Washington, DC

Michael McCullough, Director of the Latin America & the Caribbean Division, joined ABA ROLI in October 2008. He previously served as chief of party for a USAID-funded justice administration program in La Paz, Bolivia, as well as deputy chief of party for a similar USAID-funded program in Bogotá, Colombia. He has criminal litigation experience as an attorney with the federal public defender for the District of Columbia and as a deputy public defender for Maricopa County, Arizona. He has trained attorneys, judges and academics in Colombia, Bolivia, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela on issues related to trial skills and the accusatorial system. He holds a B.A. in Spanish and political science and a J.D. from the University of Arizona. He speaks Spanish fluently. You can contact Michael McCullough at michael.mccullough@americanbar.org.

Chantal Agarwal, Senior Program Manager, joined ABA ROLI’s Latin America and Caribbean Division in November 2010. Over the last twelve years, she has worked on several U.S. government-funded programs in Latin America, covering various international development topics, including democratic governance, microfinance and international policy. Ms. Agarwal holds an M.A. degree in international affairs from the Elliott School for International Affairs of the George Washington University, and a B.A. degree from the University of Maryland at College Park. She speaks fluent Spanish and basic French. You can contact Chantal Agarwal at chantal.agarwal@americanbar.org.

Cynthia Arévalo, Program Associate, joined ABA ROLI in May 2011. She received a B.A. degree in political science from Texas Christian University, where she served as a research assistant specializing in Colombian and Venezuelan issues, and also studied at the Université de la Rochelle in France. She has previously interned at the World Association for Newspapers and News Publishers, the Center for International Policy, UNICEF’s Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, and on Capitol Hill. A native of Colombia, she is fluent in Spanish and French. You can contact Cynthia Arévalo at Cynthia.Arevalo@americanbar.org.

Francisco Ciampolini, Senior Program Officer, joined ABA ROLI’s Latin America and Caribbean Division in September 2010. He previously worked as a visiting professional at the International Criminal Court and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Ashoka Innovators for the Public, and served as a legal assistant for the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the United Nations in Geneva. He holds an LL.M. in international and comparative law from The George Washington University Law School, with additional studies in human rights law from Oxford University. Originally from Brazil, he obtained his B.A. in law from Faculdades Metropolitanas Unidas in Sao Paulo. Mr. Ciampolini is a native Portuguese speaker and is fluent in English and Spanish. You can contact Francisco Ciampolini at francisco.ciampolini@americanbar.org.

Stacy Clenney, Program Officer, joined ABA ROLI’s Latin America and the Caribbean Division in January 2013. She previously worked at International Resources Group/Engility as an Assistance Coordinator and Recruitment Specialist for USAID-funded activities. She has overseas experience in Guatemala with the Peace Corps municipal development program and in Belize and Panama with development projects for Florida State University and local partners. She holds an M.S. degree in urban and regional planning and a B.S degree in economics and international affairs, both from Florida State. She speaks Spanish fluently. You can contact Stacy Clenney at stacy.clenney@americanbar.org.

Martin Friedl, Program Manager, joined ABA ROLI’s Latin America and the Caribbean Division in November 2011. He previously worked at the Center for International Private Enterprise as a program officer for Latin America and the Caribbean. While at CIPE, he managed a number of democracy and economic reform programs with business associations and think tanks in the region. Mr. Friedl holds an M.A. in political science and comparative politics and a B.A. in political science from American University. Martin is German-Uruguayan and lived in several countries growing up, including many years in Costa Rica. He is fluent in Spanish and German. You can contact Martin Friedl at martin.friedl@americanbar.org.

Melanie Penagos, Program Associate, joined ABA ROLI in October 2011. She has previously worked with the National Endowment for Democracy, where she played a key role in organizing the 2010 Sixth Assembly of the Word Movement for Democracy in Jakarta, Indonesia, and most recently worked as a Program Assistant in support of the organization's grants administration. Her first professional experience was working as a consultant for Amnesty International USA. She has a B.A. in international studies (Latin American concentration) and Spanish from Towson University. Her family is from Guatemala, and she is fluent in Spanish. You can contact Melanie Penagos at melanie.penagos@americanbar.org.

Central America

Tania Montoya de Amaya, Director, Program to Strengthen Forensic Capacity in Central America, joined ABA ROLI in November 2011. She is a lawyer from El Salvador and served for several years as head of the Division of Tax Crimes against the State at the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of El Salvador. She has also worked as a consultant for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Development Program in El Salvador, Guatemala and Paraguay. More recently, she served as deputy director for a USAID justice sector program in El Salvador. Ms. Montoya has written books and articles about processing crime scenes, chain of custody and evidence in criminal proceedings, and has trained judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and police investigators on these issues.

Ecuador

Al Amado, Country Director, Ecuador, holds a J.D. and an LL.M. in international law, the resolution of conflict and interdisciplinary Latin American studies. He began his career as a trial and appellate litigation lawyer. His experience has been diverse and has included the trial of commercial, criminal, entertainment, construction and personal injury matters. He has also been active as a mediator, arbitrator, and trial and conflict consultant. He worked as a director of business affairs and Latin America to a global fitness company. He was founding director of the International Institute, director of Latin American projects for the Frank Evans Center for Conflict Resolution and an adjunct faculty at South Texas College of Law in Houston, Texas. He was the founding and executive director of the non-profit Latin American Collaborative Education Project, where he developed diverse projects related to the use of interdisciplinary methods for resolving conflicts in Latin America. Born to a Mexican mother and having lived in Mexico for several years, Al is bilingual and bicultural. You can reach Al Amado at <aamado@staff.abanet.org>

Haiti

Philippe Lamarche, Country Director, Haiti, joined ABA ROLI in May 2011. He previously served as chief of party for U.S. Agency for International Development-funded rule of law programs in Lebanon, Haiti and Burundi. He also managed a similar project for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Kosovo and for the UN in Rwanda. He has previously worked as an international coordinator for Transparency International in Haiti, as a legal advisor for USAID in Haiti and as director of legal affairs for the International Tribunal for Children’s Rights in Canada. He is a registered lawyer with the Bar of Quebec, and has criminal litigation experience as a prosecutor for the Department of Justice in Canada. He holds an LL.B. degree from the University of Montreal and an LL.M. degree in comparative criminal law from the University of Paris I (Sorbonne).

Mexico

Alonso González-Villalobos, Country Director, Mexico, is a Mexican attorney with a LL.M. in international law from the University of Cambridge. Prior to joining ABA ROLI he was the managing partner of a law firm in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he focused on human rights, constitutional law and criminal law. He has taught at the Universidad Panamericana and other Mexican institutions and served on the Steering Committee of the Jalisco Chapter of the Mexican Bar Association. You can contact Alonso González-Villalobos at alonso@abaroli.mx.

Panama

Thomas Cullen, Country Director, Panama, joined ABA ROLI in March 2011. He previously served as assistant attorney, senior attorney at the Gun Violence Program and as the director of the National Center for Community Prosecution in Arlington, Virginia. Before joining ABA ROLI, Mr. Cullen was a solo practitioner since 2006. Over the past 10 years, he has worked with organizations such as ABA ROLI in training programs in countries transitioning from the inquisitional to the accusatorial system. He speaks Spanish fluently. You can contact Thomas Cullen at tomcullen@tkcullenlaw.com.

Waleska Hormechea de Segovia, Judicial Reform Coordinator, Panama, is a former Panamanian circuit court judge, who presided over criminal cases for more than a decade. Prior to joining ABA ROLI, she also served as the technical coordinator of the Accusatorial System Implementation Unit, where she coordinated the design of the implementation plan for sweeping judicial reforms.

Peru

Raúl Callirgos Velarde, Country Director, Peru, joined ABA ROLI in July 2012. He has served as an international consultant on judicial reform for the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program. In Peru, he has held a number of positions in the public sector including by serving as a secretary general of the Judicial Coordination Council, as a national director of justice and national director of legal issues at the Ministry of Justice, and as a primary consultant for the National Congress of Peru, where he participated in the commissions on justice and human rights, women’s rights, constitutional law and budget. He has also served as academic director and general director for the Academy of the Magistracy, as chief of the Cabinet of Consultants for the presidency of the Superior Court of Justice in Lima and as general director of the Public Defender’s Office at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.