Center for Latin American Studies

CLAS occasionally appoints Senior Fellows based on outstanding service to the Center and distinguished contributions to the field of Latin American studies. At present, our Senior Fellows include:

Luigi Einaudi

Luigi R. Einaudi's career has combined diplomacy, teaching, and research. He was elected Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States in 2000. In that post, he helped broker regional and institutional uncertainties, particularly in Washington, Central America, and Haiti. In 2004-2005 he served as Acting Secretary General of the OAS; he was also Ambassador of the United States to the OAS from 1989 to 1993. At the Department of State, Dr. Einaudi was the US Special Envoy in the 1995-1998 peace talks between Ecuador and Peru to end territorial conflicts. Dr. Einaudi earned his BA and PhD from Harvard University, and has been a professor at Harvard, Wesleyan, UCLA, and Georgetown. He is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University and a member of the Comitato Scientifico of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi in Turin, Italy.

Ramón Espinasa

Ramón Espinasa works as a consultant for the Energy Division at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). He has also worked as a consultant for the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) and the World Bank on oil-related issues in the Andes and the Middle East. For twenty years Dr. Espinasa worked at Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), where he was the Chief Economist between 1992 and 1999. He earned his BS in industrial engineering from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas, Venezuela, and later received a Master's and PhD in Energy Economics and Economic Development from University of Cambridge. At Georgetown, Dr. Espinasa teaches a graduate seminar on Hemispheric Energy Security.

Luís Jacome

Luís Jacome's expertise is in monetary policy and banking crises with particular emphasis in Latin American countries.

Michael Shifter

Michael Shifter is the Vice President for Policy at the Inter-American Dialogue, a leading policy forum on Western Hemisphere affairs; he also directs the Dialogue's Andean Program. Mr. Shifter has also worked as the director for the Ford Foundation's governance and human rights program in Lima, Peru and in Santiago, Chile, and served as the Director of Latin America and the Caribbean at the National Endowment for Democracy. His articles on hemispheric politics and US-Latin America relations have been published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Cambio, Estado do São Paolo, and Perú 21. He co-edited the second and third editions of Constructing Democratic Governance in Latin America with Jorge Dominguez, which was most recently revised in 2005. Mr. Shifter earned his BA at Oberlin College and a Master's in Sociology at Harvard University. Since 1993, Mr. Shifter has been an adjunct professor at CLAS, and has taught courses on democracy and human rights and political leadership in Latin America.