Latin America Working Group
Melinda St. Louis, President
Melinda St. Louis is the International Campaigns Director at Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch and former Deputy Director of Jubilee USA. She holds a master’s degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. From 2002-2004, she worked in the WFP national office as Advocacy and Campaigns Coordinator, where she helped develop WFP’s stateside campaigns on trade justice, peace in Colombia, and ending the Cuban embargo. From 2000-2002, Melinda served on WFP’s International Team in Nicaragua, leading delegations and analyzing the constantly changing reality for labor organizing in Nicaragua’s Free Trade Zones for U.S. labor solidarity groups. Prior to her tenure at WFP, Melinda was the Mid-Atlantic regional organizer for the Campaign for Labor Rights and Coordinator of the Latin America Emergency Response Network.
Theo Sitther, Secretary/Treasurer
Theo Sitther directs the peacebuilding program at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, where he advocates to reform militarized counterterrorism policies. Prior to this, he was the Senior Legislative Associate for International Affairs at the Mennonite Central Committee Washington Office. He led MCC’s advocacy initiatives on U.S. foreign policy related to Latin America, Asia, and trade issues. On Latin America, he has promoted attention to peace building in Colombia, worked for generous US aid to post-earthquake Haiti, along with greater aid accountability and transparency, and helped lead interfaith coalition efforts for fairer trade policies. Prior to joining MCC, Theo was a lobbyist and draft counselor for the Center on Conscience and War. He is completing a Master’s degree in peacebuilding and conflict transformation from Eastern Mennonite University and has a Bachelor’s degree in biblical studies from Eastern University
Gary Cozette
Gary L. Cozette is the Program Director and founder of the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN), a 600-member network of both lay and clergy leaders who together work for human rights, justice and peace in Latin America. Prior to this, Gary served as a Presbyterian Church (USA) lay mission worker in El Salvador from 1984-1987 doing human rights reporting from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Salvador to an ecumenical urgent action network in North America. Gary has led over 30 delegations of religious and community leaders to Latin America, including delegations to El Salvador with three current members of Congress from Illinois (1989), Cuba with the Illinois Conference of Churches (2000), and Colombia with Chicago area African-American leaders (2003). Previously, Gary has served on the Board of Governors of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) as well as the board of CRISPAZ in El Salvador. Gary lives in Chicago with his domestic partner of 16 years, Joseph M. Lada.
Louis Head
Louis Head is Community Engagement Coordinator at Casa de Salud, an independent and innovative integrative healthcare facility serving the Albuquerque metro area. He previously was part of the team that built the New Mexico-based SouthWest Organizing Project during the 1980s and 90s, and later was co-founder and Executive Director of the Cuba Research and Analysis Group, which for over ten years built relationships between U.S.-based institutions, artists, professionals and others and their counterparts in Cuba. Prior to coming to Casa de Salud, he served as Facilitator of the South by Southwest Experiment, a partnership between established Latino/Indigenous and African-descendent grassroots social justice organizations in New Mexico, Texas, and Mississippi. He holds a BA in the Political Economy of U.S.-Latin American relations from the University of Michigan, where he also founded one of the first Central America solidarity organizations in the US in 1980. He brings with him a wealth of experience related to US-Latin America relations, including those between Latin American social justice movements and organizations and their U.S. counterparts.
Mary DeLorey
Mary Delorey is an expert on Latin America policy and immigration issues. Currently the representative to Honduras for the Inter-American Foundation, she was previously a consultant to faith-based organizations and foundations. Mary was a strategic policy advisor to Catholic Relief Services from 1998 to 2011. Prior to that, she worked at Catholic Charities and Covenant House and was a community organizer with the Maryknoll Catholic Mission Society in Peru.
Alberto Fernández
Alberto Fernández joined Working America in 2015 to direct the Working America We Rise project serving immigrant workers and their communities. His responsibilities include implementing Working America’s outreach program across language, racial and ethnic lines, and overseeing worker organizing projects in several states. Alberto was a student activist in Mexico City in the late 1990s, and has worked for the labor movement both in Mexico and the U.S. He joined Working America after completing coursework and field research for his Ph.D. in politics from the New School for Social Research.
Laura Harris
Laura Harris, an enrolled citizen of the Comanche Nation, is the Executive Director of Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO) where she heads up an international Indigenous values-based leadership development program and Indigenous leaders network. Before joining AIO, Harris was on the original fund-raising staff for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. Prior to that, she worked in the Washington, D.C. office of U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (NM). Harris served on the senior staff of the U.S. presidential campaigns of Gov. Howard Dean (2004) and Gov. Bill Richardson (2008). In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed Harris senior advisor to the President’s Initiative on Race. Harris is a trained and experienced fundraiser and consensus-building facilitator. She resides in Albuquerque, NM where she spends time with her 1-year old granddaughter, Maddie May Goodhope, who calls her Huutsi (Comanche for paternal grandmother).
Moira Birss
Moira Birss brings over decade of human rights and social justice advocacy, communications, and field experience to her current role as Communications Manager at Amazon Watch. Previously, Moira was the U.S. Advocacy Officer for Peace Brigades International – Colombia and a Human Rights Observer with FOR Peace Presence in Colombia. Moira has a BA in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from the University of Michigan and an MA in International Affairs from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
Latin America Working Group Education Fund
Carolyn Gallaher, President
Carolyn Gallaher is an associate professor in the School of International Service at American University. She teaches courses on Human Geography, Latin American Politics, and Political Violence. Professor Gallaher frequently takes student groups to Mexico. Carolyn’s research is closely aligned with her teaching interests. She studies patterns of political violence,and has done extensive research on the Zapatistas in Mexico, the UVF in Northern Ireland, and the U.S. Militia Movement. Her recent book, On the Fault Line: Race, Class, and the American Patriot Movement, chronicles the Kentucky State Militia from 1997-2002.
Bernice Romero, Secretary/Treasurer
Bernice Romero is the Senior Director of Humanitarian Policy and Advocacy at Save the Children US. Prior to that post, Bernice was Advocacy Director for Oxfam International, where she advocated for debt relief and cancellation, fair trade policies, disaster relief, and sustainable aid programs. Save the Children aims to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to achieve lasting change in their lives by improving their health, education, and economic opportunities. In times of crisis, Save the Children also mobilizes rapid assistance to help children recover from the effects of war, conflict, and natural disasters. Bernice lends her expertise in advocating for just global policies to the LAWGEF board.
Martin Shupack
Martin Shupack is Church World Service’s Director of Advocacy in Washington, DC. Church World Service is a global humanitarian aid agency and ministry of 36 Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican denominations in the United States, working with local organizations worldwide to support sustainable development, meet emergency needs, help the displaced, and address the root causes of poverty, hunger, and powerlessness. Prior to coming to Washington in 1995, Marty and his family served with Mennonite Central Committee in Mexico City. Before that he served in pastoral ministry in Illinois for many years. Marty is married and has three children, and is a member of the Mennonite Church. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois and Harvard Law School.
Winifred Tate
Winifred Tate is an assistant professor of anthropology at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and a visiting research fellow at the National Security Archive. She is the author of Drugs, Thugs and Diplomats: U.S. Policymaking in Colombia (Stanford University Press, 2015) and Counting the Dead: The Culture and Politics of Human Rights Activism in Colombia (University of California Press Public Anthropology Series, 2007). She has researched political violence, drug trafficking, and U.S. foreign policy as a consultant for a number of international organizations, including UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, the U.S. Institute of Peace, Human Rights First, and Freedom House. She also worked as a senior fellow and Colombian analyst for three years at the Washington Office on Latin America. Her current research focuses on U.S. foreign policy debates during Plan Colombia, and the impact of these policies on the Putumayo department of southern Colombia.
Adriana Beltrán
Adriana Beltrán serves as Washington Office on Latin America’s (WOLA) Associate for Organized Crime and Police Reform. During her ten years with WOLA, Beltrán has worked extensively on Guatemala, including leading WOLA’s Central America Advocacy Training Program. Her research into Guatemala’s clandestine groups led to the book “Hidden Powers.” As part of this work, Beltrán has been a long-time advocate for the establishment of a UN commission to investigate illegal armed groups, an effort that has recently seen positive developments with the approval and establishment of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). She holds a Bachelors degree in International Studies and Political Science from Loras College in Dubuque, IA.
Annalise Udall Romoser
Annalise Romoser is a human rights and environmental advocate. She was the Latin America Program Coordinator for the Environmental Investigation Agency. Prior to that position, she was the Field Communications Officer for Latin America at Lutheran World Relief (LWR) and, before that, served as LWR´s Director for Public Policy and Advocacy, leading advocacy on humanitarian, development, and human rights issues for the organization. Annalise has served as Senior Associate at the U.S. Office on Colombia and has worked throughout Colombia as a team member with Witness for Peace documenting the impacts of U.S. military and drug policy on human and cultural rights. As Program Coordinator at Americans for Indian Opportunity, she worked with U.S. tribal governments and international Indigenous groups to advance tribal leadership and sovereignty. She holds a Master’s degree in Latin American studies and International migration from the University of California, San Diego.
Joe Perez
Joe Perez is the CEO of J. Perez Associates Inc. Active in many causes, including expanding Latino participation in a range of fields, he has been a board member of the Willy Velazquez Institute, a member of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO), and a Commissioner for the Private Industry Council of Los Angeles county. He has also been a member of the advocacy committee of the California Association for Health Services at Home and a co-founder of the Japan-American Society of Oklahoma and the Japan-American Society of San Antonio.
Abigail Poe
Abigail Poe Akre is the Director for Development and Communication of the Little Sisters Fund. Previously she was the Director of Security Assistance Monitor at the Center for International Policy (CIP), and was the Deputy Director of CIP. CIP’s Latin America Rights & Security Program advocates a U.S. policy to Latin America and the Caribbean based on international cooperation, demilitarization, and respect for human rights. Since 2007, Abigail has worked on “Just the Facts,” a joint project with LAWG and WOLA that monitors security and U.S. military assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean. She holds a Master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Policy from Bates College. Before CIP, Poe spent two years in Quito, Ecuador, where she produced a news-commentary radio show, developed and managed an online, direct-to-consumer flower company and worked as a project developer for a local non-profit.
Dr. Kimberly Stanton
Dr. Stanton is a human rights expert with twenty-five years of experience in research and policy analysis, program development and implementation in the non-profit, public, foundation and university sectors. Dr. Stanton is currently a Hemenway Fellow at the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the U.S. House of Representatives. She previously was executive director for Project Counselling Services, an international accompaniment and advocacy organization with offices in Bogota, Lima and Guatemala City; deputy director of the Washington Office on Latin America; program officer at the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights; and program officer for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Cathy Feingold
Cathy Feingold is the director of the AFL-CIO’s International Department. Cathy previously directed the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center’s work in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, including strategic campaigns, worker education and advocacy training, and popular research methodologies to document the challenges facing women, migrant and informal economy workers. Cathy also oversaw the Solidarity Center’s global outreach and communications efforts and coordinated strategic campaigns of the AFL-CIO on foreign policy, trade, women’s rights, HIV/AIDS, and child labor. Before moving to AFL-CIO, Cathy worked for the Ford Foundation on their foreign policy and human rights portfolios, and for the United Nations/UNIFEM. As a Fulbright scholar in Nicaragua, Cathy developed popular education materials for women in conflict zones and researched the impact of structural adjustment policies on women workers.
