Young Professionals 2003-2004

Karla Arias (USA)

Alexandra Armijo Fortin (Costa Rica)

Christian Baldizón Ergon (Bolivia)

Victor Chiasson-Lebel (Costa Rica)

Tracy Fenwick (Dominican Republic)

Lucy Gray-Donald (Uruguay)

Jennifer Holden (Belize)

Gwendolyn Hughes (USA)

Peter Murphy (Ecuador)

Julia Paulson (Peru)

Denisse Rudich (USA)

Domenic Salotti (Peru)

Jessica Smith (Bolivia)

Kathryn Tucker (Chile)

Nathalie Watts (Chile)

Karla Arias: Inter-American Commission for Women (CIM) - Washington, D.C.

Karla has a Bachelors degree in International Relations from the University of Windsor and a Bachelors degree in Political Science and Spanish from the University of Western Ontario. Her tasks include preparing supporting documents for the "Estados Partes de la Convención de Belém do Pará" meeting in November. She will then support investigation in legislation and government best practice in the comparative analysis of follow-up mechanisms to conventions, in collaboration with CIM members, other OAS departments and NGOs, and support other logistical needs of the office such as maintaining a database of contacts, prepare meetings and workshops.

Alexandra Armijo Fortin: Inter-American Institute for Human Rights (IIHR) - San José , Costa Rica

Alexandra has a Bachelors degree in Political Science from the Université Laval. Alexandra's main project will consist of working on developing common human rights indicators for Cuba, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay. Managing information sources such as library, Internet, government and civil society, and other sources, she will carry out policy research and provide reports and tables to the Institute. Once familiarized with the project, she will be asked to review feedback and provide an analysis of the issues raised and how they could be addressed.

Christian Baldizón Ergon: El Centro para la Participacion y el Desarrollo Humano Sostenible (CEPAD) - Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Christian has a Bachelors degree in Political Studies, Public Administration and Policy Analysis from Bishop's University. He is working with the Coordinadora Interinstitucional de la Provincia de Velasco. This is a pilot project where he will be coordinating the international development efforts with the necessities of the local industries, particularly the artisans and craftsmen in and around San Ignacio in Bolivia.

Victor Chiasson-Lebel: Human Rights and Inter-American Court (CEJIL) - San José, Costa Rica

Victor has a Masters degree in Law, International Law and Politics from the Université du Québec à Montréal. He is placed with the Legal Defense Program. Victor is paired with a CEJIL staff attorney and actively involved in three areas of work. He will collaborate with his tutor in the work on cases before the Commission and the Inter.-American Court. This could include researching the case background and precedents, helping to draft and edit briefs, attending hearings, developing legal arguments, and communicating with client NGOs. Tasks also include some involvement in the daily affairs of CEJIL as an NGO, which could mean taking care of the coordination of meetings and conferences, revising and translating institutional documents and publications, support in fundraising tasks and participation in staff meetings.

Tracy Fenwick: Haiti-Dominican Republic Border Development (FLACSO) - Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Tracy has a Masters Degree from McGill Universtiy in Political Science with a thesis on migration issues in the Haiti-Dominican Republic border. Supervised by the polling section of the program, she will travel to the Haiti-DR border area to conduct surveys as part of the fieldwork phase of the project, which would include household surveys, observations, non-standardized interviews and group discussions. She will also be responsible for preparing mid-term reports. The surveys will aim to: evaluate the potential for regional sustainable development; study the local informal and formal economic practices; and, evaluate social networks and relations.

Lucy Gray-Donald: PROBIDES, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) - Rocha,  Uruguay

Lucy has a Masters degree in Environmental Studies, focusing on the Role of Small Business in Sustainable Development from York University. She will, in coordination with the director of PROBIDES (Programa de Conservación de la Biodiversidad y Desarrollo Sustentable en la Reserva de la Biosfera Humedales del Este), develop activities to support the implementation of regional development projects that will use the potential of the protected area in a sustainable manner. The work will involve acquiring a deep understanding of the characteristics of the Eastern Wetlands of Uruguay, and collect data through interviews with various social actors in the region.

Jennifer Holden: Human Rights Commission of Belize (HRCB) -  Belmopan, Belize

Jennifer has a Bachelors degree in International Development and Political Studies from the University of Saskatchewan. She will be working with the Education Officer on the HRCB's Education Program. She will give support and do the necessary research to help develop curriculum for educating in human rights in schools, with community leaders, people in the Legal system, women and youths.

Gwendolyn Hughes: Organisation of American States - Unit for Social Development and Education (OAS-SocDev) - Washington, D.C.

Gwen has a Bachelors degree in International Development Studies and Women's Studies from the University of Winnipeg. She will provide research support to the Unit on topics relating to Units areas of work and the associate’s field of expertise. She will prepare OAS documents and presentations in support of the Inter-American Meeting of Ministers of Labour and for the Extraordinary Summit on Social Policy, and interact with high-level officials from OAS  permanent missions and national ministries in order to gather information and assist in the development of workshops to be held in the Member States.

Peter Murphy: Municipal Cooperation Project (PIMEX) United Nation Volunteer Program and Federación Latinoamericana de Ciudades (FLACMA) - Quito, Ecuador

Peter has a Bachelors degree in Spanish and Latin American Studies, and Political Studies from Queen's University. He will work at establishing contacts with with local governments in the region and in other developing nations in order to promote the use of an international municipal cooperation Platform, and in turn, to promote solidarity among cities. He will disseminate the potential benefits of this initiative, help find partners to conduct municipal exchanges, and follow-up on cooperation among cities to publish the results of the Platform.

Julia Paulson: Asociacion Manos Libres - Local leadership development - Lima, Peru

Julia has a Bachelors degree in Development Studies and Sociology from Queen's University. She will work in a team to prepare various workshops organized by Manos Libres for the community leaders of the “asentamientos humanos y pueblo jóvenes” (shantytowns) of the districts of Ate Vitarte y San Juan de Luriganchoin the Greater Lima area. The purpose of these workshops is to build capacity in community leadership. The first workshops will be a participatory diagnostic workshop, and the next 6 will be capacity building workshops on intermediation and leadership, the functions of the state apparatus, democracy and development, communication strategies and leadership, concertation processes, and intermediation and leadership.

Denisse Rudich: Organisation of American States - Secretariat for the Summit of the Americas Process (OAS-Summit), Washington, D.C.

Denisse has a Masters degree in International Relations, focusing on Global Governance, Economic Policy and Security from the London Metropolitan University-London Guildhall. She will support to the Summit Implementation Review Group: Update the Implementation and Monitoring (IMM) and National Charts based on country submissions, assist in logistical preparations for SIRG meeting to be held in November, and attend meetings of the OAS Permanent Council, the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs, the Committee on Inter-American Summits Management, and others as requested, and provide written summaries from meetings. She will also assist in preparing speeches, research projects and briefing notes for the Executive Secretary.

Domenic Salotti: Andean Community of Nations (CAN) - Lima, Peru

Domenic has a Masters degree in International Affairs from the Norman Paterson School, Carleton University. He will collaborate in the implementation for the Plan de Acción de la Estrategia Regional de Biodiversidad, which will entail gathering information from the different partners in the Andean region to prepare reports on the status of the implementation of the project goals by each country, and collaborate in the Peruvian implementation goals of the strategy which which are conservation, sustainable use of biodiversity, equitable distribution of its benefits and protection of traditional knowledge.

Jessica Smith: CEPAD, Local Government Reform - Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Jessica has a Bachelors degree in International Business and Spanish from Carleton University.  She will act as support specialist within the local economic development agencies created in each municipality. Her duties will include: to assist in making a better use of existing and prospective local resources; to diagnose and identify needs and opportunities for local development; to promote new economic activities and employment opportunities; to provide advise, information and support to local small and medium sized enterprises; coordinate policies, actions and the actors involved; to promote business cooperation and the participation of local actors in joint projects; to build capacities for employment according to existing and potential local economic activities; and to create and disseminate a positive image of the territory.

Kathryn Tucker: Center for Justice Studies of the Americas (CEJA) - Santiago, Chile

Kathryn has a Bachelors degree in Development Studies and History from Queen's University. She will bring support to the planning and implementation of the Capacity Building and Event Organization projects by organizing events, preparing workshops, and evaluating these events with the Events team at CEJA. She will also have as personal project to identify and follow-up on Canadian academics and government officials who would could bring expertise and share knowledge by participating in the events and workshops of Center.

Nathalie Watts: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) - Santiago ,Chile

Nathalie has a Masters degree in International Relations from the Université Laval. She will be given the responsibility of one country, part of a greater project on migration involving the study of other countries in the region, the intern’s work will involve collecting, transforming, completing and analyzing economic data for one specific country in the region for the past century in order to conduct empirical analysis studying. He or she will be expected to provide suggestions as to what variables to use, structured presentation of relevant information through reports.