credits Amigos de las Americas for launching her career in international development. She first came to AMIGOS in 1974, when as a sophomore in high school she joined the Miami Chapter and went to Paraguay for five weeks as a volunteer to vaccinate children against the measles. She came back in 1975 as staff, working as a Route Leader in Honduras and the Assistant Project Director in Western Honduras in 1976. 

Samantha Schnee

Founding Editor, Words Without Borders

Samantha Schnee is the founding editor and board chair of Words Without Borders, a non-profit website that expands cultural understanding through the translation, publication, and promotion of the finest contemporary international literature. WWB’s publications and programs open doors for readers of English around the world to the multiplicity of viewpoints, richness of experience, and literary perspective on world events offered by writers in other languages. WWB seeks to connect international writers to the general public, to students and educators, and to the media and to serve as a primary online location for a global literary conversation. Since 2003, WWB has published thousands of pieces of fiction and poetry from over 150 countries.

Samantha also works directly with select authors, translating their work from Spanish into English. Her translation of The Goddesses of Water, a collection by Mexican poet Jeannette Clariond, is forthcoming from Shearsman Books in the UK and World Poetry Books in the US. Her translation of Carmen Boullosa’s penultimate novel, The Book of Anna, which was nominated for the Jan Michalski Prize, was published by Coffee House Press last year; and her translation of Boullosa’s Texas: The Great Theft, which was published by Dallas press Deep Vellum in 2014, was shortlisted for the PEN America Translation Prize. She is currently at work on a translation of Boullosa’s latest novel, The Book of Eve, which has been shortlisted for the Mario Vargas Llosa Biennial Novel Prize.

Since 2014 she has been a trustee of English PEN, one of the world’s first non-governmental organizations and among the first international bodies advocating for human rights, specifically those of persecuted writers; she chaired their Writers in Translation committee from 2014-17. Separately, she has served as secretary of the American Literary Translators Association since 2017. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, she lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and three sons, all of whom participated in AMIGOS programs.

Justin Sears

Chief Marketing Officer at Pipefy

Justin is Chief Marketing Officer at Pipefy, a SaaS software company founded in Brazil now expanded in the US and globally. He feels very fortunate to speak both English and Portuguese every day at work. For ten years prior to joining Pipefy, Justin led enterprise software marketing teams to position products as category leaders, including Hortonwork which he helped grow and take public in 2014. As Pipefy CMO, Justin brings his domain experience with data, analytics, and artificial intelligence, combined with his functional experience leading product marketing, analyst relations, demand gen, web, and social marketing. Justin holds an MBA from UC Berkeley and a BA in International Relations from Stanford. The leadership skills he honed during a decade volunteering with AMIGOS gave him transferable skills that he has used throughout his education, career, parenthood, and ongoing volunteer work.

Justin volunteered in Paraguay 1990; Azuay, Ecuador 1991; Oaxaca, Mexico 1992; and Project Director in Cotopaxi 1995. He worked professionally for AMIGOS as Regional Director for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean  1997-2000.  He lives with his family in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he was born and raised.

Adam Seitchik

Commercial Chief Geologist, Battelle Memorial Institute

Paul Stebbins

Chairman Emeritus, World Fuels Corporation

Mr. Stebbins served as an AMIGOS volunteer in Honduras (1972) and Nicaragua (1973) and as staff in Colombia (1974). Since May 2014, he has served as Chairman Emeritus and a non-employee director of World Fuel Services Corporation (NYSE:INT). Previously, Mr. Stebbins served as chairman and chief executive officer of World Fuel from July 2002 to January 2012 and as executive chairman from January 2012 to May 2014. In 1985, Mr. Stebbins co-founded Trans-Tec Services, Inc., a global marine fuel services company acquired by World Fuel in 1995.

Mr. Stebbins also serves as a director of First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) the world’s leading utility scale solar energy company.  He serves on the Leadership Council of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget’s “Fix the Debt” campaign founded by Erskine Bowles and Sen. Alan Simpson and is a founding member of their “FixUS” initiative on civic and political reform.  He is a member of the Advisory Council of Amigos de las Americas, a youth leadership development program based in Houston, Texas;  a member of the board of Silkroad, a musical ensemble and cultural innovation organization founded by renowned cellist Yo Yo Ma, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Susan Stevenson

Executive Director D.C. Region, College Track

Susan Stevenson is a consultant for organizations focused on improving education and early childhood. From 2010-2016, Susan served as Executive Director of Flamboyan Foundation in Washington, D.C. As founding Executive Director, Susan led the effort to create Flamboyan’s unique approach to family engagement, which focuses on building teacher and school-level capacity to engage with families authentically and meaningfully so children succeed. Susan also led partnership and organizational development at Flamboyan, helping invest funders and city agencies and growing the Flamboyan team to over 25 talented individuals. Under Susan’s leadership, Flamboyan developed a close collaborative partnership with D.C. Public Schools, which is now a national leader in family engagement, and built successful partnerships with many local and national teacher and leader preparation organizations.

Through the combined efforts of Flamboyan staff and partners, in Washington, D.C. today over 1,100 teachers and school leaders have been trained, 54 schools (public and public charter) are implementing intensive family engagement initiatives, and over 40,000 home visits have been performed, including 13,000 in the 2015-16 school year alone. In addition to overseeing the rapid growth of Flamboyan’s family engagement efforts, Susan spearheaded the effort to identify and leverage $3.5 million in additional funding for family engagement during her tenure. She also oversaw the completion of an external evaluation of home visits in DC, which found positive associations between teachers’ home visiting practices and student literacy and attendance.

Prior to joining Flamboyan, Susan co-directed United Way America’s “Success by 6” initiative, a national network of early childhood organizations. She also worked in international development, serving as Vice President, Latin America and Vice President, International for Ashoka, where she led a team of 75 people in 34 offices worldwide to support the efforts of social entrepreneurs. Susan also worked as a management consultant for McKinsey and Company in New York and Argentina. She started her career as a Program Assistant for Save the Children in Bolivia.

Susan earned her Master of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Spanish from Indiana University. She was the 2016 recipient of the Jocelyn Graves national award for Distinguished Service to Public Education. Susan lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, David Littleton and two teenage daughters.

Susan’s first involvement with AMIGOS was as a volunteer in Oaxaca, Mexico and Olancho, Honduras. She then spent three years on staff, as a Project Supervisor in Tlaxcala, Mexico, an Assistant Project Director in Michoacan, Mexico, and a Project Director in Costa Rica. Susan serves on the Board of Directors of Amigos and is the mother of AMIGOS volunteer Allie Littleton.

Marvin Trotter, MD

Internist, Ukiah Valley Medical Center

Krisa Van Meurs

Rosemarie Hess Endowed Professor of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine

Krisa Van Meurs is the Rosemarie Hess Endowed Professor in the Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and an attending neonatologist at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. Dr. Van Meurs has been actively involved in clinical care, clinical research, program administration, and mentoring during her medical career. Her specific areas of research interest are neonatal pulmonary disease and neonatal neurocritical care. Dr. Van Meurs is the medical director of the Neonatal ECMO program and the NeuroNICU, a specialized virtual unit focused on improving neurologic and developmental outcomes for critically ill neonates. She is the Stanford principal investigator for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD Neonatal Research Network and has held various administrative roles at Stanford including Associate Chair for Clinical Research for the Department of Pediatrics; Vice Chair, Appointments Promotions and Tenure Committee; Pediatric Mentoring Program Executive Committee member; Spectrum Child Health Executive Committee member; and interim Division Chief, Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine.

Krisa participated in AMIGOS for 5 years serving as a volunteer, route leader, assistant country director, and country director in Honduras, Colombia, and Ecuador. She had the honor of being the first female country director in Ecuador in 1974. Her daughter, Annalise, served as an AMIGOS volunteer in Mexico.

Dorn Wenninger

Senior Vice President of Produce at United Natural Foods, Inc.

H. S. Wright III

Chairman & Founder, Seattle Hospitality Group

Howard Wright is an executive, entrepreneur, and aviator with deep business experience in the transportation, logistics, hospitality, and tourism industries. He is widely recognized for his commitment to community, and his unique ability to bring people together on complex issues. Mr. Wright is Chair and Founder of Seattle Hospitality Group, llc (SHG), which he founded in 2002. SHG is a holding company with interests in best-in-class event management, hospitality, tourism, and transportation companies in Washington, Oregon, California, and Hawaii. Since founding SHG, he has built a portfolio with 400+ employees and $100m in revenues. His interest in Latin America dates to his time as a high school exchange student in the region. Mr. Wright majored in Latin American Studies at Washington State and has traveled extensively in the area. He co-chaired the capital campaign for the Amigos de las Américas Foundation and served on the board of the U.S. Foundation of the University del Valle in Guatemala City.

Kim Van Maren

Healthcare Executive, Retired

Kim recently retired as a healthcare executive after 40+ years in the management of sales; clinical operations; financial planning and budget execution; strategic planning; business development; client/partner service; and training and implementation.

Kim’s AMIGOS journey began as a Volunteer in Ecuador ‘75; Volunteer and then Route Leader in Nicaragua ‘76 and Route Leader in Ecuador ‘77.

Kim’s post-AMIGOS international experience includes her selection as an Advisor in The Emerging Markets Development Advisers Program (EMDAP) for developing businesses in Guatemala and Chile.  EMDAP was a fellowship and cooperative activity between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Institute for International Education. She was also Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer for E. Petrich and Associates, a USAID subcontractor where she oversaw operations, recruitment, contracting and advisor training for health care projects based in Egypt, Russia, Uganda and Kazakhstan.

Kim earned an MBA in International Development from California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo, and a BS in Nursing, Minor in Spanish from Wichita State University.

Kim is married to Bob and lives in Kansas City, Missouri. She enjoys spending time with her four sons, four daughters-in-law and four grandchildren.

Raquel Wexler

Steve Cook

Trustee