Category: Latin America

Andrew Selee, Director of Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute

Andrew Selee, Director of Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute

“Mexico and the United States: Security, Trade, Migration, and Beyond”

Andrew Selee is director of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute, which promotes dialogue and understanding between the United States and Mexico. Dr. Selee is currently an adjunct professor of Government at Johns Hopkins University in the Advanced Academic Programs. He has previously been an adjunct professor of Political Science at George Washington University and a visiting professor at El Colegio de Mexico.

Dr. Selee has published extensively including two of his more recent publications: Mexico’s Democratic Challenges and Shared Responsibility: U.S.-Mexico Policy Options for Confronting Organized Crime. Dr. Selee is interviewed frequently in the press, including PBS, CBS, NBC, Fox, NPR, BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The Atlantic, and The Economist. He serves on the board of the Mexico-U.S. Fulbright Program, the editorial board the journal Latin American Policy, and is also a contributing editor to the Library of Congress’s Handbook of Latin American Studies. Prior to joining the Wilson Center in 2000, Selee was a congressional staffer and worked for five years in Tijuana, Mexico on migrant youth and community development programs. He has a PhD in Policy Studies from the University of Maryland and an MA in Latin American Studies from UCSD.

Michelle Bachelet Jeria, former President of Chile; first Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women

Michelle Bachelet Jeria, former President of Chile; first Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women

Empowering Women to Meet New Challenges, from National Development to Conflict Prevention and Post-Conflict Recovery

Michelle Bachelet is the first Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, which was established on July 2, 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly.  Under Bachelet’s leadership, UN Women will lead, support and coordinate the work on gender equality and the empowerment of women at global, regional and country levels.

Prior to this appointment, Bachelet served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010, becoming the first woman to ever hold this post.  A long-time champion of women’s rights, she has advocated for gender equality and women’s empowerment throughout her career.  One of her major successes as President was her decision to save billions of dollars in revenues to spend on issues such as pension reform, social protection programs for women and children, and research and development, despite the financial crisis.

Ms. Bachelet also held ministerial portfolios in the Chilean Government as Minister of Defense and Minister of Health. As the first female Defense Minister in all of Latin America, Ms. Bachelet introduced gender policies intended to improve the conditions of women in the military and police forces. As Minister of Health, she implemented health care reform, improving attention to primary care facilities with the aim of ensuring better and faster health care response for families.

 


Riordan Roett, Director of Western Hemisphere Studies and the Latin American Studies Program at the School of Advanced International Studies

Riordan Roett, Director of Western Hemisphere Studies and the Latin American Studies Program at the School of Advanced International Studies

The New Brazil