Staff

Sara Lamson Nathan

President & CEO

Sara Nathan is the President & Chief Executive Officer of Amigos de las Américas, a nonprofit organization that empowers lifelong leaders who share responsibility for our global community.

For two decades, Sara’s work has centered on building educational experiences and hands-on learning opportunities for students across the Americas. Prior to serving as CEO, Sara served as Managing Director of Programs. Her major achievements in this role were launching year-round programs, including the Gap Program for high school graduates, opening AMIGOS programs to hundreds of students from Latin America, and the securing our first federal grant award for binational exchanges and programming for youth across the Americas.

As CEO, Sara has focused on growing the impact of AMIGOS through program innovation and systems modernization. The organization has established year-round staffing throughout the Americas, built a marketing program for increased visibility, established a regional staff presence in four other cities in the U.S., and doubled annual fundraising. Under her leadership, AMIGOS has achieved record enrollment and is poised for continued growth.

Prior to AMIGOS, Sara served as the Vice Chair of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Overseeing Operations, she facilitated research initiatives and dialogue between students, academics, thought leaders, and government officials throughout the Western Hemisphere. Key initiatives included the U.S.-Mexico Futures Forum and the publication of the Berkeley Review of Latin American Studies.

Sara earned her M.S. in International Development from the London School of Economics as well as a B.S. in Conservation and Resource Studies and a B.A in Spanish and Portuguese from the University of California, Berkeley.

Faraz Paliwala

Chief Financial Officer

Katherine Conway

Managing Director of Programs

Katherine re-joins Amigos from her position as a Program Manager at the National Democratic Institute (NDI) where she managed a portfolio of democracy, governance, human rights, and youth leadership programs in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Katherine is a long time Amiga, participating as a volunteer in Paraguay in 2002, supervisor in Honduras in 2004, and Project Director in Honduras in 2009/2010, and Peru in 2011. Katherine also worked at the AMIGOS headquarters in Houston helping to envision the initial youth ambassador program, and most recently served as a Training Director for the Washington, DC Chapter from 2016-2018. Additionally, Katherine holds a BA in International Relations from Tufts University and a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at the same university.

Katherine is a lover of all things rock climbing, cats, and coffee.

Dan Meyer

Managing Director of Growth

Dan is a seasoned experiential educator with over two decades of experience in diverse settings, ranging from wilderness camps to environmental education centers to challenge courses and more. For 14 years, Dan served as the Program and Operations Director for an international summer program for high school students, where he oversaw the marketing, sales, operations, and programming for 10+ service-learning programs worldwide.  Over the years, he guided 19 programs abroad, launched trips to several new destinations, and increased student enrollments more than two-fold.

Dan holds an MBA and MS in Experiential Education and is passionate about leveraging international travel and cross-cultural experiences to foster personal growth and social impact.  He joined the AMIGOS team in 2024 and is thrilled to contribute to its continued growth and success.

Outside of work, Dan enjoys exploring the outdoors, cooking, yoga, and spending time with his family in Longmont, Colorado.

Viviana Denechaud

Managing Director of Development and External Affairs

Viviana has spent the last 20 years as an advisor to various non-profit organizations primarily in the areas of development, relationship cultivation, and strategic planning. She has been supporting AMIGOS for several years and officially became an AMIGOS parent in 2024 and co-chaired the AMIGOS Lifelong Leaders Luncheon in 2025.

As a former investment banker and management consultant, she has been using her professional experience in the for-profit world to provide strategic advisory services to multiple organizations, supporting development of successful fundraising strategies and leading campaign efforts for multiple organizations. For almost 3 years, she has been supporting efforts on a $180 million capital campaign for The Kinkaid School, serving on their advancement committee for 4 years prior to the campaign launch. She served on the board of directors and executive team for the Houston Symphony’s Society Board of Trustees as the Chair of Development.

Prior to her move to the non-profit arena, Viviana worked as a management consultant for Towers Perrin in New York in the areas of strategic planning and change management with clients such as Pfizer and Alcoa. The shift to consulting came after working as an investment banker for TD Securities in the areas of Media, Telecom and Technology with a focus in Latin America. In that role, she supported new business development and enhanced existing business relationships while structuring transactions in the public and private markets. She also worked for Time Warner as an associate marketing manager for People en Español and for the General Motors Corporation at their offices in Argentina in a management rotational program, focused on logistics, special projects and human resource initiatives after receiving an MBA with concentrations in Finance and Marketing from the A.B. Freeman School of Business and a BA in Psychology.

On a personal note, Viviana and her husband, David, have three sons – Jack (18), Charles (16) and DJ (12). Although her parents have been in the U.S. since the 1960s, both are from Argentina and the majority of her extended family still lives there. She grew up visiting Argentina every summer, sometimes even attending school with her cousins, and feels her Latin heritage is a fundamental part of her identity.