Sarah Stephens
Sarah Stephens is the executive director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas. A long-time human rights advocate, Sarah began her work in the 1980s at El Rescate, a center for Central American refugees in Los Angeles, and then worked for the Hollywood Women’s Political Committee on human rights issues from 1990-91. She later founded and directed Artists for a Hate Free America, an entertainment industry-backed organization geared toward encouraging youth involvement in human rights and civil rights issues.
Sarah moved to Washington to work on Cuba policy at the Washington Office on Latin America, and, in December 2001, joined the staff at the Center for International Policy, where she founded the Freedom to Travel to Cuba campaign. In 2006, she left CIP and launched the Center for Democracy in the Americas (CDA).
As CDA director, Sarah works with U.S. policymakers, journalists and others, to change the debate on U.S. foreign policy toward the hemisphere. She has led dozens of delegations of U.S. policymakers, academics, experts, and philanthropists to Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras and Venezuela on fact-finding and research missions. She has advocated for changes in our policy toward Cuba before Congress, at forums in the U.S. and in Latin America, in editorial columns, and other publications. Opinion pieces authored by Sarah have been published by The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Indianapolis Star, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Times, The Huffington Post, Alternet.org, and The Havana Note. Her work has been supported by The Atlantic Philanthropies, Arca Foundation, the Christopher Reynolds Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the General Service Foundation, the Open Society Institute, and the Stewart Mott Charitable Trust among others.
In 2009, Sarah testified twice before Congress. On April 29, 2009 she testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reforms Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs regarding “National Security Implications of U.S. Policy toward Cuba”. Sarah also testified before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere regarding “The Crisis in Honduras” on July 10, 2009. The text of her statements can be viewed and downloaded here.
In February 2010, Sarah was a panelist at the George Washington University’s Elliot School of International Affairs conference titled “The Obama Administration and Latin America: The First Year.” Her remarks are available for viewing and download here. She delivered the keynote address at the Ohio Latin Americanist Conference 2010 at Ohio University in Athens. The text of her address is available here. Sarah also offered remarks on a panel entitled “Cuba and its reintegration in the Inter-American System” at the American Society of International Law. Her remarks can be found here. And at a conference convened by the City University of New York “Cuba Futures, Past, and Present” conference, Sarah was a panelist on ‘Inequalities in Contemporary Cuba,’ and spoke about potential roles for U.S. policy as Cuba engages in economic reforms.
Lisa Llanos
Lisa Llanos is a program associate at the Center for Democracy in the Americas. She grew up in Los Angeles, California with Chilean and American parents. She graduated from Stanford University in 2009 with a B.A. in International Relations. During her undergraduate career, she was involved in several labor campaigns, including the campaign for a Living Wage applicable to all Stanford workers. She completed study abroad programs in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Santiago, Chile and performed research in Caracas and Barquisimeto, Venezuela.
Lisa is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and has spent significant time traveling and living in Latin America. She moved to Washington, DC in 2010 to pursue work relating to Latin America and U.S. policy toward the region.
Lela Singh
Lela Singh is a new program and research assistant at the Center for Democracy in the Americas. Lela grew up in D.C. speaking Spanish around her parents’ restaurants, and graduated in 2010 from the University of Washington in Seattle with a B.A. in Latin American Studies. While at the University of Washington, she studied Portuguese abroad in Rio de Janeiro. She also conducted research on the implications of the suit filed by the Pacific Rim mining company against El Salvador under the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) for not approving a mining license. Lela helped coordinate the last two Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards ceremonies at the Institute for Policy Studies, and has assisted with coordinating and writing the IPS Project for Promoting Resource Rights in the Global Economy. Lela is fluent in Spanish and proficient in Portuguese.
David E. Dreyer
David E. Dreyer is a senior principal at TSD, Inc. His work has taken him across the U.S. and abroad on assignments that included working at the Sydney and Athens Summer Olympic Games, conducting communications audits for public and private sector organizations, advising the Ecumenical Patriarch of Eastern Orthodoxy, and providing strategic counsel to CDA’s public education campaign to change U.S. policy toward Cuba and the region.
David served previously as Deputy White House Communications Director for President Bill Clinton and as Senior Advisor to U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin. For fourteen years, David was a trusted advisor to Democratic Members of the U.S. Congress.
Linda Garrett
Linda Garrett is senior policy analyst on El Salvador. Ms. Garrett is a writer, journalist, community organizer and human rights investigator. Her extensive experience with El Salvador started in 1981 when she co-founded two projects in Los Angeles to assist Central American refugees; twenty-eight years later, El Rescate and the Clínica Msr. Romero continue to provide social, legal and health care services in the Pico-Union District of Los Angeles. After serving El Rescate as director and fundraiser, she moved to El Salvador and documented human rights, social, political and military developments from 1985-1995.
Following the 1992 Peace Agreement, Ms. Garrett collaborated on El Rescate’s Index to Accountability Project; she was also a consultant to the United Nations-sponsored Truth and Ad-Hoc Commissions, and an investigator for the 1994 United Nations Commission to investigate illegal armed groups. During this time, she compiled two books on human rights which were published anonymously, and she was also a contributor to the Salvadoran magazine Tendencias.
After 1995, Ms. Garrett worked as a journalist in Vietnam, directed a community organizing project with undocumented immigrants in the state of Georgia, and participated in a reconciliation project in the Balkans. She returned to El Salvador as an election observer in 2009.
Collin Laverty
Collin Laverty is a Cuba consultant at the Center for Democracy in the Americas. He speaks Portuguese and Spanish and has lived, studied and conducted research throughout Latin America. Collin graduated with honors from the College of Charleston, where he majored in Political Science. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at the Institute for International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego, where he is a FLAS fellow and managing director of the International Policy Solutions Journal.
Prior to returning to school, Collin coordinated CDA’s Cuba program and helped to organize and attended fact-finding and research delegations of policymakers, academics and experts to Latin America. He has performed extensive research on developments in the region over the years, contributing to CDA publications and offering opinion pieces in the Havana Times, Huffington Post, Progresso Weekly and Venezuela Analysis.
Owen Wuerker
Owen Wuerker is an intern assisting the research team at CDA. He grew up in Portland, Oregon and Washington DC, and graduated Lewis & Clark College in 2011 with a B.A. in History.
He has travelled extensively in the region, visiting Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. When he’s not doing research for CDA, Owen is pursuing a career in music.
Jackson Howard
Jackson Howard is an intern working on research and program at the Center for Democracy in the Americas. He recently returned from studying at the Peruvian Diplomatic Academy, and has also studied in Bolivia and Chile. Jackson graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in Latin American Studies and is currently finishing his M.A. in International Peace and Conflict Resolution at American University’s School of International Service, with a specialization in diplomacy and negotiation. Jackson’s current research focuses on the ability of tourism to reduce animosity between countries with hostile relations, paving the way to successful diplomatic negotiations and a thawing of tensions. His current interests include language politics both in and outside of the Americas, cultural diplomacy, and how technology impacts international affairs.
Kara Sparling
Kara Sparling is an intern at CDA and a recent graduate of American University, where she earned a dual BA in International Studies with a focus of Peace and Conflict Resolution and Spanish Language and Area Studies. Kara spent a semester studying at the Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago, Chile and a summer studying abroad at the Centro de Lenguas Modernas at the Universidad de Granada in Granada, Spain. She first interned at CDA during her undergraduate career and is thrilled to be back.
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