The Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center launched a network of regional champions that have demonstrated exceptional leadership in Latin America and the Caribbean promoting solutions for the four main pillars of the Summit of the Americas: democracy and governance; pandemic and disaster preparedness; equitable and green economic recovery; and digitalization to grow the middle class. This distinguished cohort leads a campaign to promote prosperity, stability, and cooperation in the Americas, bringing greater recognition to the importance of the Summit of the Americas for all citizens.

Summit senior advisor

Mary Ann Walker
Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center
Atlantic Council

Champions for green and equitable economic growth

Tonni Ann Brodber
Representative
Multi-Country Caribbean Office

UN Women

Maria Tuyuc
President
Global Network of Indigenous
Entrepreneurs of Guatemala

Ángela Maria Zuluaga
Senior Vice President for Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability
The Coca-Cola Company

Diana Chaves
Co-founder
Jungle Foods
Strategic Alliances Coordinator
Impact Hub San José

Sonia Guajajara
National Coordinator
Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB)

Champions for health and climate resilience

H.E. Ximena Garzón
Minister of Health
Republic of Ecuador

Patricia Wu
Chair of Health Working Group
Americas Business Dialogue; 
Vice President and Managing Director,
C&M International

Dr. Miguel Eduardo Marrero-Medina
Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Program Manager
Americares

Rodrigo Rodriguez Tornquist
Former Secretary of Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Innovation,
Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development

Republic of Argentina

Leslee Gutierrez Carrillo
Environmental Justice Organizer
Comunidades Organizando el Poder y la Accion Latina (COPAL)

Elizabeth Riley
Executive Director
Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency

Champions for democracy and governance

H.E. Erika Mouynes
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Republic of Panama

H.E. Isadora Zubillaga
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Interim Government of Venezuela

Amb. Niermala Badrising
Former Ambassador to the United States
Republic of Suriname

Claudia Umaña Araujo
President
Fundación Salvadoreña para el Desarrollo Económico y Social

Carla Angola
Journalist and anchor
EVTV

Cecilia Vilchis
Program Manager
Young Americas Business Trust

Bios

Mary Ann Walker

Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center
Atlantic Council

Mary Ann Walker has thirty years of experience building, operating, and scaling businesses. Walker founded and served as chief executive officer of Walker Advertising LLC, a leading direct-response advertising agency serving the US Latino market and legal industry. She continues to sit on the board of directors. During her tenure, Walker Advertising LLC invested more than $23 million in national media annually, reaching consumers through its brands Los Defensores and The Defenders at 1-800-THELAW2. Her bilingual and bicultural background provides Walker with the foundation for a deep understanding of the market.

Walker serves as the managing partner in her national law firm, WH Legal Group LLP, as a non-attorney. She is also a lecturer at Loyola Law School, the National Trial Lawyers Association, and Marymount University. In addition, she serves on the board of directors of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Harbor Area and Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance, California, as well as on the advisory board for the Woodrow Wilson Center Latin American Program in Washington, DC. In March of 2019, Walker was tapped to serve on the El Paso–Ciudad Juárez Delegation of The National Delegation on Immigration Policy by the Pacific Council of Los Angeles, which is charged with reviewing immigration policy.

Walker is a graduate of Webster University in Los Angeles where she is a member of Delta Mu Delta, the international honor society in business administration. She attended Harvard Business School’s executive education programs on private equity and venture capital and Harvard’s Women on Boards program.

Tonni Ann Brodber

Representative
Multi-Country Caribbean Office

UN Women

Patricia Wu chairs the Americas Business Dialogue’s Health Working Group. She is vice president and managing director of Crowell & Moring International LLC (CMI), a global

Tonni Brodber is the representative of the UN Women Caribbean Multi-Country Office (MCO). Prior to her appointment in August 2020, Brodber served as deputy representative from 2015 to 2020 with the MCO Caribbean from 2015 to 2020. Previously, Brodber was the team leader for the Advancing Gender Justice in the Pacific programme with the UN Women Fiji Multi-Country Office. Brodber also served as the gender specialist for the United Nations Development programme in South Africa, as well as briefly with the UN Women South Africa Multi-Country Office, and established what is now the UN Women Country Office in Haiti.
Brodber’s work experience also includes lecturing in international relations and development studies at Yanshan University in China, and directing and co-producing a film on Haiti. Brodber received her first degree from the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, and has post graduate degrees in development studies and business administration from the London School of Economics and the ESADE Business School in Barcelona.


Maria Tuyuc

President
Global Network of Indigenous Entrepreneurs of Guatemala

María Tuyuc is the president of the Global Network of Indigenous Entrepreneurs of Guatemala, a grassroots business movement with a communal and indigenous identity. Originally from San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala, Tuyuc is of Maya Kaqchikel origin. As an expert in indigenous affairs, Tuyuc is a national and international consultant on conflict transformation, historical memory, human rights, legal pluralism, access to justice for indigenous peoples and women, and justice and security issues. She also serves as legal representative of several initiatives such as the World Indigenous Businesses Network, as well as the Network of Indigenous Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs of the Americas. As an advisor on indigenous entrepreneurship and other business topics, Tuyuc has been a speaker at national and international conferences, forums, and events. She has been part of teams that conducted research and published studies on issues of justice for indigenous people. She is a founding member of various women’s organizations. Her work in support of indigenous micro and small companies has been recognized nationally and internationally. She also holds a certificate in ILO methodology for business support and has completed coursework in legal studies, the social sciences, and network management.


Ángela Maria Zuluaga

Senior Vice President for Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability
The Coca-Cola Company

Ángela María Zuluaga is Coca-Cola’s vice president of public affairs, communications, and sustainability for Central America, the Caribbean, and the Andean Region. In addition, as a member of the Women Council, she has supported the development of projects that contribute to the empowerment of women within the company. She has over twenty years of experience in different sectors. Her areas of expertise include planning and developing comprehensive public relations approaches to promote company’s policies and positions, generating media outreach strategies, growing existing and new business plans, and seeking opportunities to broaden public support.


Diana Chaves

Co-founder
Jungle Foods
Strategic Alliances Coordinator
Impact Hub San José

Diana Chaves is the co-founder of Jungle Foods and strategic alliances coordinator for Impact Hub San José. Chaves has years of experience in strategic design, business development, and architecture. As a student, she worked as a research assistant in social architecture and participatory work with vulnerable communities. As an entrepreneur, she took the lead to introduce agroforestry and social innovation in the incubation process of the Universidad de Costa Rica’s entrepreneurship agency and business incubator, AUGE-UCR, by merging her architecture thesis on “edible landscapes” with her co-founding partners’ vision of breadfruit as a solution to hunger and malnutrition in the world to form the Jungle Project. After six years of building the business and completing multiple entrepreneurship and export programs, she continued her professional journey by joining the Impact Hub San José team as the strategic alliances and business development coordinator. Currently, she is also part of the board of directors of the Asociación Amantes de lo Orgánico (AAMOR) and its project Feria Verde, collaborates in the wellness venture Weaving Remedies, and is an advisor for the systemic venture Nangu.


Sonia Guajajara

National Coordinator
Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB)

Sônia Guajajara currently serves as national coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB). She is also part of the Council of the Interreligious Initiative for the Tropical Forests of Brazil, through the United Nations. Guajajara’s involvement in indigenous and environmentaladvocacy began in her youth, in grassroots movements, and soon reached the National Congress, where she was on the front lines against a series of projects that threatened indigenous peoples’ and environmental rights. In a few years, she gained international recognition for the fight she waged to protect the rights of indigenous populations. Guajajara has a strong voice in the UN Human Rights Council and for ten years, from 2009 to 2019, she took complaints to the World Climate Conferences (COP) and European Parliament, among other international bodies and institutions. In 2018, Sônia became the first indigenous person to first indigenous person to run for a federal executive office in Brazil. She continues to advocate for the participation and promotion of women in indigenous and environmental rights work.”. Guajajara has received several awards and honors including the João Canuto Award for the Human Rights of the Amazon and Freedom from Movimento Humanos Direitos, and the 2019 Packard award granted by the World Commission on Protected Areas of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).


Ximena Garzón

Minister of Health
Republic of Ecuador

Dr. Ximena Garzón is Ecuador’s minister of health . In this role, she has been responsible for the comprehensive response to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and led the emblematic 9/100 Vaccination Plan ensuring that nine million people were fully vaccinated (more than 50 percent of Ecuador’s population) before the one hundredth day of its implementation. In addition to private practice, she has served the public as deputy medical director and as chief of teaching and research at Quito-Sur General Hospital, and as chief of teaching at Carlos Andrade Marín Hospital in healthcare facilities owned and managed by the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute. Dr. Garzón obtained her medical degree at Universidad Central del Ecuador.

She holds a PhD in public health with a concentration in occupational health and a post-doctorate in occupational health research and occupational epidemiology from University of South Florida. She has designed a master program on public health and a medical specialty in occupational medicine for renowned Ecuadorian universities and has been a professor of public health and occupational epidemiology for undergraduate and graduate programs in several Ecuadorian and US universities. Her work has been published in indexed journals.


Patricia Wu

Chair of Health Working Group
Americas Business Dialogue; 
Vice President, Managing Director,
C&M International

Patricia Wu chairs the Americas Business Dialogue’s Health Working Group. She is vice president and managing director of Crowell & Moring International LLC (CMI), a global government affairs, public policy, and public affairs consulting firm. CMI’s global health team forges partnerships among the private sector, governments, academia, and nongovernmental organizations on a range of health-policy issues such as healthcare financing, regulatory convergence, digital health, and women’s health. Wu serves as advisor to the Life Sciences Innovation Forum under the auspices of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation. She holds degrees from the Harvard Business School, Tufts University, and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, and she serves on the board of the Washington Ballet.


Miguel Eduardo Marrero-Medina

Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Program Manager
Americares

Dr. Miguel Marrero-Medina is the program manager for the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Program (MHPSS) at Americares in Puerto Rico. He is responsible for designing, implementing, and managing training and other supportive services for the Americares MHPSS disaster response and recovery to Hurricane María, 2020 earthquakes, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Marrero-Medina worked for several government agencies in Puerto Rico, such as the Department of Health and the Puerto Rico Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services Administration. He is a recognized public-health leader in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, currently serving as president of the Puerto Rico Public Health Association. Marrero is a member of the Puerto Rican Department of Health’s committee of experts on issues of mental health and behavioral health in disasters . He earned an advanced studies diploma and a PhD in cognitive psychology with a concentration in emotions and health from the Complutense University of Madrid. He also holds a master’s degree in psycho-oncology from Miguel de Cervantes European University and a master’s degree in public health with a concentration in health education and disease prevention from Benedictine University near Chicago


Rodrigo Rodriguez Tornquist

Former Secretary of Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Innovation, Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development
Republic of Argentina

Rodrigo Rodriguez Tornquist is the undersecretary of knowledge for development in the Secretariat of Strategic Affairs of the Presidency in Argentina. Rodriguez was the former secretary of climate change, sustainable development, and innovation at Argentina’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development. From 2013 to 2014, he was a research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies. He has experience in international negotiations, transport, and waste management policies. He is a member of the steering committee of the United Nations International Resources Panel, the former president of the Latin America and the Caribbean Platform for Resilient and Low Emission Development Strategies , and chair of the United Nations 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production for Sustainable Development Goal twelve. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science with a specialization in international affairs from the Catholic University of Argentina and a degree in environmental management from the National University of San Martín.


Leslee Gutierrez Carrillo

Environmental Justice Organizer
Comunidades Organizando el Poder y la Accion Latina

Leslee Gutiérrez Carrillo is the senior environmental justice organizer at Comunidades Organizando el Poder y la Acción Latina (COPAL). She was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and grew up in Toronto, Canada, and Puebla, Mexico, but returned to Minnesota to complete her degree in environmental studies. As forced migration due to climate change continues to be a reality for frontline communities across Latin America and continues harming generations of families through the intersectional traumas of forced removal experienced even after relocation, she feels a responsibility to her community. With COPAL and several allied organizations, Gutierrez is currently fighting to address the cumulative impacts of pollution experienced by frontline communities in Minnesota by putting climate migrants at the forefront.


Elizabeth Riley

Executive Director
Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency

Elizabeth Riley is the executive director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). Riley has over twenty years of experience in disaster management at regional and international levels. At the operational level, she has played a leadership role in the coordination of regional responses to eight major hurricanes and now the COVID-19 pandemic. She has written, presented, and published technical papers in disaster management and environmental management whilst affiliated with CDEMA and, prior to that, during her tenure at the University of the West Indies and the ministry of physical development and environment in Barbados. At the international level, she has contributed to a range of technical advisory committees and is currently vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Tsunami and Other Coastal Hazards Warning System for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions. She also sits on the Regional Advisory Group leading the implementation of the regional strategy for Latin America and the Caribbean on disaster risk management in the agriculture and food and nutrition sectors. Riley holds a master’s degree in environment and development from the University of Manchester, a bachelor’s degree in geography from the University of the West Indies, and a master’s certificate in results-based monitoring and evaluation and information systems” from the Laval University.


H.E. Erika Mouynes

Minister of Foreign Affairs
Republic of Panama

Erika Mouynes is the Panamanian minister of foreign affairs. During her time in office, Mouynes has focused on vaccine access, climate diplomacy, and environmental conservation. She previously served as vice minister of multilateral affairs and cooperation and as chief of staff of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, during which time she helped negotiate the US-Panama Free Trade Agreement. Outside of government, Mouynes worked in senior executive roles at a leading global law firm and a multibillion-dollar investment company. She has also been on the board of several publicly traded companies and nonprofits serving women.


H.E. Isadora Zubillaga

Minister of Foreign Affairs
Interim Government of Venezuela

Isadora Zubillaga is the minister of foreign affairs of the interim government of Venezuela. She previously served as deputy minister for foreign affairs and Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaidó’s special envoy to France. In Venezuela, Zubillaga was the international director of the Municipality of Chacao and a founding member of the Voluntad Popular political party. Internationally, Zubillaga directed a human-rights project of the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation and was the international coordinator of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s NYC 2010 initiative. She also possesses private-sector experience as the former vice president of eQuest Partners and the chief executive officer of La Almazara. Zubillaga holds a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Paris–Sorbonne and bachelor’s degrees in economics and political science from Boston University.


Amb. Niermala Badrising

Former Ambassador to the United States
Republic of Suriname

Niermala Badrising was the ambassador of the Republic of Suriname to the United States until 2021. As the first female ambassador of Suriname since 1975, Badrising specialized in environmental diplomacy, human rights, democratic institutions, electoral management, and international development. Prior to becoming ambassador to the United States, she served as ambassador/permanent representative to the Organization of American States, as the minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Suriname, and as the chief coordinator for international affairs for three consecutive presidents of Suriname. Badrising holds a master’s degree in international relations and diplomacy from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy as well as a master’s degree in international development studies from the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague. She holds a licentiate degree in law from the University of Suriname.


Claudia Umaña Araujo

President
Fundación Salvadoreña para el Desarrollo Económico y Social

Claudia Umaña Araujo is the first female president of the Fundación Salvadoreña para el Desarrollo Económico y Social, a top-12 think tank in Central and South America according to the University of Pennsylvania’s Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program. She is also a lawyer, legal researcher, and activist. She was the founder and former president of Democracy–Transparency–Justice, an organization working towards transparency, women’s rights, and the rule of law. Umaña Araujo previously served in the Salvadoran government as the special ambassador for trade negotiations in the Ministry of the Economy of El Salvador, spearheading World Trade Organization agreements, the Central American Economic Integration process, and other regional trade treaties. She has been decorated for her leadership with the Order of Bernardo O’Higgins in rank of officer by the government of Chile. She has also received recognition from the Aspen Institute, the Bush Institute, and the Central America Leadership Initiative.


Carla Angola

Journalist and anchor
EVTV

Carla Angola is an experienced multimedia journalist with a career spanning over twenty-five years. She is a leading voice and influencer to millions of Latin Americans interested in Venezuelan and regional politics. Angola rose to fame as an anchor of Buenas Noches on Globovisión, Venezuela’s most important TV network, speaking out against the Chávez and Maduro regimes until her forced exile in 2014. Since then, she has been hosting Alo, Buenas Noches on EVTV in the United States to an audience of twenty million monthly viewers worldwide. In 2017 and 2019, Angola was recognized by the mayor of Miami as the journalist of the year and the human-rights defender of the year.


Cecilia Vilchis

Program Manager
Young Americas Business Trust

Cecilia Vilchis is the program manager of the Young Americas Business Trust, an international nonprofit that collaborates with the Organization of American States to promote economic and social development of youth across the Americas. In this capacity, she also coordinates the Young Americas Forum. Previously, Vilchis served on the youth advisory council of Plan International and is a recent graduate of La Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México.


The Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center broadens understanding of regional transformations and delivers constructive, results-oriented solutions to inform how the public and private sectors can advance hemispheric prosperity.