Staff & Board

Molly is a global health professional who has spent most of her career working in immunization and health systems strengthening in sub-Saharan Africa. Most recently, she served as a Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where she led initiatives focused on increasing equity and demand for vaccines.  She started her career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador and has worked in water and sanitation, HIV prevention, and SafeMotherhood.

Molly holds a joint Master of International Affairs and Master of Public Health from Columbia University, and a BA from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

She is a strong believer in youth leadership and has been involved with AMIGOS as a volunteer in the Dominican Republic and Mexico, as the president of the Seattle Chapter, and as the proud parent of a 2017 volunteer.

Ambassador Chacon is a career member of the United States Foreign Service currently serving as the Senior Vice President at the National Defense University. He has held senior leadership positions at the State Department, including Chief of Mission in Guatemala and Chief Human Capital Officer. He is widely recognized for his expertise in Latin American and European affairs, talent management, communication strategies and building a diverse workforce.

Prior to his service in Guatemala, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Spain. His other diplomatic assignments include postings to U.S. Missions in Honduras, Mexico, Chile, Italy, Peru, Ecuador, and the United Nations. Ambassador Chacon joined the AMIGOS Board of Directors in 2019. From 1974-1979, he served with AMIGOS in Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, and Mexico as a volunteer, route leader and member of the AMIGOS international staff. A life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Ambassador Chacon is a Boettcher Foundation Scholar and graduate of the University of Colorado. His wife Alida Chacon is retired from the Foreign Service and they have three children.

Dr. Andrew Haas is a fellowship trained, board-certified orthopedic surgeon who specializes in Sports Medicine. He completed his undergraduate studies at Yale University and earned his medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. After his orthopaedic surgery residency at Montefiore, he completed a sports medicine fellowship at Boston University.

Dr. Haas has served as the team physician for several high school and college athletic programs. He was the head orthopedist at the Toughman Triathlon Championships and worked as a physician at the Boston Marathon, U.S. Figure Skating National Championships and the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Hockey Championships.

Dr. Haas was a collegiate-level soccer player and has been participating in marathons and triathlons for over 30 years, including the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. As a life-long athlete himself, Dr. Haas enjoys working with athletes to formulate plans to get them back in the game.

As an AMIGOS alumnus and parent, Adolfo hopes to give back to AMIGOS however he can. His four years as a volunteer and staff-member were valuable. His work in the 1990s with the Miami Chapter and his daughter’s summer experience several years ago allowed him to witness the organization’s historical development. The strength and well-being of AMIGOS is important to him. Adolfo’s personal and professional life has always had a strong Latin American component. He has handled disputes and matters for clients from throughout the region. Adolfo hopes to collaborate with other board members to raise the profile of AMIGOS, connect with alumni, and further develop a sustainable long-term fundraising strategy.

Philip Johnson, M.D., is a board certified physician and division director, Professor and Vice-Chair for the Department of Internal Medicine at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth.

He is actively involved in clinical patient care, teaching and research. Dr. Johnson served as the associate program director of the University Clinical Research Center at Memorial Hermann Hospital for 15 years, with interest in the research areas of gastrointestinal and fungal infections and HIV/AIDS. His research awards include, but are not limited to, grants from NASA and leading pharmaceutical companies.

Dr. Johnson was listed in Texas Super Doctors and the Best Doctors in America a total of four times and was voted as one of Houston’s Top Doctors in 2002.

Dr. Johnson is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine as well as a fellow in the American College of Physicians.

Kevin Lanier is a vicarious Amigo, having supported his three children when they volunteered as Amigos in Ecuador (Brennan in 2011), Nicaragua (Sophie in 2015), and Costa Rica (Elise in 2017) respectively.  His son and two daughters came home with such strong confidence, independence and cultural appreciation that he vowed to support the AMIGOS organization and its mission further.

Kevin has worked for Royal Dutch Shell in various businesses over his career which has included commercial roles based in Los Angeles, Mexico City, London, and Houston.  Today, Kevin leads multi-functional mergers and acquisitions teams negotiating and closing deals throughout the Americas.  He received his bachelors degree from the University of Notre Dame, a JD from the University of Texas, and an International MBA from Cambridge University.  The international frame of Kevin’s training and work life help him to deeply appreciate the mission of AMIGOS.

Catherine has been an active leader in the Houston community for over 20 years, serving on boards and chairing fundraisers for numerous organizations including the Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Rice University, The Methodist Hospital, and St. John’s School.

Currently, Catherine is serving as Co-Chair of the Trustee-Nominating Committee and the Development Committee for the Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston. She also serves as a Board Member for the Council for the Future for Friends of Florence, a nonprofit that provides financial support for the preservation and restoration of Florence’s greatest art treasures. In addition, Catherine is a Board Member for the James M. Collins Foundation, which supports education, health, and the arts worldwide.

Catherine’s professional work experience includes serving as a strategic consultant for CHRISTIE’S auction house where she developed a new strategic plan for their Southwest region. Previously, Catherine spent ten years working in the Southeast coordinating sports marketing for Coca-Cola and as Director of National Sales for Speakeasy, Inc., a communications consulting company, which specializes in training CEOs in public speaking skills. Catherine also has experience in Public Relations and Special Events working for White House Political Affairs and Young Presidents’ Organization.

Catherine is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where she majored in European History and minored in Spanish.

Catherine has been involved with AMIGOS since 1988 when she served as a volunteer in Ecuador. She returned to Ecuador with AMIGOS leadership and fellow alums for the first AMIGOS Field Project Visit in 2018. Catherine and her husband, George, co-chaired the Breakfast to Benefit AMIGOS in Houston in both 2018 and 2019.

Lisa Pieper has over 20 years of healthcare experience and more than a decade of experience in the life sciences industry. She founded and manages Pieper & Associates, a life sciences consulting firm focused on organizational and leadership advisory services, including executive-level and board recruitment. Lisa was previously a consultant in the life sciences practices of global executive search firms. Earlier, she practiced medicine for a decade in a large multi-specialty group practice, where she served in a variety of leadership roles and founded the evidence-based medicine program.

Lisa serves on the President’s Council of the Gladstone Institutes, a non-profit biomedical research foundation based in San Francisco. She is also an alumna of Amigos de las Américas, a non-profit, Pan-American community services organization in which she held roles of increasing responsibility, culminating in Country Director, Ecuador.

Lisa’s educational background includes undergraduate degrees in International Affairs and Spanish, followed by graduate degrees that include an MD from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where she subsequently completed residency training, leading to board certification in her field, as well as an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), with contemporaneous involvement in a number of new ventures and advisory roles. Lisa is fluent in Spanish.

Paul Reidy is a seasoned business executive with experience as a corporate attorney, entrepreneur and business development professional. Paul spent much of his career with Motorola, Inc. where one of his projects was facilitating the establishment of wireless networks in Mexico and Brazil. Paul was also the co-founder and CEO of traq-wireless, Inc. a pioneer in wireless device management. More recently, Paul has been focused on patent licensing transactions designed to reduce patent litigation.

Paul received a JD/MBA degree from Indiana University and a BA in Economics from Michigan State University.

Paul was an AMIGOS volunteer in Honduras (’77) and Paraguay (’78) and a Route Leader in Honduras (’79).

Toby’s first exposure to AMIGOS was at the age of 13 in Guatemala where his parents were missionaries and AMIGOS worked in San Miguel Chicaj, Guatemala. It was there he began to dream about becoming an Amigo while helping by serving as a guide for the volunteers. He went on to get a degree in Theology and was involved in ministry and missions from 1982 to 1990. In 1990 he switched careers and began to work for the Tecma Group, where today he is a partner and holds several titles with the company. Tecma works in manufacturing in Mexico. They have 72 clients, 9,000 employees, and 3.2 million square feet of space mostly along the border. Working with and developing people continues to be his passion.

Toby participates on several boards, and he and his wife LaDeena have been involved in projects in Rwanda as well as AMIGOS. He served as a volunteer, route leader, assistant country director, and project director in Nicaragua and Ecuador. Toby also worked for AMIGOS HQ as the Field Program Coordinator.

He considers AMIGOS the wonderful foundation for all that has come his way in life and he is grateful to be able to serve on the board.

Kirsten Saenz Tobey co-founded Revolution Foods in 2006 while in graduate school at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Based in Oakland, Revolution Foods is becoming the nation’s leading innovative, nationwide food solution for citywide wellness. Revolution Foods serves approximately 2 million healthy, affordable meals per week across 15 states, serving over 2000 school and community sites in the US. Revolution Foods’ mission is to build lifelong healthy eaters by making kid-inspired, chef-crafted food accessible to all.

Revolution Foods has been named by Fast Company as one of the world’s 50 most innovative companies and has been listed as one of Fortune Magazine’s “Seven World-Changing Companies to Watch”.  Kirsten is a social entrepreneurship fellow for the Schwab Foundation, as well as an Ashoka Fellow, an Aspen Institute Environmental Fellow, and a member of the Culinary Institute of America’s Business Council. She currently is a member of the Board of Directors for Mercaris and ARTA River Trips.

Prior to founding Revolution Foods, Kirsten was a teacher, researcher and garden educator. Her AMIGOS service included Costa Rica (volunteer – 1994), Ecuador-Manabi (Field Supervisor – 1996) and Ecuador-Cotapaxi (Associate Project Director – 1998).  Kirsten holds an AB from Brown University and an MBA from UC Berkeley. She lives in the SF Bay Area with her husband and three daughters.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

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 (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.

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.

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 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 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 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.

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 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’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.  

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 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.

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 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 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).

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 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 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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Jenny joined AMIGOS in October 2017 and is ecstatic to be part of such an amazing organization. Though she never participated in AMIGOS, she has traveled widely throughout Latin America for study abroad in college and in a previous role as an International Admissions Counselor at a university in Georgia.

Jenny is passionate about the work of AMIGOS and nonprofits in general. She completed an Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in Nonprofit Administration and wants to help more people become involved with nonprofits — as donors, volunteers or in any way that they desire!

Bucket List Items: Travel to every continent, have a farm (well, maybe just some chickens and a goat).

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.

April is a strategic operations and marketing leader with 10+ years nonprofit and for-profit experience. She is native Houstonian veteran Amiga.

In 2008, she participated in AMIGOS in Guanajuato, Mexico. At Colorado College, she majored in Sociology and continued her Latin American travels in Ecuador and Cuba. An avid backpacker, she spent a month in the backcountry on three separate occasions. 

April is excited to use digital marketing and the power of automation to get the word out about AMIGOS programs.

Caroline first joined AMIGOS in 2009 as a volunteer from the Houston Chapter. After that first summer, she stayed involved with the organization in a variety of ways, serving as a two-time volunteer, a three-time project staff member, a member of the HQ Programs team, and as part of the Houston Chapter Board.

She returned to the organization in 2022 after pursuing her graduate degree. Caroline is excited to work in collaboration with our local chapter leaders, and she loves to see the way that AMIGOS inspires people across the Americas to get involved in their communities.

Outside of work, you can find her baking bread, listening to audiobooks, or exploring Texas State Parks.

AMIGOS was the first opportunity Lauren took advantage of to travel internationally. Little did she know that it would solidify her interest in cultural exchange and community development! During her time at the University of Notre Dame, she continued to read, listen, examine, and dialogue about the processes for understanding individual and societal change in both local and international contexts. Through her study abroad experience, an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program Grant, and later, the U.S. Student Fulbright Program, Lauren worked with a non-profit organization in Santiago, Chile to research and improve health and education programs for adolescent mothers.

Upon her return to the U.S., she continued to stay involved in the international education industry, supporting Exchange Visitors while in the U.S. on their J-1 Summer Work and Travel visas. Now based in Chicago, she supports the AMIGOS chapter network as it provides mentorship, builds community, and empowers local students. As a Cohort Director she is thrilled to support her students as they embark on the first ever virtual program from AMIGOS!

Having seen the impact of cross-cultural immersion first-hand, Annie is thrilled to be a part of the AMIGOS team providing opportunities to youth throughout the Americas for authentic immersion. Prior to joining AMIGOS, Annie lived in Ecuador for three years where she first served as a volunteer Program Director in a local community center and later managed and supported international adolescents participating in a gap year program in the Andean region of Ecuador. She understands both the tremendous personal growth but also deep challenges that emerge from cross-cultural experiences and is excited to bring these insights to the Admissions Team in supporting volunteers and their families. Bilingual in both English and Spanish, she loves connecting with new people and cultures.

In her free time, Annie enjoys whipping up some new recipes, exercising and staying active – be it going on long walks, playing in her women’s soccer league or practicing her bachata steps on the dance floor, and visiting family and friends both near and far.

Krista is from San Francisco and lives there now with her family across from Ocean Beach.

As soon as she heard about AMIGOS in her freshman year, she wanted to go. She waited impatiently until she was 16 and then headed to Mexico in 1982 to work in latrine construction. To this day, she walks by bags of concrete at Home Depot with a well-trained desire to get some water and start mixing. The following summer, she went to Ecuador on a rabies vaccination campaign. While studying Sociology at UCSC, she returned to Ecuador in 1985 as field staff and then went back to Mexico in 1987 as the project director in Michoacan.

After college, she moved to Washington DC for two years. Her life took an unexpected turn when she moved to Seoul, South Korea for three months that became five years. Asia was a true revelation to her and she loved every moment. When she returned to the US, she came back to San Francisco to work in International Education. She is thrilled to come full circle and be back with AMIGOS on the West Coast.

Top of Krista’s bucket list: Hiking the Camino de Santiago in Spain with her husband (though he does not know that yet).

Marvin Sarkar Bynoe has been active in AMIGOS for over 6 years as a volunteer, chapter trainer, Project Supervisor in Costa Rica, and Health & Wellness Coordinator in Santa Elena, Ecuador. He received his BA from Claremont McKenna College with a focus in decolonization and Afrolatinodad and was CMC Impact Fellow in Dominica. He lived and studied for many years in Bolivia and Panama, worked as an educator in New Orleans, and is now based in San Diego, California. In his free time, he tends toward all things soccer and beach-related.

Originally from Perez Zeledon, Costa Rica, Nicol considers herself a change-maker, passionate about contributing to the development of rural communities while also helping to preserve their essence of traditional living. In 2016, Nicol received her B.A. in Environmental Studies and Business & Nonprofit Management from Earlham College, with focuses in Environmental Politics and Women’s Empowerment. During her time at Earlham, Nicol had the opportunity to attend Semester at Sea, a 4-months program that travels to 12 countries around the world.

Nicol began with AMIGOS as a Project Supervisor in Chimborazo, Ecuador and in 2017 Nicol was the Project Director for the Matagalpa, Nicaragua Project. For the last two years Nicol has worked with indigenous and farming community-based organizations in Central America providing capacity building training. Nicol is also committed to social entrepreneurship and during her free time enjoys working with women entrepreneurs guiding them towards their own paths of leadership.

Michael was first diagnosed with wanderlust at a very young age when he would travel from snowy Wisconsin to Colombia to visit his mom’s side of the family. He cherished the summers that he would spend in South America and they fostered a yearning for adventure and the unknown!

Michael graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he received his B.S. in Zoology and Conservation Biology with a focus in Global Health. He continued exploring the world by studying abroad in the Dominican Republic and working abroad in Italy. After his graduation, Michael did what seemed most logical and joined the United States Peace Corps. He spent 2 years in a small, mountainous community in the southern highlands of Madagascar working as a health volunteer. He focused his projects on nutrition, latrine building, and ways to engage the students of the village in their own health. His experience with the leadership and ambition of Malagasy students committed him to a career in furthering education and cross-cultural opportunities for youth across borders.

In his free time, Michael loves cheering on the Badgers, exploring national parks, watching Disney movies in different languages, and a good game of Catan.

Camila is from Bogotá, Colombia, she joined Junior Achievement Colombia in August 2017 and now she is working with the Youth Ambassadors Program in Colombia. Camila graduated from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá as a sociologist with emphasis on history. She is passionate about international development, education and youth leadership. That’s why she loves her job with Youth Ambassadors, because she can witness youth empowerment through cultural exchange and community development.  In her free time, you can find her wandering around looking for new places to eat.

Natalia was born and raised in Colombia. After graduating from college, she went to EEUU in an exchange program as an Au Pair in California for 2 years.

When she came back, she moved to Ecuador where she worked with different organizations and volunteered aside as one of her hearted activities. That inspired her to study a Master’s Degree about Coaching and Leadership, to find more resources to work more effectively with people.

Her dedication guided her to live closely in nature in the Amazon rainforest, leading social justice programs around indigenous communities and working with international volunteers from around the world.

Natalia joined AMIGOS in 2022 when she served as a Project Director in La Sierra with Youth Ambassadors. In 2023, she worked with Santa Elena Summer Program and GAP program during the fall. In 2024 she is back to work with Youth Ambassadors in Cuenca.

She is a passionate person about nature, scuba diving, dancing, traveling, and Vedic Sciences.

Priya Benny graduated from University of Houston-Clear Lake with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and joins AMIGOS fresh out of college. Originally from Kerala, India, she moved to Houston with her family in 2018. She enjoys traveling and recently discovered a love for road trips on a family trip to Fredericksburg. She is super excited to be working at AMIGOS and looks forward to learning everything she can!

A self-professed collector of hobbies, Priya enjoys walking, baking, and trying every flavor of HEB Creamy Creations ice cream.

Charlotte grew up in Houston, Texas where she first joined AMIGOS as a volunteer in Paraguay in 2015. The experience solidified her interest in travel, the Spanish language, and cross-cultural exchange. She went on to major in journalism and Latin American studies at The University of Texas at Austin and continued to travel throughout Latin America during college, including a semester in Santiago, Chile. In between semesters, she worked at a summer camp in Northern California which brought her love for youth development to the Bay Area.

Charlotte loves talking about all things AMIGOS and is so excited to connect with future volunteers and inspire more students to participate in a life-changing AMIGOS summer!

Carmen is re-joining the AMIGOS team after serving as a Project Director in 2022. Carmen is a trained sociologist, who has been working with youth for more than 10 years. She has worked with Girl Guides and Scouts, the Red Cross, and TECHO. Carmen is from the coffee producing mountains of Costa Rica and is proud of her culture.

Abbie is a five-time Amiga, first volunteering with the organization in Panama and the Dominican Republic and then working as a staff member in Paraguay, Nicaragua, and Ecuador during summer breaks throughout college. After graduating from Rockhurst University with dual degrees in Nonprofit Management and Psychology, Abbie began working at a domestic violence agency in Kansas City. In 2016, she joined the AMIGOS team full time as the Regional Director for Ecuador and the Dominican Republic. In 2018, Abbie transitioned to the Finance Department where she now works as the Senior Accountant. In her free time, you can find Abbie running with her dogs or playing sand volleyball.

María Beusterien Pereira grew up in Lubbock, Texas in a Spanish-speaking household. She is a recent graduate from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied Portuguese, Spanish and International Relations and Global Studies. During her studies, she spent a year abroad as a part of the Portuguese Flagship Program with a Boren Scholarship in Río de Janeiro, Brazil, working on poverty alleviation projects in two favelas. She is excited to join Chapters Operations’ work within Amigos as a VISTA Americorps associate and help to enable transformative youth exchange experiences throughout Latin America. María loves reading Latin American fiction, such as works by Clarice Lispector, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Roberto Bolaño, and spending time with her 13 year old dog Chispa.

Carly was born and raised in El Paso, TX. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA in International Business and a minor in accounting. During her time at UT Austin, she interned at different Texas-based immigration related non-profits and studied for a semester at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid, Spain. Shortly after graduating she began working at AMIGOS as the Youth Ambassador Program Coordinator in Austin, TX. She is super excited to be at AMIGOS because it fulfills her knowing she is doing work she is passionate about and making a difference in people’s lives. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, hanging out with her friends, and exploring new things to do in Austin!

Laura is originally from Colombia/Venezuela and lived in Mexico City prior to moving to Houston in 2014. She graduated from Trinity University with a B.A. in Communications and International Studies, and has previously assisted media, editorial, and PR/marketing teams with communications efforts in English, Spanish and Portuguese. She enjoys camping and exploring Texas State Parks, traveling to Latin America’s vibrant cities and towns, and learning more about different countries, cultures, and languages by watching travel shows and documentaries. Laura is excited to join our team and spread the word about AMIGOS and the inspiring experiences our young leaders are partaking in.

Top of her bucket list: Travel to Brazil once again (where she studied abroad in college) and explore the Northeast region of the country with her family.

Laura has enjoyed working with Amigos since 1989, as a volunteer with the Houston Chapter she participated in community sanitation programs in Bolivar, Ecuador (1990) and Oaxaca, Mexico (1991). From 1991 to 2005, she was in school and training as a physician. In 2003-2005, she helped start the San Diego AMIGOS Chapter. From 2000-2007, she also served as a medical officer in the United States Navy, including two years aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD6). In 2008, she returned to Houston and started volunteering as a physician with the AMIGOS On-Call Health and Safety team. Laura also is board certified in Adolescent Medicine and Pediatrics and holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health. She is an associate professor of pediatrics and public health and community medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, MA, and a happy clinician. She is super excited to continue her work with AMIGOS and provide health guidance for adolescents and young adults!

Born and raised in Uruguay, Zyro got to know AMIGOS while working for a partner agency back at home, where he had been managing several programs for youth and children since he was 19. In 2016 he served as Project Supervisor in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, and came back to AMIGOS in 2020 to work with the Community Impact Project. After working as Program Coordinator for a few months, Zyro served as Project Director for the 2021 Monteverde & Costa Atlantica project in Costa Rica. He assumed the role of Training Manager in September 2021.

He has also lived in New Zealand, Paraguay, and Mexico, where he developed different hobbies like snowboarding, scuba diving, salsa dancing, photography, and videography.

Margaret Laliberte is a child and adolescent Psychiatric Nurse Specialist with an extensive history of clinical work with adolescents & families in a variety of mental health settings. In her 30 years of clinical practice, she has worked in residential, day treatment, & out patient programs as well as participated in evaluating adolescent programs & their development across the country. She currently maintains a private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area and does individual and group consultation to Child & Adolescent therapists. Margaret has coordinated the Mental Health program for the AMIGOS organization for the last 15 years. She does the mental health screening of all applicants where necessary, provides senior staff training, and takes the lead on providing summer consultation to staff in the field.

Margaret’s own daughter, Amy, was a long term AMIGOS participant, from Chapter Volunteer to a two-time Project Director!

Originally from Paraguay, Andrea first came to the US through a cultural exchange program, so she understands firsthand the experience of living in a different culture and learning a new language. Before starting college, she took a year off and became an au pair in Boulder, Colorado, an unforgettable experience that would unexpectedly lead her back to the au pair program once again! Before joining AMIGOS, Andrea worked as a bilingual financial coach in a housing redevelopment project with low-income families from South and Central America. The excitement to see youth building their skills to adulthood through community values and respect for cultural diversity is what attracted Andrea to the Admissions Advisor position at AMIGOS. Besides English, she is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and Guaraní, the official native language in her home country.

Katherine Evans was born, raised, and currently resides in Panama. She is a professional in the fields of logistics and customer service, with a fervent passion for serving others. Katherine firmly believes that we are here to serve, and that youth represent both the present and the future for creating a world with greater opportunities and hope for all.

Outside of her professional endeavors, Katherine enjoys indulging her culinary passions by cooking and baking desserts. She also has a deep love for traveling and is always seeking out new experiences and knowledge.

Katherine finds the opportunity to be part of AMIGOS incredibly fulfilling as it combines many of her passions: serving others, cultural immersion, and travel. She is excited about the prospect of making a positive impact through AMIGOS and contributing to a brighter future for communities in need.

Originally from Tacna, Peru. I studied international business, and since I was little I was raised to serve. Working with and contributing to the formation of youth is something I am passionate about, and that’s why I joined Amigos de las Americas. With AMIGOS I was a Mentor in the first Community Impact Project in 2020, and Director of the Montañas y Mar Project in Costa Rica in 2022.

I am passionate about traveling, learning different languages, and being in contact with different cultures, seeing the cultural shock and the impact it generates is very interesting to me, and I believe it generates positive consequences when you have an open mind.

David is a fifth-generation Texan and was raised in Lindale, TX. He graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University. He has worked in the for-profit and non-profit arenas in IT, finance, and management. He is excited to be at AMIGOS to support the incredible work that is being done through its staff and volunteers.

Top of Bucket List: To compose a Bucket List.

Elizabeth is a longtime lover of AMIGOS! She began her AMIGOSexperience serving as a volunteer in Intibucá, Honduras in 1999 and then in Dajabon, Dominican Republic in 2000. During the summers of 2001 and 2002 she worked as a full-time staff member of the On-Call System and from 2004-2005 served as the correspondent volunteer administrator. She took a long break from full time AMIGOS work to start a family and pursue other life passions, but she never really got away from AMIGOS as she did part time work in the summers of 2003–2019 helping to take calls for the 24 hour On Call System. For the last 14 years, Elizabeth has taught a Fertility Awareness method to over 900 couples and women and has traveled extensively to 7 countries training teachers and physicians in a natural approach to woman’s gynecologic health, fertility and reproduction.

Elizabeth is excited to be back at AMIGOS in this new role and looks forward to new adventures in life. As a travel junkie, Elizabeth hopes to explore every continent at least once with her three daughters and to continue to experience the richness and light of cultural diversity and to bask in the beauty of our world. Things she could never live without- her passport, her 3 daughters, her faith, sunsets, and peanut butter.

Danielle joins AMIGOS with more than 10 years of experience leading strategic change and capacity-building initiatives within non-profit and public service organizations. She began her career in the international arena – as an AMIGOS volunteer in Ecuador, a Peace Corps Volunteer and then Volunteer Coordinator in the Dominican Republic, and a consultant to grassroots organizations in India and Sri Lanka – focusing primarily on community economic development and youth development projects. She was then inspired to be of service to youth and families in her own community and transitioned to leadership roles within hunger relief, homeless services, and girls leadership development organizations in the United States.

Danielle is thrilled to come full circle and rediscover her passion for the AMIGOS mission of offering young people transformative leadership development, community service, and cultural immersion experiences. She played a leadership role within the AMIGOS San Diego Chapter during the pandemic in educating schools and families about new AMIGOS program models and adjusting San Diego Chapter operations accordingly. She is excited to join AMIGOS full time and work with schools to expand access to AMIGOS programs and grow the number of volunteers becoming empowered to make positive change in the world.

Danielle has a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School focused on political and economic development and strategic management of public service organizations.

Growing up in Houston, Texas, Emma first became involved with AMIGOS in 2015 as a volunteer in Cotopaxi, Ecuador. This experience influenced her to take a gap year before college, where she lived in Bolivia for a year with Rotary International. From there, Emma studied International Relations, with a focus on Latin America and Culture, Media, and the Arts, and Business Spanish at the University of Texas at Austin, graduating mid-pandemic in December of 2020. She worked as a Program Assistant for the 2021 Youth Ambassadors Program and is ecstatic for her return to the Houston Chapter as the Texas Outreach Manager.

Emma has been inspired by the AMIGOS mission of providing community-first service and immersion since her time in Ecuador. She participated as a fellow with the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy during her time at UT Austin and worked with survivors of human trafficking in her former role with Refugee Services of Texas. She hopes to encourage more youth to explore the path towards building a global community of tolerance, inclusion, and service for others.

In her free time, you can find Emma tending to her many plant babies, visiting art museums, and trying new restaurants in Houston. At the top of her current bucket list is returning to Edinburgh, Scotland, where she studied abroad in college.

Since 2012, I have been passionately working on conservation, community tourism, and youth empowerment projects. My journey began as a volunteer at an environmental organization in Paraguay, where I quickly transitioned to a staff role. There, I’ve coordinated exciting projects like bird-based tourism and organic shade-grown yerba mate. Thanks to these opportunities, I had the chance to work closely with people from different cultures!

These experiences significantly strengthened my enthusiasm for working with young people. I have also worked on educational projects across various regions including Chaco, Concepción, Itapúa, Villarrica, and Asunción. Through community tourism, I have witnessed firsthand how empowering local youth can drive positive change and sustainable development.

I hold a master’s degree in Tourism, Environment, and Development from King’s College London (KCL), England. I love connecting with nature through hobbies such as nature photography, hiking, and birdwatching.

Evelio Alegre is originally from Ciudad del Este but is currently living in Asunción, Paraguay. His academic background includes a degree in International Relations with a minor in Regional Integration from UNILA in Brazil. He participated in an educational exchange program in the USA where he volunteered as a camp counselor at Flat Rock River YMCA Camp. He served as the Support Coordinator at AFS Intercultural Programs in Paraguay, where he gained experience in handling various challenging situations with exchange students.

In addition to his role at AFS, he has been actively involved with the US Embassy in Paraguay. He was an ACCESS participant, a Youth Ambassador, and currently holding the position of vice president at State Alumni Paraguay—an association that brings together alumni from diverse programs offered by the Department of State in Paraguay. He has a passion for volunteering and civic engagement, he’s a member of Rotaract. Currently, He’s also part of a project called Scale Up Digital Entrepreneurs, which is funded by the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF).