Board Members

Pablo Chavajay

President

is a Tz’utujil Maya of San Pedro La Laguna, Sololá, Guatemala. He obtained his licenciatura in psychology from the Universidad de San Carlos in Guatemala.

Pablo Chavajay

Is a Tz’utujil Maya of San Pedro La Laguna, Sololá, Guatemala. He obtained his licenciatura in psychology from the Universidad de San Carlos in Guatemala.

Later, he completed his masters and doctoral degrees at the University of California at Santa Cruz in California. Currently, Pablo works as an associate professor of psychology at the University of New Hampshire.

His research examines cultural and historical aspects of human development and learning. Studies he has conducted among Tz’utujil Maya families of Guatemala have focused on children’s engagements in problem solving with caregivers and other children as well as generational changes in mothers’ and grandmothers’ perceptions of childrearing practices. Pablo has served as a MEF board member since 2008.

Edward F. Fischer

Vice-President

is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Vanderbilt University.

Edward F. Fischer

is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Vanderbilt University. He has worked in Guatemala for over 25 years, conducting fieldwork in Tecpán and other Maya communities.

His books include Maya Cultural Activism in Guatemala (1996), Cultural Logics and Global Economies: Maya Identity in Thought and Practice (2001), Broccoli and Desire: Global Connections and Maya Struggles in Postwar Guatemala (2006, with Peter Benson), and most recently, The Good Life: Aspiration, Dignity, and the Anthropology of Wellbeing. He is also the founder and director of Maní+, a program that combats childhood malnutrition in Guatemala. More at www.tedfischer.org.

José Ursúa

Treasurer

Grew up in Mexico City, where he obtained a BA in Economics and a Law School degree at ITAM, both summa cum laude and ranking at the top of his class.

José Ursúa

grew up in Mexico City, where he obtained a BA in Economics and a Law School degree at ITAM, both summa cum laude and ranking at the top of his class. His prize-winning thesis focused on the economic and legal underpinnings of a fiscal budget rule for Mexico.

He worked for a few years at Mexico’s Central Bank and Finance Ministry, first as a research analyst, then as an economist. He went on to study a PhD in Economics at Harvard University. His dissertation work—advised by Professors Alberto Alesina, Robert Barro, John Campbell and Andrei Shleifer—focused on the intersection of Macroeconomics and Finance.

Since then, his research has been published in top academic journals and discussed at forums around the world. From 2011 to 2014 he was an economist within the Global Macro and Markets research group at Goldman Sachs in New York. Starting in late-2014 he joined Dodge and Cox in San Francisco, where he took the role of macroeconomic analyst, among other responsibilities.

Elisabeth Nicholson

Secretary to the Board

has a master’s degree in English and Spanish from Heidelberg University

Elisabeth Nicholson

Has a master’s degree in English and Spanish from Heidelberg University, Germany and has worked with MEF since its inception as staff and volunteer supporter of the organization.

She is MEF’s secretary and assists the board in all matters. She visits and maintains close ties with the projects and does MEF development work. After the closing of MEF's main office in Vermont in 2010, she accepted the Executive Director's position and manages MEF's operations and programs.

Christa Little-Siebold

is an adjunct professor of anthropology at College of the Atlantic.

Christa Little-Siebold

Is an adjunct professor of anthropology at College of the Atlantic. She was born and raised in Guatemala City where she studied anthropology at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. As part of her Licenciatura work at del Valle Christa did fieldwork in Maya communities of Chimaltenango, Sololá, and Sacatepéquez.

She holds a Ph.D. and a Masters in anthropology from Tulane University. Her doctoral research was conducted in the Eastern Highlands of Guatemala focusing on local forms of identity, racism and definitions of ethnicity in the context of the 1990's politics of identity. She has taught students of College of the Atlantic in the Yucatan Peninsula and in Guatemala between 1998 to 2012.

She has volunteered at the local schools where she currently lives in Ellsworth, Maine to create possibilities for outdoor hands-on learning opportunities as part of the school's curriculum. Together with her husband Todd Little-Siebold she has been active in the Guatemalan Scholars Network by helping organize the Network’s conference in Antigua, Guatemala in the summer of 2015.

Jean-Marie Simon

Is the author of Guatemala: Eternal Spring, Eternal
Tyranny (W.W. Norton, NY).

Jean-Marie Simon

Is the author of Guatemala: Eternal Spring, Eternal Tyranny (W.W. Norton, NY). She also edited three Spanish editions of the same, the most recent of which is available as an Apple Store/App in English and Spanish.

Simon spent 36 years photographing Guatemala. She also investigated human rights violations on behalf of Amnesty International’s London Secretariat and for Human Rights Watch/NY, for whom she authored six reports on human rights violations in Guatemala between 1982 and 1990. Simon holds a B.S. from Georgetown University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Mitchell Denburg

Studied photography at The School of The Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Mitchell Denburg

Studied photography at The School of The Boston Museum of Fine Arts. His works are housed in many private collections and photographic archives including Tulane University, and the Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica (CIRMA) Photographic Archive, of which Mitchell was the founder. His work has been used to illustrate many articles and journals on development and anthropology, including the book Getting Ahead Collectively by Albert O.

Hirschman. His forthcoming book The Portraits of Mitchell Denburg is currently in production. In 1998 together with his wife Elizabeth Habie, Mitchell founded the New Roots Foundation, dedicated to the rescue of young girls at risk and unique and endangered ecosystems in Guatemala.

Karen Kaiser

Karen has BA in Economics degree at ITAM, summa cum laude and a Ph D in Economics from Princeton University.

Karen Kaiser

Karen has BA in Economics degree at ITAM, summa cum laude and a Ph D in Economics from Princeton University. She worked at the Central Bank of Mexico as a research economist in projects related to competitiveness, financial deepening, and the effect of financial regulations on consumer behavior in Mexico. Later on she joined Evercore where she was part of the Public Finance Advisory Group and led several transactions that involved refinancing State bonds and the public debt of various States and Municipalities in Mexico. She also provided advisory to diverse States and Municipalities on the condition of their public finances and design policy mechanisms to achieve financial viability of government entities. Currently she is Mexico’s Chief Economist at Evercore ISI Mexico.

Board Members

Pablo Chavajay

President

Edward F. Fischer

Vice-President

José Ursúa

Treasurer

Elisabeth Nicholson

Secretary to the Board

Christa Little-Siebold

Jean-Marie Simon

Mitchell Denburg

Karen Kaiser

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Board Members

Pablo Chavajay

President

Pablo Chavajay​

Edward F. Fischer

Vice-President

Edward F. Fischer

José Ursúa

Treasurer

José Ursúa

Elisabeth Nicholson

Secretary to the Board

Elisabeth Nicholson​

Christa Little-Siebold

Christa Little-Siebold​

Jean-Marie Simon

Jean-Marie Simon​

Mitchell Denburg

Mitchell Denburg

Karen Kaiser

Karen Kaiser

INFORMATION

DONATE

GREATNONPROFITS

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Pablo Chavajay

Elisabeth Nicholson

Christa Little-Siebold

Jean-Marie Simon