WHO WE ARE

The Democracy Center works globally to advance social justice through investigation and reporting, training citizens in public advocacy, and leading international citizen campaigns.

Our People

The Democracy Center's work is guided by an experienced and diverse group of staff, long-term associates, and advisory committee members.

The Democracy Center Staff

Jim Shultz (Founder and Executive Director): A graduate of UC Berkeley and Harvard University, Jim is the author of a variety of major reports and two books, most recently the award-winning Democracy Owners' Manual (Rutgers University Press, 2002). His writings on Bolivia have been published in books, magazines and newspapers across the US, Canada and the UK. His on-the-ground reporting on the 2000 Cochabamba water revolt won top honors from Project Censored. He has lived in Bolivia for nine years.

Martha Nissen-Stabler (Administrator and Researcher): Martha has worked in the independent sector in the Bay Area for more than 13 years. She has served as the director of Insulin for Life, a nonprofit organization that provides insulin, education and outreach to diabetics in Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador. Martha provides the Center with US- based support, including research and follow-up and coordination with US-based groups.

Leny Olivera Rojas (Project Coordinator): Leny is a graduate of the University of San Simon in Cochabamba. For five years she has been an activist with Bolivian youth organizations and social movements, in particular with the efforts of Bolivians to address issues related to water, oil and gas. She has been active in international exchanges related to popular education, in Bolivia, Sweden and Tanzania.

Aldo Orellana Lopez (Researcher): Aldo is a Bolivian activist who is part of the Coalition for the Defense of Water and Gas of Cochabamba and Indy Media Bolivia. He works as a researcher with The Democracy Center and studies economics at the University of San Simon in Cochabamba.

Elizabeth Sonia Cooper (Project Coordinator): At Mount Holyoke College, Elizabeth studied Grassroots Movements in Latin America in the department of Critical Social Thought. As an intern with the Democracy Center in the summer of 2009, she wrote a report on the Water Cooperatives of Cochabamba, which later became the basis of her thesis, highlighting the Cooperatives as an alternative to the neoliberal model of privatization. In 2008-09, she was fortunate to learn from grassroots activists and organizations in Oaxaca and from the Zapatistas in Chiapas, where she studied and lived at the Universidad de la Tierra. Elizabeth is from Boston.

Jessica Camille Aguirre (Project Coordinator): Jessica is a California native, but she tends towards nomadism. Prior to joining the Democracy Center, she worked with the New York City Coalition Against Hunger and co-wrote, with Gretchen Gordon The Free Market in Agrofuels: Regulation and Trade in the Americas, published by the Institute for Food and Development Policy. She holds a degree in economics and government from Smith College, and she has written for the Indypendent, Yes! Magazine, and Free Speech Radio News.

Kylie Benton-Connell (Project Coordinator): Kylie hails from Australia, where she most recently worked as a Research Analyst on a national campaign with the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union. She was active in climate justice organizing through the Sydney Friends of the Earth collective, and served on the Committee of Management for Aid/Watch, a campaign and research organization dedicated to aid and trade justice. She previously worked and volunteered with organizations including Oxfam, Global Exchange, and the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre. She holds an honors degree with majors in Development Studies and Social Theory from the University of Melbourne.

Democracy Center Associates: Former staff and others who maintain an ongoing professional relationship with The Democracy Center.

Melissa Draper : Melissa earned her Masters in International Studies at Johns Hopkins' University (SAIS) with a concentration in women's issues in development. Previously, she had worked for two years with women in grassroots organizations in Bolivia and also in rural Maharashtra, India. She returned to Bolivia in 2005 as an Earhart Fellow to work on issues of women and globalization in coordination with the Democracy Center.

Gretchen Gordon: Gretchen, the former director of the Citizens Trade Campaign in Washington DC, researches and writes extensively on Latin America and globalization. Her work has been published by Pacifica News Service, The New Internationalist, Multinational Monitor, Common Dreams, and Third World Resurgence among others. She has worked in advocacy around trade and globalization issues for six years.

Christina Haglund: Christina has lived in Latin America for over four years, including two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay prior to moving to Cochabamba. In addition to her work with The Democracy Center researching the Enron/Shell oil spill she participates in local community projects, with an emphasis on working with local women.

Jorge Hurtado: A professional Web designer in California, Jorge has developed a series of award-winning Web sites for both nonprofit and corporate clients. Working as a volunteer, Jorge develops and maintains The Center’s Web site and other Internet-based work. Jorge was born in Bolivia.

Aaron Luoma: Aaron, a graduate student at the School for International Training, is a researcher at the Democracy Center. He has lived in Cochabamba on and off since 2002. While spending most of the last 15 years abroad, Aaron has been both a teacher and coordinator of intercultural exchange programs. He also spent two years working with immigrants on the US-Mexican border in El Paso, Texas.

Marcela Olivera: A graduate of the Catholic University in Cochabamba, Bolivia, for four years, Marcela served as the key international liaison for the Coalition for the Defense of Water and Life in Cochabamba. In 2004 she worked with Public Citizen in Washington, DC, to develop an international citizens' network on water rights, Red Vida, which she now co-coordinates.

Lily Whitesell : Lily first came to Bolivia in 2003 through the School for International Training, when she studied the socio-politics of urbanization in Cochabamba. Before returning to The Democracy Center in 2007, she organized campaigns for living wages, immigrants’ rights, and other progressive causes in the Washington, DC area. Lily has also worked with solidarity and cultural organizations in the Bolivian community in Arlington, VA. She lived in Bolivia for two years and is a graduate of the University of Virginia.

The Democracy Center Advisory Committee

Maryann O'Sullivan (chair): Founder and President, Preschool California, Oakland CA.
Jeremy Brecher: Author (latest book, "Globalization from Below", South End Press), West Cornwall, CT.
Roberto Fernandez Teran: Professor, Universidad Mayor de San Simon, Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Emily Goldfarb: Nonprofit consultant, founder of the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, San Francisco, CA.
Helena Hofbauer: Executive director, FUNDAR, México City México.
Ruth Holton: Public Policy Director, California Wellness Foundation, Sacramento, CA.
Michael Pertschuk: Co-founder, Advocacy Institute, former chair US Federal Trade Commission, Santa Fe, NM.
Peter Schrag: Journalist, former editorial page editor, Sacramento Bee, Oakland, CA.
Mariko Takayasu: Writer and teacher, Singapore.
Jorge Viaña: Journalist and academic, La Paz, Bolivia
Cynthia Williams: Professor, University of Illinois Law School, Urbana, IL