Ambassador Márcia Donner Abreu holds a B.A. in law from Cândido Mendes College and postgraduate degrees in Development from the Institut Universitaire d'Etudes du Développement and in international law from the Graduate Institute of International Studies, both in Geneva. She joined the Rio Branco Institute in 1986. At the foreign ministry’s headquarters in Brasília, she has worked in the areas of environment, trade service negotiations, and Mercosur extra-regional negotiations.

Ambassador Teiji Hayashi holds a bachelor of public law from Tokyo University and a master of arts in European studies from Universidad Politechnica de Madrid. Mr. Hayashi is currently the assistant minister in the Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Bureau office at the Foreign Ministry of Japan.

Tamara Taraciuk Broner joined Human Rights Watch as a fellow in September 2005. After a year, she became HRW’s Mexico researcher (2006-2009), and is currently acting deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Americas Division, covering several countries in the region. She has been covering Venezuela for the organization for over a decade.

Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian (Venezuelan-American) is Director of the Department of Social Inclusion of the Secretariat for Access to Rights and Equity at the Organization of American States (OAS), where she is responsible for directing the work of the OAS in matters of social inclusion and access to human rights with special consideration to populations in vulnerable situations.

Ligia Bolivar is currently an Adjunct Researcher at the UCAB’s Center for Human Rights, responsible for the area of migrant rights.

Ligia was previously the Director of the Centre for Human Rights at the Andres Bello Catholic University since 1999, where she also taught undergraduate and graduate programs in the area of human rights. She studied Sociology at Andres Bello Catholic University (Caracas) and completed her postgraduate studies in Human Rights at Universidad Central de Venezuela.

He is a professional in Law with a degree of State Attorney from Universidad de la República de Montevideo (UDELAR); holds a Master in International Relations from Universidad Centroamericana de Nicaragua (UCA) and a Master in International Business and Policies Formulation from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (HEI) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Steve Liston is senior director at the Washington, DC office of the Council of the Americas, where he manages the Trade Advisory Group, trade policy, engagement with multilateral institutions, and member outreach. As a U.S. Foreign Service officer, Liston’s overseas postings included Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Spain, where he was deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires.

Mack McLarty cofounded McLarty Associates in 1998 following a distinguished record of business leadership and public service, including various roles advising three U.S. Presidents: Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter. McLarty is also chairman of the McLarty Companies, a fourth-generation family transportation business.

Madeleine K. Albright is a professor, author, diplomat and businesswoman who served as the 64th secretary of state of the United States. In 1997, she was named the first female secretary of state and became, at that time, the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government. From 1993 to 1997, Dr. Albright served as the U.S. permanent representative to the UN and was a member of the President’s Cabinet. She is a professor in the practice of diplomacy at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. Dr.