PRESS RELEASE
February 2011

The Center for International Policy
Elects two new Executive Board Chairs

The Center for International Policy, a progressive non-profit think tank that promotes a foreign policy based on demilitarization, cooperation and respect for human rights, announces the election of Cynthia McClintock and Luis Gilberto Murillo as co-chairs of the board of directors.  They succeed Joe Eldridge and Conrad Martin, who served as co-chairs during 2009-10. 

Cynthia McClintock is a professor and director of George Washington University’s Latin American and Hemispheric Studies program.  She brings a sense of energy and commitment to the board, as well as expertise in Latin American politics and U.S. – Latin America policy.  McClintock has previously held positions as president of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) and chair of the Council of the American Political Science Association’s Comparative Democratization Section.

McClintock has received fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Social Science Research Council and was a Fulbright scholar.  She is writing a book that will analyze how runoff versus plurality rules for presidential elections affect democracy in Latin America.  She has published many books and articles and has been interviewed on television and radio programs, including News Hour with Jim Lehrer, CNN International and National Public Radio.  She has also testified before the Subcommittee on Hemispheric Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives.  McClintock received her B.A. from Harvard and a Ph.D. from MIT.

“As a former president of the Latin American Studies Association, almost everyone in the field knows Cynthia.  Her knowledge of Latin American issues and her reputation in Latin America are great assets to our staff working on Colombia and Mexico,” said Abigail Poe, deputy director of the Center for International Policy.

Luis Gilberto Murillo is the chief operating officer of Phelps Stokes.  In 1998, Murillo was elected Governor of Chocó, a predominantly Afro-Colombian state on the Pacific coast.  Earlier he served as director general of the Corporation for Sustainable Development of the state of Chocó and deputy director of planning of the Department of Environmental Protection of Bogota.  Murillo was instrumental in the creation and implementation of reform programs to incorporate biodiversity, protect the rainforest and defend Afro-Colombian land rights.  He received the Chocó Executive of the Year award two consecutive years.  As governor, he introduced reforms in organizational structure and ethnic development.

After being kidnapped by paramilitaries in 2000, Murillo and his family left Colombia for the United States, where he became a prominent advocate of democracy and Afro-Colombian rights.  He began to work with Lutheran World Relief as the U.S. – Colombia Policy Coordinator before joining Phelps Stokes.  Murillo embodies CIP’s mission in his role as a prominent political advocate for a just U.S. foreign aid policy focused on development and equality.

Executive director William Goodfellow said, “Luis Gilberto Murillo was the youngest governor in Colombia’s history.  He was a champion of peace and human rights and of greater opportunities for his country’s large Afro-Colombian community.  He was also an early promoter of sustainable development.  These issues are at the top of the Center for International Policy’s agenda, so we are very fortunate to have Luis serve as our co-chair.”