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.

Tessa Vinson , Intern: Tessa hails from Haymarket, VA and is a rising junior at the College of William and Mary. She majors in Government/International Relations and is a member of the Alpha Lambda Delta Freshman Honor Society, the Phi Eta Sigma Freshman Honor Society, and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Fluent in Spanish, Tessa serves as an International Ambassador to Brazil and South Africa for the People-to-People program. Last summer, she interned with the Department of Education where she served as Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for External Affairs.