Staff
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 in 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 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 General Service Foundation, the Open Society Institute, and the Argosy Foundation 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". The text of her testimony can be viewed and downloaded here. 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 testimony 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 also delivered the keynote address at the Ohio Latin Americanist Conference 2010 at Ohio University in Athens. The text of her address is available here.
Collin Laverty is a program associate at the Center for Democracy in the Americas. He is fluent in Spanish and well-traveled in the region. Collin double majored in Political Science and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the College of Charleston in South Carolina where he graduated with honors. In 2004, Collin took part in Semester at Sea (SAS), a floating University that travels around the world by sea, and visited eleven countries. The following year, he lived and studied in Santiago, Chile and traveled extensively throughout the region. In 2005, he lived and studied in Havana, Cuba and returned several times the following year to take part in research projects. Before joining the CDA, Collin spent one year doing social work with immigrants from Latin America and Africa at the Latin America Youth Center in Columbia Heights, DC. Collin has helped to organize and attended fact-finding and research delegations of policymakers, academics and experts to Cuba, Venezuela, El Salvador and Ecuador. He writes CDA’s Weekly Newsblast and focuses primarily on U.S. policy towards Cuba and Venezuela. Click here to email Collin.
Kendra Seymour is the Administrative Coordinator at the Center for Democracy in the Americas. She grew up in rural Oregon, but moved to Washington, DC in 2009 inspired to be a part of the change in Washington. Kendra is fluent in Spanish and well-traveled in Latin America. She majored in International Relations with a minor in Philosophy at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho where she graduated summa cum laude.
In 2005, Kendra studied abroad in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Cuba through a Latin American Studies program. She has also traveled several times in Venezuela and Mexico. Before joining the CDA, Kendra worked as a legal assistant in an immigration law firm, helping immigrants from Latin America and around the world gain residency and citizenship in the United States. Kendra manages all office operations at the CDA and helps organize the fact-finding and research delegations of policymakers, academics and experts to various Latin American countries. Click here to email Kendra.
David E. Dreyer is a principal at TSD, Inc., a firm that specializes in communications strategy for private sector firms and publicly-spirited causes. TSD has worked for clients as varied as the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, Citigroup, Microsoft Europe, The Hartford Financial Services Group, The Orthodox Christian Church of Constantinople, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, and the Center for Democracy in the Americas. From 1978 to 1993, David worked in senior policy and communications positions for six Members of the U.S. House and Senate, including Gary Hart and Tony Coelho. He served as deputy White House communications director and as senior advisor to Treasury Secretary Rubin during the first term of the Clinton administration, before joining TSD.
Linda Garrett is a CDA consultant working 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.
Heather McAuliffe is an Intern for the Center for Democracy in the Americas. She is a senior in the School of International Service at American University in Washington, DC pursuing degrees in International Relations and Print Journalism. Heather studied abroad in Havana, Cuba during the spring of 2009 where she researched the development of Cuban nationalism and national identity. She has traveled throughout Latin America and Europe, and is conversant in Spanish. Heather has previously interned at the Council of Women World Leaders within the Aspen Institute and the Women’s Political Participation Program at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.
Jacob Bourne is an Intern at the Center for Democracy in the Americas. He graduated from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon in May with a B.A. in Communication and a minor in Latin American Studies. He studied abroad in Havana, Cuba in the fall of 2007, where he conducted an extensive study on Cuban media and gained Spanish fluency. In his ensuing studies, he carried out sustained analyses and compositions regarding Cuban national identity through the lens of transculturation.
Rebecca Kidd is a volunteer at the Center for Democracy in the Americas. She graduated from the University of West Florida with a B.A. in International Studies specializing in Latin America and a minor in Spanish. In 2003 Rebecca made her first journey to the Mexico border to build houses with Ministerio de Fe which sparked her interest in Latin America and the housing needs of the world. She has made this trip yearly since 2003. Through these trips and formal training at the university level Rebecca has maintained fluency in Spanish. In 2007 she began the first of two terms served as an AmeriCorps National Direct member with Pensacola Habitat for Humanity which allowed her to address the needs of low-income housing right in her home town. Rebecca is now in DC searching for opportunities to work with NGOs and non-profits with efforts focused on improving the state of affairs of Latin America.
