WOLA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director for Defense Oversight
Adam Isacson has worked on defense, security, and peacebuilding in Latin America since 1994. He now directs WOLA's Defense Oversight program, which monitors U.S. cooperation with Latin America's security forces, as well as other security trends.
Alex Bare is a Program Assistant for the Drug Policy and Cuba programs. In this role, he monitors political and social developments in Cuba and supports WOLA's work on developing more pragmatic drug policy across the Americas.
Originally from rural Iowa, Alex's work with Latin America began in 2016 when he studied abroad for a semester in Cochabamba, Bolivia and conducted independent research on the country's gender identity law. His commitment to the region led him to become a Fulbright English teaching assistant in Colombia for two years after graduating, first teaching at the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla and then at the SENA in Bogotá. Additionally, he produced English language-learning content and videos explaining the turbulent 2020 U.S. presidential election for Spanish-speaking circles and later made social media content covering the 2022 Colombian presidential elections.
Alex graduated with honors from the University of Iowa in 2019 with a B.A. in International Relations and Spanish with a minor in Arabic. In addition to his native English, he is an advanced speaker of Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic.
Education
B.A. in International Relations and Spanish with a minor in Arabic, University of Iowa
Ana Lucia Verduzco, or Lucy, is the Program Assistant for the Mexico and Defense Oversight Programs at WOLA where she provides programmatic support in areas including research, media publications, and outreach. She was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and grew up in Tucson, Arizona. She graduated from the University of Arizona with bachelor's degrees in Political Science, Global Studies, and French.
While attending the University of Arizona, Ana Lucia developed her passion for human rights and social justice with an international relations lens. She spent a year studying at Sciences Po Paris, where she advanced her studies in areas including French, history, sociology, and political science. Being from Mexico and growing up in a border town, Lucy feels a strong connection to migrant rights and, more broadly, human rights in Mexico and Latin America. Prior to joining WOLA, she interned at various related organizations in Tucson including Colibrí Center for Human Rights and the International Rescue Committee.
Education
B.A. in Political Science, Global Studies, and French, University of Arizona
Job Titles:
- Director for Central America at the Washington Office
- Secretary of Strategic
Ana María Méndez Dardón is the Director for Central America at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). At WOLA, she leads the program's research and advocacy efforts on issues of rule of law, democratic strengthening, judicial independence, and civil and political rights.
Méndez Dardón has worked for decades to strengthen access to justice and promote human rights in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, with a range of civil society organizations including think-tanks and grassroots groups, United Nations, and government institutions. Her experience includes training processes for judges and public attorneys on criminal investigation for violence against women, working closely with governments to promote access to information, transparency, and anti-corruption initiatives.
In 2013, Méndez Dardón was appointed as under-secretary of strategic and private affairs to Guatemala's first female attorney general, Claudia Paz y Paz. During this time, many high-impact transitional justice cases of gross human rights violations were prosecuted. In addition, she has litigated strategic human rights cases before international bodies. She served as special projects officer to the UN-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) and was in charge of the implementation of the UN-Peace Building Fund to transfer capacities from the CICIG to the national authorities in Guatemala, particularly by establishing clear investigative models, training methodologies, and human resources/administrative systems that meet international standards and certifications.
Méndez Dardón is also the co-author of Mujeres Ante los Tribunales de Fuero Especial, an examination of women who were illegally detained by military forces during the dictatorship of Efrain Rios Montt (Guatemala 1982-1983).
Areas of expertise
International human rights laws, Transitional justice, gender and justice, Corruption and accountability
Education
Licensed lawyer in Guatemala with a BA in Law and Social Sciences specializing in International Human Rights Law from the Universidad de San Carlos, Guatemala
Graduate Diploma in International Human Rights and Gender from the Universidad de Chile Law School
MA in Political Science and Comparative Politics at the University of Guelph in Canada
Affiliated Scholar. Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. The Graduate Center of the City University of New York
While at GWU, Ayleen became passionate about Latin America and the problems and progress the region was experiencing. Ayleen studied abroad at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito where she researched China's growing influence in the region, the impacts of mass migration, income inequality, and the importance of environmental justice.
Prior to joining WOLA full time, Ayleen interned for WOLA in the Fall of 2019 as a Foreign Policy intern for the Venezuela and Nicaragua Program. Later, she worked as a rental relief specialist at a community action agency and as a legislative aide in the Oregon State Legislature.
Education
B.A. International Affairs, minors in Spanish and Psychology, George Washington University
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board
- Member of the Chair of the Board
Job Titles:
- Attorney and Foreign Legal Consultant
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of People and Culture
Candice Robinson is the Assistant Director of People and Culture at WOLA. She specializes in engaging organizations to enable cultural transformation to create inclusive, diverse, equitable, and antiracist environments where all feel welcome.
She has built extensive experience in consulting with nonprofits, healthcare organizations and systems, academic institutions, membership organizations, state and local government, and community organizations. She has a passion for inspiring and empowering others to be their best.
Candice's career began in social services. She later joined Cook Ross, where she co-created and launched the Consulting, Assessment, and Strategy Line of Business (CAS LOB) from the ground up. After being laid off due to the global pandemic, Candice launched her own consulting firm focused on creating inclusive spaces. As a consultant, Candice has executed numerous assessments and developed strategies for a variety of organizations to create organizational strategies and plans to establish and improve IDEA metrics and KPIs.
She holds a Master's degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Adler University and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from North Carolina A&T State University. Candice is a proud Richmond metro area native, having made the DC area her home in 2015.
Education
M.A. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Adler University
B.A. in Psychology from North Carolina A&T State University
Job Titles:
- President
- President of the Washington Office
Carolina Jiménez Sandoval is the President of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). She brings to WOLA over 20 years of experience in research and advocacy for human rights in the Americas and throughout the world. As a leader in the field who has worked extensively throughout the region and in Washington, she is poised to guide WOLA's team to a new era of strategic impact for social justice and human rights.
She comes to WOLA from Amnesty International where she was Deputy Research Director for the Americas in Mexico City. In her almost seven years there, she led a team of researchers documenting human rights violations and designing advocacy strategies to guarantee respect for human rights. Her work included a wide variety of themes and countries, from addressing grave crimes under international law in Venezuela and Nicaragua to promoting the rights of migrants and refugees in Central America, Mexico and the United States. Prior to that, she was program officer for the Open Society Foundations' Latin America Program and International Migration Initiative where she led the creation of CAMMINA (the Central America and Mexico Migration Alliance), a donor collaborative funded by OSF, AVINA and the Ford Foundation to support migrants' rights organizations in the region.
Earlier in her career, she was a program manager in the Democracy, Governance and Human Rights unit at the Trust for the Americas, a non-profit affiliated with the Organization of American States, where she led a regional initiative to promote the rights of migrants in Central America and the Caribbean. From 2008-2010, she was country director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Venezuela and on the Colombian-Venezuelan border.
She also brings extensive experience in the international arena. She was project and research assistant at the United Nations University in Japan and worked in Argentina with the Gender and Public Policy Unit of the Latin American Faculty of Social Science, and as a research assistant for the International Gender and Trade Network.
She has a PhD in international studies from Waseda University, Japan, and did a postdoctoral program in human rights and ethics at the Central University of Venezuela. She holds a master's degree in international law and Asian studies from Chuo University, Japan, and a master's of philosophy in international relations from the University of Cambridge, England. She graduated from the Universidad Central de Venezuela with a BA in international relations.
She is a frequent contributor to media outlets and publications across Latin America and the US, especially on the human rights situation in Venezuela, refugees and asylum seekers' rights and other issues. She is a national of Venezuela and Mexico.
Areas of expertise
Human Rights and International Law; Democracy and Governance: Migration and Refugees; Strategic Research and Advocacy
Education
Ph.D. International Studies, Waseda University, Japan
Postdoctoral Program in Human Rights and Ethics, Central University of Venezuela
M.A. International Law and Asian Studies, Chuo University, Japan
M.A. Philosophy in International Relations, University of Cambridge, England
B.A. International Relations, Universidad Central of Venezuela
Job Titles:
- Director for Institutional Partnerships
- Director for Partnerships
Carolyn Engel is WOLA's Director for Institutional Partnerships, managing the organization's grant-based fundraising activities and stewarding strategic relationships with grant-making institutions. She comes to WOLA with 12 years of experience working for grassroots nonprofit organizations in Latin America. Her work has spanned from urban community development initiatives to incubating sustainable farming businesses in the Amazon rainforest.
Originally from Indiana, Carolyn recently moved back to the U.S. after spending 15 years living and working in Peru, Chile, and Ecuador. Her love and respect for Latin America made her passionate about WOLA's mission to advocate for human rights in the region. Before her current role, Carolyn was the Program Director at Fundación Aliados, where she managed a diverse grant portfolio geared towards conservation through sustainable business development. Carolyn also served as the Country Director for Manna Project International Ecuador, where she directed an educational community center for underserved youth on the outskirts of Quito. Beyond this, Carolyn has been a teacher, a small business owner, and a volunteer.
Carolyn holds an M.Sc. in International Development from the University of Edinburgh, where her dissertation focused on the corrupt behaviors found in the ethical certifications of international commodities. Prior to that, she obtained a B.A. in Film Studies and Spanish from Mount Holyoke College. Carolyn has a home in the Ecuadorian Amazon which she visits frequently, and contemplates how lucky she is to bask freely in the equatorial sun.
Education
M.Sc. in International Development, University of Edinburgh
B.A. in Film Studies and Spanish, Mount Holyoke College
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow
- Co - Editor of Drugs
Coletta Youngers is a Senior Fellow and leads WOLA's women and incarceration project, which seeks to dramatically reduce the number of women in prison in Latin America and promote gender-sensitive drug policy reforms. She served for many years as a consultant with WOLA's drug policy reform project and also participates on behalf of WOLA in the Research Consortium on Drugs and the Law (CEDD).
In addition to her work at WOLA, she is a Senior Associate with the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), and International Outreach Coordinator for the US-based National Council of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls. She is on the Advisory Council of Penal Reform International and serves on the Asamblea General (Board of Directors) of the Colombian human rights NGO, Dejusticia.
Coletta Youngers has over thirty years of experience working on issues related to women and incarceration, human rights and drug policy, international drug control policy, drug policy related developments in Latin America, and human rights and democracy in the Andean region.
Ms. Youngers is co-editor of Drugs and Democracy in Latin America: The Impact of U.S. Policy (2004), which was described in the Journal of Politics as "a well-researched project that cogently discusses the international and domestic contexts and provides a comprehensive and reasoned account of problems in current U.S. drug policy." Also published in Spanish, the book has been widely quoted by researchers and has been used by university professors across the country. She is also the author of the books, Violencia Política y Sociedad Civil en el Perú (2003) on the Peruvian human rights movement, and Thirty Years of Advocacy for Human Rights, Democracy and Social Justice (2006), on the history of WOLA (also available in Spanish). She is the author of numerous book chapters and has published extensively in U.S. and Latin American research publications and media.
From 1987 to 2003, she was on the WOLA staff, and was responsible for work on the Andean Region and drug policy. She also founded and until 2003 directed WOLA's Drugs, Democracy and Human Rights Project. Prior to joining WOLA, Ms. Youngers was a project manager at Catholic Relief Services and on the editorial staff of Latinamerica Press/Noticias Aliadas, both in Lima, Peru. She earned a Masters' Degree in public affairs at Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Political Science and International Affairs / the George Washington University / Washington, DC
Job Titles:
- Founding Director / Global Women 's Institute at George Washington University / Washington, DC
Job Titles:
- Emeritus Professor of International Relations and History / American University
Job Titles:
- Director for Individual Giving
Job Titles:
- Director for Drug Policy and the Andes
Job Titles:
- International Communications Consultant / New York, NY
Job Titles:
- Impact Manager at Dev Equity LP / Washington, DC
Job Titles:
- Vice President for Development
Job Titles:
- Partner, Green Tank Mexico / Senior Consultant / Sarasota, FL
Job Titles:
- President / Media for Democracy Foundation / Silver Spring, Maryland
Job Titles:
- Journalist and Founder of Efecto Cocuyo / Washington, DC
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of the Women 's Rights Division
CEO Emerita, NAFSA: Association of International Educators
Job Titles:
- Member of the Mexican
- Vice President for Programs
Maureen Meyer serves as WOLA's Vice President for Programs, working with senior staff to develop policy priorities and strategies to advance human rights and social justice in Latin America.
Prior to assuming this position in 2020, Ms. Meyer spent 14 years leading WOLA's Mexico program with a special focus on analyzing U.S.-Mexico security policies and their relation to organized crime-related violence, corruption, and human rights violations in Mexico. She also advocated for greater protections for migrants and asylum-seekers in Mexico and at the U.S.-Mexico border. From 2006 to 2013 she supported WOLA's work on human rights and democracy in Central America.
Ms. Meyer is a member of the Mexican-based Collective for Analysis of Security with Democracy. She has extensive experience addressing human rights, security cooperation, border security and migration issues and works closely with various human rights and migrant rights organizations and networks in the region.
Before joining WOLA in 2006, Ms. Meyer lived and worked for five years in Mexico City, primarily with the Miguel Agustin Pro Juárez Human Rights Center. Previously she was an International Development Fellow with the Catholic Relief Services in the Dominican Republic. Ms. Meyer holds an MA in International Development from American University and a BA in Spanish and Anthropology from the University of Arizona.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Vice Chair of the Board
Job Titles:
- Vice President for Finance and Operations
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Chairman of the Board / Retired
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow / Georgetown University / Washington, DC
Job Titles:
- Partner / Grossman Young & Hammond, LLC / Bethesda
Job Titles:
- Vice President for Communications