Eric Hershberg

Eric Hershberg is Director of the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies and Professor of Government at American University. From 2007-2009 he was Professor of Political Science and Director of Latin American Studies at Simon Fraser University, in Vancouver, Canada. He received his Ph.D from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has taught at New York University, Southern Illinois University, Columbia, Princeton and the New School. His research focuses on the comparative politics of Latin America, and on the politics of development. Current research projects analyze the state of democracy and emerging development strategies in South America, and the ways in which elites exercise power in Central America. He has served as a consultant to numerous development and educational agencies, including the Ford Foundation, the World Bank and the Swedish International Development Agency.

Fulton Armstrong

Fulton T. Armstrong is a Senior Fellow at CLALS. Armstrong has followed Latin American affairs for almost 30 years in a number of U.S. Government positions. He served as a senior professional staff member responsible for Latin America on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from July 2008 to October 2011, where he also worked closely with the committee’s investigations team. Prior to that, he served in the Executive Branch in a series of policy and analytical positions. Among other senior positions, he was National Intelligence Officer for Latin America – the U.S. Intelligence Community’s most senior analyst – in 2000-2004, and he served for six months as the chief of staff of the DCI Crime and Narcotics Center. He served two terms as a Director for Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council (1995 97 and 1998-99), between which he was Deputy NIO for Latin America. In 1980-84 he worked for U.S. Representative Jim Leach (R-Iowa). He has spent 11 years studying and working in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He speaks Spanish and Chinese.

Rob Albro

Rob Albro, a scholar in residence at the AU School of International Service, is an expert on Latin American social and indigenous movements, transnational civil society, cultural rights frameworks and cultural policy. Additional information about Albro’s work can be found here: www.robertalbro.com.

Kevin Gatter

Kevin M. Gatter Espinosa is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Comparative and Regional Studies, with a focus on Latin America. He has participated in study abroad programs in Cuba, Chile, and Peru and has traveled extensively throughout Latin America. He has just completed a research project on Easter Island’s independence movement and is interested in issues surrounding race and ethnicity in the Americas.

Tom Long

Tom Long is a Ph.D candidate in the School of International Service with a focus on U.S.-Latin American relations. His dissertation, “Convincing the Colossus: Latin American Leaders Face the United States,” employs historical cases to examine the goals and strategies of Latin American leaders vis-a-vis the U.S. He has done fieldwork in Colombia, Panama, Argentina, and Mexico.

Héctor Silva Ávalos

CLALS Research Fellow Héctor Silva Ávalos is the former Deputy Chief of Mission at the El Salvador Embassy in Washington, DC. Silva Ávalos holds a Bachelors degree in journalism from the Universidad Centroamericana, El Salvador; a Masters in TV production, Ayuntamiento de Vitoria, Spain; and a Masters in journalism from Universidad de Barcelona and University of Columbia. He has 15 years of experience as an investigative reporter in La Prensa Gráfica, a major Salvadoran newspaper. As an expert on Salvadoran organized crime he has researched and authored journalistic pieces quoted in US and Salvadoran publications on the topics of Los Perrones, one of the main DTOs in El Salvador; Mexican cartel penetration in Central America; and the influence of the Colombian FARC in drug trafficking in Central America. He currently authors two blogs on organized crime and U.S.-El Salvador-Central America relations.

Maribel Vasquez

Maribel Vasquez is a Master’s candidate in International Affairs with a focus on Latin America at the School of International Service. Her fieldwork in the region includes studying the challenges of national reconstruction in El Salvador, documenting the experience of homeless children in Bolivia and researching the tribulations of blackness in the Dominican Republic. She received her B.A. in Government from Franklin & Marshall College in 2009. Maribel has also served as a Humanity in Action Fellow to Denmark and most recently, she was a Fulbright scholar in Venezuela where she taught English at two public universities.