Speakers

Ms. Carla Álvarez MellsNational Institutes of Health (NIH)

Carla Álvarez Mells has worked in the Office of Communications and Public Liaison (OCPL) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of the Director for the past 10 years. Prior to this, she worked as a Communications Assistant to the NIH Deputy Associate Director for Communications and Public Liaison. There, she broadened her experience by serving on peer review groups for plain language and represented the agency at Latino health fairs. In 2008, Carla joined the News Media Branch team as a Public Affairs Assistant and had responsibility for responding to public inquiries and media requests. She served on a committee that coordinated and supervised the agency’s Language Access activities and related endeavors undertaken to comply with the provisions of the Language Access Act including, but not limited to, creating and implementing an agency biennial language access plan. In her current role as Public Affairs Outreach Specialist, she oversees outreach activities designed to promote awareness of and public engagement in the NIH’s programs. Carla is part of a team that developed the NIH Spanish Health Information Portal. She serves as a health information navigator through the monthly column, “Pregunta a Carla,” a feature on the portal. She currently serves on the Trans-NIH Clinical Trials and You Working Group and is part of the NIH Language Access Steering Committee.

Her academic preparation includes a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Mr. Antonio Campos MuñozCo-director of DPTM

Dr. Antonio Campos is full-professor of the Histology Department and director of the Tissue Engineering Group of research at the Granada University. He has held the following positions: President of the Spanish Society of Histology, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Granada, President of the Spanish Conference of Medical Schools, President of the European Association of Faculties of Medicine, Spanish member in the Committee of the European Union for the training of physicians. Director of the National Institute of Health Carlos III. Member of Editorial Boards and scientific evaluator in journals and national and international institutions. Currently he is President of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Granada and Member of the Royal National Academy of Medicine. Honoris causa degree for Cordoba, Santo Domingo and Aveiro Universities in Argentina, Dominican Republic and Portugal he has published relevant books and papers in high impact factor journals related to Tissue Engineering and also Medical Education. His group was the first research group worldwide to construct a full-thickness cornea that is presently in a clinical trial. Codirector of the Diccionario panhispánico de términos médicos (DPTM).

Ms. Claudia Díaz KukuckaCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Claudia Díaz Kukucka is the Multilingual Services Team Lead for Spanish at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States. She manages a team of qualified translators who support the agency’s activities in providing Spanish materials to limited English proficient segments of the population. Currently, she assists the CDC staff in regard to Spanish linguistic issues and is responsible for the approval of the terminology used in Spanish products published on several platforms. This includes the approval of glossaries created by external entities that produce materials for CDC in Spanish. Previously, she served as the project manager for in-house and outsource services, where she coordinated the translations into Spanish and other languages. Díaz Kukucka holds a degree in business administration from the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia in the United States and obtained a certificate of translation from New York University, as well as an international diploma in the usage of the Spanish language (DIUE) awarded by Fundación Instituto Superior de Estudios Lingüísticos y Literarios LITTERAE and Fundación del Español Urgente FUNDÉU.

Mr. José Miguel García SagredoCodirector del DPTM

Clinical geneticist, MD, PhD. Member of the Member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Medicine. Honorary Professor of Alcalá University.

Former President of European Cytogeneticists Association. Former Head of Medical Genetics Department at University Hospital Ramón y Cajal in Madrid.

Codirector of the Diccionario panhispánico de términos médicos (DPTM).

Ms. Marta Gancedo RuizCentro Universitario CIESE Comillas: course “Español para la salud”

Marta Gancedo Ruiz is a Phd researcher and graduated in Spanish language and Literature and has a Master’s degree in Teacher Formation and in Spanish language teaching as a foreign language. She has worked as Spanish teacher in several universities and nowadays she teaches in Degree in Hispanic Studies in Fundación Comillas. Within the area of Spanish for Specific Purposes, she is specialized in teaching Spanish for Diplomatic Purposes and Spanish of Health, where she is part of  the project “Innovation teaching project for the Spanish language education in the Sanitary field”, developed by the Fundación Comillas in association with the Royal Academy of Medicine.

Mr. Miguel González GuerraAcademia Nacional de Medicina de Venezuela

Doctor in Medical Sciences (Universidad de Salamanca). Master in Public Health (Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas). Full professor of History of Medicine (UCV, Caracas). Professor of Preventive and Social Medicine (UCV, Caracas). Main member of the National Academy of Medicine, Venezuela.

Ms. Cristina V. González SánchezUnidad de Terminología Médica de la RANM

Bachelor’s degree in Hispanic Philology from the University of Alcalá de Henares. She took part on planning and writing different lexicography works as, for example, Diccionario para la enseñanza de la lengua española (published by VOX), Nuevo diccionario esencial and Nuevo diccionario escolar (Santillana), Diccionario de bolsillo (Espasa), Diccionario sistemático multilingüe de telefonía y comunicaciones móviles (Fundación Antonio de Nebrija), and Diccionario español de la energía (ENRESA). She has been member of the Instituto de Lexicografía at the Real Academia Española and took part in the preparation of the 22.^nd and 23.^rd editions of the Diccionario de la lengua Española and the Diccionario esencial. From 2004 she is member of the Unidad de Terminología Médica of the Real Academia Nacional de Medicina. She has contributed to the drafting and compilation of the Diccionario de términos médicos and is currently working on the new Diccionario panhispánico de términos medicos.

Mr. Luis Diego Herrera-AmighettiAcademia Nacional de Medicina de Costa Rica

Medical Doctor, University of Costa Rica. Child, Adolescent and Adult Psychiatrist, Boston and Harvard University. Master in Public Health, Epidemiology of Mental Illnesses, Harvard University.

Has done research and published in peer review journals on Tourette Syndrome, Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder, Anxiety, Sexual Abuse and Maltreatment of Children and Epidemiology of Mental Illnesses.

Founder and President of the Board of Directors of The Paniamor Foundation for the rights of children and adolescents.

Mr. Fernando López MurciaInstituto Cervantes - ONU

Fernando López holds a Bachelor's Degree in Hispanic Philology and a Master's degree in Spanish Language and professional practices from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He has been teaching Spanish as a foreign language since 1986 and has taught in Tanzania, Egypt, Spain, Morocco, the United Kingdom, Syria and Poland.

Head of Studies at the Instituto Cervantes since 2000, he has organized and taught numerous training courses for teachers in different academic areas both online and online. Currently he is coordinator of the Spanish Department of the United Nations Language Program in New York.

Mr. Fernando Marco MartínezReal Colegio Complutense en Harvard

Graduated with honors from Complutense University Medical School in 1983 and obtained his PhD also with outstanding mention in 1990 in the same University. He trained in Orthopaedic Surgery at the San Carlos Hospital of Madrid and has been attached to the Department of Orthopedics of this same hospital since then. During these years he has carried out duties as Head of Medical Education, Vice-Dean of the Medical School and Medical Director. Presently he is Chief of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery, Director of the Musculoskeletal Institute and Head of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery. He has been President of the Spanish National Board of Orthopaedic Surgery, President of the Spanish Society for Shoulder and Elbow Surgery and is the current President of the Spanish Society of Orthopaedic Surgery (SECOT). He has been Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery since 1996 at the Complutense University and in 2008 he was appointed Full Professor and obtained the Chair of Orthopaedics. He holds positions in the Academic Council of the Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard and at the Scientific Comitee of the Fundacion Mutua Madrileña.

Mr. Manuel Luis MartíPresident of Asociación Latinoamericana de Academias Nacionales de Medicina, España y Portugal (ALANAM)

Manuel Luis Martí. MD. PhD.

Emeritus Professor of Internal Medicine. School of Medicine. University of Buenos Aires.

President of the National Academy of Medicine. Buenos Aires. Argentina.

Foreign Correspondent Member of the Royal National Academy of Medicine. Spain.

Former President: Internal Medicine Society of Buenos Aires, Argentine Society of Diabetes, Argentine Society of History of Medicine, Academic Council of Ethics in Medicine.

Mr. Glenn MartínezOhio State University

Mr. Julio Mayol MartínezHead Doctor at Hospital Clínico San Carlos

M.D. Graduated with honors. Universidad Complutense de Madrid; Ph.D. “Summa cum laude”. Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Residency training in Surgery at Hospital Clinico San Carlos and Research fellow in Surgery at Harvard Medical School.

Professor of Surgery Universidad Complutense de Madrid Medical School. Chief medical and innovation officer at Hospital Clinico San Carlos.

Mr. Roberto Medina SantillánUniversidad Autónoma de México

Doctor in Medicine (M.D.) National Faculty of Medicine (UNAM). National Autonomous University of Mexico. Mexico City.

Master of Sciences(M.S.) National School of Biological Sciences. National Polytechnic Institute (IPN). Mexico City.

Doctor of Sciences (Ph.D) School of Medicine. National Polytechnic Institute (IPN). Mexico City.

Postdoctoral Fellowship. Experimental Medicine. Tulane University New Orleans, Louisiana USA. Associate Researcher
(Under the Tutorial of Dr. Andrew V. Schally Nobel Prize, 1977)

Full-Time Professor, Research and Postgraduate Studies Department. School of Medicine. National Polytechnic Institute(IPN).
Mexico City

Clinical Pharmacology Unit Head. School of of Medicine. National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Mexico City

Member of the National System of Researchers by the National Council of Science and Technology CONACYT.

Director of 55 Specialty, Master and Doctoral Thesis.

Author of 94 Peer-Reviewed, International Scientific Articles

“National Prize for Applied Pharmacology” 2000.“Lilly Award for Research in Diabetes” 2002.“Lazaro Cardenas Award” for Highest Score in Doctorate Degree.

Member of The National Academy of Medicine, Pharmacy &Surgery Mexico (Pharmacology). Member (Corresponding) of the Royal Academy of Pharmacy, Medicine & Doctors from Spain. Member (Corresponding) of the Royal Medicine Academy of Catalonia. Member (Corresponding) of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Salamanca. Member (Corresponding) of the Latin American Academy of Medicine.

Mr. Francisco Moreno FernándezExecutive director - Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University

Director of Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University and Executive Director of the "Observatory of the Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultures in the United States". He is also Professor of Hispanic linguistics at the University of Alcala (Spain).

He has been Academic Director of the "Instituto Cervantes" (1995-1996; 2008-2013) and a visiting researcher at the universities of London, New York (SUNY – Albany), Québec (Montreal), and Tokyo as well as visiting professor at Göteborg University (Sweden), Universidade de Sao Paulo (Brazil), University of Illinois at Chicago, Brigham Young University, and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He is a Full Member of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language and Corresponding Member of the Spanish Royal Academy and the Cuban Academy of the Language.

He is author of Atlas de la lengua española en el mundo (with J. Otero, 3.^rd ed. 2008), Historia social de las lenguas de España (2005), Spanish in Spain: The Sociolinguistics of Bilingual Areas (2007), The Sociolinguistics of Spanish: Social History, Norm, Variation and Change in Spain (2008), Principios de sociolingüística y sociología del lenguaje (4.^th ed. 2008), and La lengua española en su geografía (3.^rd ed. 2016). He is currently co-editor of Spanish in Context, and member of the Editorial Board of International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Journal of Linguistic Geography and Journal of World Languages. In 2003, he received the "National Association of Hispanic Publications" Award for best Multiple Article Series in Larger Publications.

Ms. María Luisa OrtegaDePaul University College of LAS

Dr. María Luisa Ortega Hernández holds a PhD in Spanish and Latin American Literature from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was responsible for conducting the Spanish proficiency interviews for the Penn Language Link medical interpretation services program, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Her life experience as a cultural mediator led her to a Certificate in Translation Studies from Florida International University. She is currently faculty at DePaul University, where she teaches Translation Studies and directs the Spanish for the Professions program. Dr. Ortega Hernández has been teaching Medical Spanish since 2004. www.conmarialuisa.com

Ms. Pilar OrtegaUniversity of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine

Dr. Pilar Ortega is a board-certified Emergency Physician and Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago Departments of Emergency Medicine and Medical Education, where she directs the Medical Spanish program. Dr. Ortega is Chair of the Midwest Region Steering Committee for the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA), Co-founder and Chair for the Chicago Medical Organization for Latino Advancement (MOLA), and a board member of Hispanocare with whom she provides community-based bilingual health education. She is the author of Spanish and the Medical Interview (2^nd. ed., 2015), a textbook for providers to learn to communicate with Spanish-speaking patients.

Mr. Reynaldo Páez ZumárragaAcademia Ecuatoriana de Medicina

Medical Doctor of Medicine and Surgery – Universidad Central del Ecuador. M. Sc. Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging – Universidad Central del Ecuador. Neuroradiology – Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía Manuel Velasco Suárez – México DF. College Professor – Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging – Universidad Central del Ecuador, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (40 years). Full Member and Former President – Academia Ecuatoriana de Medicina. Former President of the Health Commission of the Ecuadorian Congress.

Mr. Óscar Pamo ReynaAcademia Nacional de Medicina del Perú

Specialist in internal medicine, Doctor in medicine. Member. National Academy of Medicine. Professor. Faculty of Medicine, Cayetano Heredia Peruvian University. President. Peruvian Association of History of Medicine. Director/Editor. Acta Herediana. Author of ten books and 125 papers.

Ms. María Luisa ParraHarvard University

María Luisa Parra Velasco is Senior Preceptor of several courses of Spanish and undergraduate academic adviser for Spanish, Latin American and Latino studies at the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. She holds a M.A. in Psychology from UNAM and a Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics from El Colegio de México. In recent years, her work has focused on the development of best pedagogical practices for teaching Spanish as heritage language. She coordinates an ongoing seminar and professional development workshops for high school and college teachers in the Boston area interested in the field. Dr. Parra has also work as research coordinator for programs supporting Latino families and children transitioning from home to school (Tufts University) and is the founder of the "Multilingual Family Resource Center".

Ms. Valeria PazoHarvard Medical School

Valeria Pazo M.D. is instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School and is a faculty member in the Department of Medicine at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. Dr. Pazo received her medical education at the Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina, and a mastery certificate in clinical effectiveness from Harvard School of Public Health. She leads the initiative in Medical Spanish at BWH. She also directs and teaches the Medical Spanish course for trainees at BWH. She has been awarded the Fellow in Medical Education of the Academy at Harvard Medical School.

Mr. Rubén Pérez GarcíaCentro Universitario CIESE Comillas: course “Español para la salud”

Rubén Pérez García has a B.A. in Hispanic Philology, a M.A. in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language and is currently an ABD in Acquisition of Spanish phonetics. He teaches Spanish at the University of Cantabria and CIESE Comillas and is an Associate Professor at the Comillas Foundation. He has extensive experience teaching and training educators in the field of Spanish for Specific Purposes and is a current member of the Project for Teaching Innovation carried out by the Comillas Foundation in conjunction with the Spanish Royal Academy of Medicine.

Mr. Raimundo Pérez-Hernández y TorraDirector of Fundación Ramón Areces

Raimundo Pérez-Hernández y Torra has been director of the Ramón Areces Foundation since 2008. A Law graduate from the Complutense University in Madrid, he joined the Diplomatic Corps in 1976.

Until he joined the Ramón Areces Foundation, his professional career was in Public Administration, where he held the positions of adviser at the Spanish Permanent Delegation to the United Nations. Economic and trade adviser at the Spanish Embassy in France. Head of Protocol at the Spanish Prime Minister's Office, with the rank of director-general. Executive chairman of the Organising Committee for the Spanish Presidency of the European Union Council, with the rank of under-secretary. Ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations and other international organisations based in Geneva. Chairman of the Executive Committee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He has served as Spanish Ambassador to the Republic of Austria. Chief of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAEC), with the rank of ambassador.

Mr. Joaquín Poch BrotoPresident of Real Academia Nacional de Medicina de España

Joaquín Poch Broto holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from Universidad Complutense (Madrid). He completed further studies at Montpellier (Professor Guerrier) and Strasbourg (Professor Grenner). Since 1984 he is Professor in Otorhinolaryngology at Universidad Complutense (Madrid) and Head of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at Hospital Clínico San Carlos (Madrid). From 2006 until 2011 he was Medical Director at Hospital Clínico San Carlos (Madrid). He has authored numerous published papers on neurosensory deafness and head and neck tumors as well as on skull base surgery, fields in which he is a highly renowned authority. He is an Academic Fellow of the Royal National Academy of Medicine of Spain since 1989. He was Vice President of the Royal National Academy of Medicine of Spain from 2009 until 2012, and he is President of said institution since 2012.

Mr. José Enrique Pons ChiriglianoAcademia Nacional de Medicina del Uruguay

President of the National Academy of Medicine, Uruguay (2016-17). Full Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology. University of the Republic School of Medicine, Montevideo (Since 1999. Retired). Head of the Department of History of Medicine, University of the Republic School of Medicine, Montevideo (Since 2015). Master of Latin American Obstetrics and Gynecology (Honorary Title conferred by the Latin American Federation of Ob-Gyn Societies). Honorary Member of 10 Scientific Societies. Author of 10 books, 54 chapters in books and 178 scientific papers.

Mr. Alberto PuigMassachusetts General Hospital | Harvard Medical School

Dr. Alberto Puig is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Director of the Core Educator Faculty in the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He has devoted his career to medical and clinical education with a special interest in bedside teaching and curriculum design & development and over the past decade has directed medical student education at MGH for HMS. He obtained a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and an M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston (Texas), where he completed his post-doctoral training in Internal Medicine. After spending time in the faculty at the University of Texas School of Medicine in Houston, where he served as Associate Program Director of the Medicine Residency Program, he moved to Boston in 2006 and joined the faculty at HMS and MGH. He is a celebrated teacher and educator whose expertise is highly sought after and is the recipient of over twenty-five major teaching awards, including the 2016 Society of Hospital Medicine Excellence in Teaching Award. Over the years he has assumed a number of leadership roles in medical and clinical education at MGH and HMS, and most recently led the design and development of the new clinical course for medical students at HMS, the Practice of Medicine (POM), as part of the innovative Pathways curriculum implemented in 2015, which he co-directs for HMS since its inception. He has special interest in the History of Medicine and is often invited to give talks in this topic.

Ms. Brenda J. RoblesNational Institutes of Health Clinical Center

Brenda J. Robles is a California State Certified Medical Interpreter with 21 years of experience in Simultaneous, Consecutive, & Conference Interpreting in Healthcare and Law. Ms. Robles serves as the Language Interpreters Program (LIP) Manager at the National Institutes of Health, Clinical Center since 2006.

Robles possesses extensive linguistic experience in informed consent, diagnostic, ambulatory, interventional procedures, oncology, hospice, and palliative care in the acute care and research settings. In 2001 Robles co-authored The Medical Interpreter/Translator Code of Ethics at Riverside County Regional Medical Center in CA establishing a successful Interpreting Model founded on the standards of confidentiality, accuracy, impartiality, and professional boundaries, patient advocacy. Robles’ commitment to Interpreter Ethics was instrumental in the development and implementation of the current NIH CC Policy & Procedures Manual for Medical Interpreters. Robles currently conducts Intramural Trainings at the NIH in Effective Cross Cultural Medicine for Doctors and Nursing Staff, Utilization and Role of Medical Interpreters, The Art of Simultaneous Interpretation in Medical Encounters, and Medical Interpreter Competency Trainings for LIP Volunteers throughout the Clinical Center. She is an active member of the NIH Language Access Plan (LAP) Steering and Clinical Center Liaisons Committees.

• BA. French Literature and International Relations Minor, 6/91. The University of California, Riverside
• Education Abroad Scholar, 8/89-6/90 L’Université de Poitiers, France, College of Literature & Languages and the College of Law & Social Sciences
• Certificate in Professional Interpretation and Translation, 6/96 UCR Extension
• State of California Certified Medical Interpreter (CMI English/Spanish), 11/01

Ms. María del Carmen Remacha MartínezUnidad de Terminología Médica de la RANM

Bachelor’s degree in Hispanic Philology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Master’s degree in Documentation from the Universidad San Pablo (CEU). She has participated in several terminological and documentary projects. In 1996 she started to work for the Real Academia Española (RAE) for the elaboration of the Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual (CREA). Later she joined the Instituto de Lexicografía at the RAE and took part in the preparation of the 22.^nd and 23.^rd editions of the Diccionario de la lengua Española and the Diccionario esencial. From 2004 she is member of the Unidad de Terminología Médica of the Real Academia Nacional de Medicina. She has contributed to the drafting and compilation of the Diccionario de términos médicos and is currently working on the new Diccionario panhispánico de términos medicos.

Mr. Álvaro Rodríguez GamaAcademia Nacional de Medicina de Colombia

A medical surgeon from Universidad Nacional de Colombia with postgraduate studies on Psychiatry. He has been a professor at this institution from 1978 to present. Editor, author or co-author of over 57 books of medical literature and medical linguistics, he is also author and director of the Diccionario académico de medicina. Member of the Academia Nacional de Medicina de Colombia and of Academia Colombiana de la Lengua. He is also Secretary-General at Asociación Latinoamericana de Academias de Medicina, España y Portugal (ALANAM).

Mr. José Adolfo Rodríguez PortalesAcademia Chilena de Medicina

José A. Rodriguez Portales, MD, MACP. Endocrinologist, Professor of Medicine at the P. Catholic University of Chile. He has held the following positions: President of the Chilean Endocrine Society, President of the Chilean Society of Internal Medicine, Governor of the Chile Chapter of the American College of Physicians, Member of the Board of Regents and Chairman of the International Council, American College of Physicians. Elected as Life Member of the Chilean Academy of Medicine. Author of the textbook Endocrinología Clínica, many chapters in books and over 120 papers published in national and international journals of his specialty.

Mr. José Manuel Sánchez RonDeputy director of the Real Academia Española

José Manuel Sánchez Ron is graduate in Physics (Universidad Complutense, Madrid) and Ph.D in Physics (London University 1978). Professor of History of Science at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, since is member of the Real Academia Española (where is now deputy director, vicedirector), as well as of the Académie Internationale d’Histoire des Sciences de París. Author of more than 400 publications, of which 45 are books, among them El mundo después de la revolución. La física de la segunda mitad del siglo XX (2015), for which he won the National Prize of Essay.

Mr. Ned StrongExecutive Director of David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies

Executive Director, DRCLAS

Ned Strong joined the Center in 2010 as the Program Director for the DRCLAS Regional Office in Chile. In June 2014 he was named Executive Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, based in Cambridge. Since 1997, he served as Executive Director of LASPAU: Academic and Professional Programs for the Americas, a nonprofit organization affiliated with Harvard University. He led the organization’s efforts to address social, economic, and scientific needs in Latin America and the Caribbean through educational exchange programs sponsored by multilateral banks, U.S. and Latin American governments, and foundation and corporate donors, to strengthen institutions in the Americas through scholarship programs leading to advanced degrees and through specialized professional training.

A member of LASPAU’s senior staff since 1983, Mr. Strong was previously director of external relations and program development, responsible for the design, development, and funding of exchange programs supporting environmental sustainability, educational reform, and economic growth. Prior to joining LASPAU, he was budget director for the Latin American region of the Peace Corps in Washington, DC, and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador and the Dominican Republic. As a national fellow of the Explorers Club, he led the 1999 expedition that charted the source of the Amazon River, a glacial lagoon at 18,000 feet in southern Peru. He serves on advisory boards for educational and social services organizations, including Harvard’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, the Superior Council of Education of Chile, and the Alliance for Education and Cultural Affairs. He has a master's degree in public administration from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and received a bachelor's of science degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

Ms. Cristina Vázquez-MateoPresident of ECUSA (Spanish Scientists in the USA)

Cristina Vazquez is an immunologist with over ten years of experience in clinical and pre-clinical research in the field of autoimmune diseases. After completing her PhD program in Molecular Biology, she moved from Spain to Boston University School of Medicine (BU) to work as a Postdoctoral Associate complimented with her experience as a Clinical Research Coordinator at Boston Medical Center. Currently, she is a Clinical Research Scientist at EMD Serono (Merck KGaA) where she works in the development of new drugs for autoimmune diseases. She is also the president of a non-profit organization for Spanish scientists in the USA (ECUSA) which aims to promote the role of science, technology and their professionals in our society.