Robert White, President: The Honorable Robert E. White, during his twenty-five year Foreign Service career, specialized in Latin America affairs with a particular emphasis on Central America. Among the posts he held were Latin American director of the Peace Corps, Deputy Chief of Mission to Colombia and Nicaragua, deputy permanent representative to the Organization of American States, and Ambassador of the United States to both Paraguay (1977-79) and El Salvador (1979-81).
White was enormously successful at building relationships with local leaders, observing the intellectual and political tendencies of opposition figures, and reporting his findings regularly to the State Department. As Ambassador to Paraguay from 1977-1979, White was able to save the lives of several political activists. In the fall of 1979, White was named Ambassador to El Salvador which led him to encourage the growth of a political center and discourage the flagrant human-rights abuses of the military and the death squads. His experiences in El Salvador led him to be more critical of U.S. foreign policy and join the civilian fight for change.

He has been president of the Center for International Policy (CIP) since 1989 where he works to influence US foreign policy in the form of citizen diplomacy. Since joining CIP, Robert White has organized conferences and led delegations to several Latin American and Caribbean countries, published numerous studies of U.S. policy toward the region, and led an ongoing effort to reform U.S. intelligence agencies. He was president of the International Center for Development Policy until he began at CIP and previously, White served as a professor of International Relations at Simmons College and Senior Associate for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. A graduate of St. Michael’s College, White is a former Fulbright scholar with a master’s degree from Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Elsa Chang, Senior Associate and Program Director: Chang brings over fifteen years of international experience working with government and nongovernment organizations in conservation management, policy research, and partnership development. Her work has focused on addressing environmental governance issues and access to information and public participation in Central America.

Prior to joining CIP in 2004, Chang worked with the World Resources Institute (www.wri.org), an environmental policy think-tank based in Washington, DC. She served as the Director of its Mesoamerican Biological Corridor and Environmental Governance Program in Central America for nine years where she led and managed WRI's collaboration on strengthening national and regional institutions' framework for environmental management and policy planning in the region. In addition, she planned and developed capacity-building programs for ministries of the environment and nongovernmental organizations in Central America, Bolivia and Cambodia. Before joining WRI, Ms. Chang conducted a research project on Forest Policies and Administration in Peru and Bolivia, was Executive Assistant for the Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD), and served as Technical Advisor to Guatemala's National Commission on the Environment. Since 2000, Chang has served on the board of directors for the Ecologic Development Fund (www.ecologic.org) - a nonprofit organization based in Boston that works with local communities in Mexico and Central America to manage and conserve threatened ecosystems in rural areas. Ms. Chang is a founding member of Fundación Democracía sin Fronteras (FDsF). She graduated as a Mayan archaeologist from the University of San Carlos in Guatemala and obtained an M.A. in International Development Policy from the Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University in 1993.

Barton Beeson, Campaign Coordinator: Mr. Beeson brings with him nearly six years of experience working in Latin America to the Center for International Policy, as well as substantial experience in public relations and working with the media. His experience in these areas includes two years as the lead researcher for the Washington Post’s Mexico City bureau, based in Mexico, as well as a year working as a research fellow for the Boston College-sponsored Media Research and Action Project. Mr. Beeson also worked as the assistant coordinator for the Mexico office of Global Exchange’s Mexico Program. His work with the program included coordinating and leading delegations to investigate social justice issues in Mexico, and working with the press to increase public knowledge of human rights abuses in Mexico. Mr. Beeson graduated from James Madison University with a Bachelor of Arts in English and earned his Master of Arts in Sociology from Boston College.

Soniann Oliver, Program Assistant/Executive Assistant to the President: Soniann is originally from Ponce, Puerto Rico and holds a Bachelors degree in Biology from Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana and a medical degree from Ponce School of Medicine in Puerto Rico. Prior to joining the Central America team, Soniann worked in the communications division of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration and for Patri, Inc., a Brazilian Government Relations company, where she was responsible for monitoring media and government affairs, coordinating educational outreach programs and managing the office’s administrative operations.

Javier Sierra, Media Consultant: Javier Sierra, a bilingual media consultant born in Santiago, Chile, is president of his own consulting firm, Sierra Communications. He is currently leading the Sierra Club's national media campaign to bring the conservation movement to the Hispanic community in the US. As a consultant, he is working as projects director for the World Press Freedom Committee, a coalition of 45 press freedom groups aiming to eradicate insult and criminal defamation laws internationally, especially in Latin America. Past experience included working closely with the Club's Fair Trade Central American Program, Managing Editor of Hispanic Radio Network International, Senior Deputy Director of Associated Press Television News, and chief copy editor and producer for Univision News. He was also a founding member of CNN en Español, where he served as Senior Producer and Reporter.

Kate Brittain, Intern: Kate joined CIP in January 2008 as the newest Central America program intern. She is a senior majoring in Latin American Studies at the George Washington University, with minors in Spanish and Religion. After studying abroad for six weeks in Costa Rica and six months in Argentina she returned to DC to intern with EMILY's List and the Latin America Working Group, where she worked on border research with the Mexico Program.