Juan Luis Aguiar Muxella holds BS degrees in Chemistry and Pharmacy from the University of Puerto Rico. He was formerly Assistant Chemist at the Agricultural Experimental Station, Mayaguez Campus, University of Puerto Rico. He is a Licensed in Pharmacy in Puerto Rico and the State of Florida. Mr. Aguiar Muxella was the Sarrá Award Recipient in 1955-1956.
Domingo Amuchástegui is a graduate of Havana University, Florida International University, and the University of Miami. Author and co-author of a dozen books in Cuba and the United States as well as hundreds of articles and scores of essays. Chief analyst in the field of Cuba’s foreign policy. Fact-finding missions throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. He has been a Political Analyst at CubaNews since 1994.
Roberto I. Armengol successfully defended his Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Virginia in the fall 2003. His long-term ethnographic research on markets and private enterprise in Cuba was carried out with support from a Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship. He has also worked as a print journalist for U.S. news organizations, and published academic research on digital surveillance technologies.
Melissa Barona is an undergraduate double majoring in Environmental Engineering and chemistry at the University of Miami expecting to graduate in May 2014. Following graduation, her future goal is to attend graduate school in chemical engineering. As part of the project, she worked on the use of Microbial Electrolysis Cells to produce hydrogen. Melissa analyzed the possibilities of using a dual MEC-MFC system and was responsible for the computation method for sizing the bioreactors.
Larry Catá Backer is W. Richard and Mary Eshelman Faculty Scholar & Professor of Law, Professor of International Affairs, Pennsylvania State University.
Roger R. Betancourt is Professor of Economics, Emeritus, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, and Director, Development Research Center.
Juan Antonio Blanco Gil es Doctor en Historia de las Relaciones Internacionales. Historiador y analista político. Graduado de Filosofía de la Universidad de La Habana. En Cuba fue miembro fundador de la Comisión Nacional para el Otorgamiento de Grados Científicos en la especialidad de Historia. Trabajó como profesor universitario de Filosofía, analista de política exterior y diplomático en Naciones Unidas. En 1992 renunció a sus cargos gubernamentales y fundó el Centro Félix Varela de Cuba, institución financiada exclusivamente por la familia de ONGs OXFAM. Ha sido Director Ejecutivo de Human Rights Internet en Canadá y prestado servicios de consultoría a redes de afro descendientes de la sociedad civil regional. Del 2010 al 2012 fue Subdirector Visitante del Instituto de Investigaciones Cubanas (CRI) de la Universidad Internacional de la Florida. Actualmente es el Director Ejecutivo del Centro de Iniciativas para América Latina y el Caribe en el Miami Dade College.
George J. Borjas is Robert W. Scrivner Professor of Economics and Social Policy at The John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Daniel Buigas currently works at United Automobile Insurance Company as an in-house trial attorney. Mr. Buigas is also the Executive Director of the Doral Community Coalition. He is a graduate of Indiana University Maurer School of Law—Bloomington, where he assisted Cuban dissidents and lawyers on constitutional and legal matters as a J.D. Affiliate at the Center for Constitutional Democracy.
Vegard Bye is Senior Research Fellow, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.
Rolando H. Castañeda, macroeconomist, retired senior official from the Inter-American Development Bank and a member of the ASCE Board.
Armando Chaguaceda es miembro del Observatorio Social de América Latina (OSAL). Máster en Ciencia Política por la Universidad de la Habana y Doctor en Historia por la Universidad Veracruzana. Profesor e investigador del Instituto de Investigaciones Histórico Sociales de la Universidad Veracruzana.
Sergio Díaz-Briquets is a Northern Virginia-based international consultant focusing on governance issues.
Gabriel Di Bella is a Deputy Division Chief in the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Laritza Diversent Cambara es abogada, graduada en la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de la Habana, entre 2001 y 2008. Desde el 2007 ejerce el periodismo independiente. Como parte de su servicio social trabajó como especialista en un registro de la Propiedad, institución dependiente del Ministerio de Justicia, entre 2008 y 2012. Actualmente es directora del Centro de Información Legal Cubalex, con sede en La Habana, una oficina que se dedica al estudio del sistema legal cubano y ofrece asesoría gratuita a los ciudadanos cubanos dentro y fuera de la isla, además de promocionar y denunciar violaciones de los derechos humanos en la Isla.
María Dolores Espino is Professor of Economics in the School of Business at St. Thomas University, Miami, Florida.
Jesse Friedman is a student at Tulane University, where he studies political science, Latin American literature, and theatre. In 2012, he studied at the University of Havana, focusing on Cuban history and cinema. He currently resides in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he also works as an actor and musician.
Karina Gálvez Chiú es Licenciada en Economía por la Universidad de Pinar del Río, Profesora de Finanzas en el Instituto de Economía “Roberto Fuentes” y Miembro del Consejo de Redacción de la revista Convivencia.
Nora Gámez Torres is a Visiting scholar at the Cuban Research Institute at FIU and at the Miami Observatory on Communication and Creative Industries, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, University of Miami. She obtained her Ph.D. in Sociology at City University, London, with a thesis entitled “Living in transition: Popular music and social change in contemporary Cuba.” She also holds a M.Sc. degree in Media and Communications from the London School of Economics and Political Science and graduated with honors from the University of Havana, with a BA and a M.Sc. in Social Communication. She was Assistant Professor at the School of Communication, University of Havana, from 2001 to 2009. Her article “Hearing the change: Reggaeton and emergent values in contemporary Cuba” appeared in Latin American Music Review.
Marie Laure Geoffray es doctora en ciencias poliíticas del Instituto de Ciencias Políticas de Paris y profesora e investigadora en el Instituto de Altos Estudios de América Latina, en la Sorbona Nueva /Paris.
Margarita Giraldo is an undergraduate student at the University of Miami expecting to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering in May 2014. For this project, she evaluated the use of hydrogen gas and the benefits of using this new technology instead of the fossil fuels. She also analyzed the dark-fermentation processes and the use of the bacteria producing hydrogen under anaerobic conditions in reactors with the use of sugar cane bagasse as the substrate for the biological reactions.
René de Jesús Gómez Manzano. Graduado en Derecho en universidades de Moscú y La Habana. Co-autor y firmante del documento La Patria es de todos. Ex preso de conciencia. Preside la Corriente Agramontista (de abogados cubanos independientes). Reside en La Habana.
Mario A. González-Corzo holds a Ph.D. in International Relations/Economics from Rutgers University, as well as a Master of Arts in Economics, a Master of Arts in International Relations, and a Master of Arts in Political Science, also from Rutgers University. Dr. González-Corzo is currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics at Lehman College of The City University of New York (CUNY), where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in economics and finance. He has written in professional journals on various aspects of the Cuban economy, and his research interests include Cuba’s post-Soviet transformations and economic performance, the housing sector, and the role of remittances in the Cuban economy.
Lenier González Mederos, BA in Communications, Universidad de la Habana. Member of the Editorial Council (Assistant Editor) of Espacio Laical, publication of the Secular Council, Archdiocese of Havana. Member of the Secular Council and Culture Commission of the Archdiocese of Havana. Currently teaches Communications at the San Carlos and San Ambrosio Seminaries. Academic Coordinator for the MBA program at the Murcia Catholic University, Centro Cultural Padre Varela.
Ted Henken is an Associate Professor in the departments of Sociology/Anthropology and Black and Latino Studies at Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY). He recently co-edited the comprehensive reference book Cuba in Focus with Miriam Celaya and Dimas Castellanos, published by ABC-CLIO Press in October 2013. He is also the co-author with Archibald R.M. Ritter of the forthcoming monograph, Microenterprise and Public Policy in Revolutionary Cuba (FirstForumPress, 2014). He writes the Cuban-themed blog, El Yuma, and you can follow him on Twitter at @ElYuma.
Ernesto Hernández-Catá, Associate Director, retired, International Monetary Fund.
Alexis Jardines currently teaches at the University of Puerto Rico and for many years taught at the University of Havana. He has Bachelors and Masters degrees from St. Petersburg University in Russia and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from University of Havana. In 2010 he co-founded in Cuba the independent project Estado de Sats.
Luis R. Luis is an international economist in Massachusetts specializing in international finance and investments. He has long been involved with international finance and investments as an officer of international organizations, commercial banks and investment management companies.
Seth Marini is a senior studying Environmental Engineering at the University of Miami. He is in the process of developing Symbiotek Consulting, an environmental engineering consulting company that will be geared towards helping Environmental Engineering Students find jobs after their college career.
Yociel Marrero Baez, graduado de Ingeniero Químico y devenido Ingeniero Ambiental por acciones y estudios. Su formación se fragua entre Moscú y La Habana (pregrado) y Berlin, Arcata (California) y Berkeley (postgrado). Llegó a ser el Director de Investigación y Desarrollo del Gran Parque Metropolitano de La Habana y hoy trabaja en la Fundación Antonio Núñez Jiménez de la Naturaleza y el Hombre. Por la implementación de proyectos socioambientales participativos y su labor de difusión de nuevos conceptos y tecnologías para la protección ambiental en zonas urbanas ha recibido algunos reconocimientos y fue el primer cubano candidato finalista a ser TED Fellow.
Gary Maybarduk is a PhD economist, a retired Foreign Service Officer and has been a member of the ASCE Board. He has been writing on the Cuban economy since 1999 when he was Counselor for Economic and Political Affairs Affairs in the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.
Luis Ernesto Mejer-Sarrá graduated with as a Doctor in Pharmacy degree from the Catholic University Santo Tomás de Villanueva, La Habana, in 1958. Received diplomas in biochemistry and pharmacy from the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. In 1970, he obtained a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Miami. He is the current President of Greenworks Inc. and the Scientific Director of Sarrá Natural Products.
Carmelo Mesa-Lago is Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Economics and Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.
Emilio Morales Dopico es graduado de Ingeniería en Sistemas, tiene un Magister en Mercadeo de la Escuela Superior de Marketing de Madrid (1999) y un Magister en Mercadeo y Comunicación de la Universidad de La Haban (2001). Durante seis años fue el Jefe de Planeación Estratégica de la Dirección de Mercadotecnia de la Corporación CIMEX, la mayor holding estatal cubano. Es autor de los libros: Cuba:¿Tránsito silencioso hacia el capitalismo? (2009) y Marketing without Advertising: Brand Preference and Consumer Choice in Cuba (2012).
Emily Parker is a senior fellow and digital diplomacy advisor, New American Foundation, and a former journalist at The Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
Silvia Pedraza is Professor of Sociology and American Culture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Daniel I. Pedreira is currently a graduate student at George Mason University’s Peace Operations Policy Program. He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies from the University of Miami. An avid researcher of Cuban political history, his articles have appeared in several newspapers in the U.S. Daniel is also a contributor to Herencia magazine and serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Group of The Cuba Corps.
Lorenzo L. Pérez, macroeconomist, retired from the International Monetary Fund where he was Deputy Director, Middle East and Central Asia Department. He worked previously in the Western Hemisphere Department of the Fund, leading missions to several countries including Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Panama and in the Fiscal Affairs Department. Earlier in his career he worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Treasury. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Enrique S. Pumar is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology, The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.
Archibald R. M. Ritter is a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Economics and International Affairs at Carleton University, Ottawa Canada. He was an initiator on the Canadian side and was the Canadian co-ordinator of the Masters in Economics Program provided at the University of Havana for young Cuban professors from 1994 to 1999. He was Chair of the Department of Economics from 2001-2004. His research interests and publications relate to development issues in East Africa and Latin America with an emphasis on Cuba, together with the international economy and the international mineral economy. He has published extensively on development issues with a focus on Latin America and particularly on Cuba. He is the author of the Blog: www.TheCubanEconomy.com.
Antonio G. Rodiles is coordinator of Estado de Sats, a forum created in Cuba 2010 to encourage debate on social, cultural, and political issues, and of the Citizen Demand for Another Cuba. He majored in Physics at the University of Havana, is a PhD candidate in Physics from the Institute of Nuclear Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and received a Master’s Degree in Mathematics in 2007 from Florida State University.
Carlos Antonio Romero Méndez es un politólogo y doctor en ciencias políticas venezolano. Obtuvo la Licenciatura en Estudios Políticos y Administrativos en la Universidad Central de Venezuela en 1978, la Maestría en Ciencias Políticas en la Universidad de Pittsburgh, EE.UU en 1979 y el Doctorado en Ciencias Políticas en la Universidad Central de Venezuela en 1989. Es profesor-investigador jubilado de escalafón con la categoría de titular en el Instituto de Estudios Políticos de Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la Universidad Central de Venezuela y ejerce como comentarista ocasional en asuntos internacionales en diversos medios de comunicación social de Venezuela y de América Latina.
Rafael Romeu is a Senior Economist in the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund, where he has worked since 2001. He holds a Ph.D. in International Finance from the University of Maryland.
Jorge A. Sanguinetty, Ph.D. in Economics, worked in economic planning in Cuba in the 1960s. He is the author of Cuba, Realidad y Destino: Presente y Futuro de la Economía y la Realidad Cubanas, and numerous papers and articles on the Cuban economy.
Joseph L. Scarpaci es profesor de marketing en la Gary E. West College of Business, West Liberty University, West Virginia. Tambien es Director Ejecutivo del Center for the Study of Cuban Culture and Economy. Junto con Morales, es co-autor de Marketing without Advertising: Brand Preference and Consumer Choice in Cuba (Londres: Routledge, 2012).
Emily Snyder is a senior at the University of Florida, majoring in History. She plans to enter graduate school majoring in Modern Latin American History and would like to continue studying about Cuba.
Rodolfo J. Stusser, M.D., has had an over-40-year career as consultant, professor and researcher at the University of Havana. He was a pioneer in Cuba on primary health care general medicine research and on global health policy and system research. A former cardio-vascular physiologist, general internist and practitioner, he specialized on clinical biostatistics/epidemiology, pioneering multi-factorial analysis of Cuba‘s primary health care and the execution of the first Cuban clinical and population cancer and heart trials. He coordinated cancer research with East European COMECON nations, advised Nicaragua‘s Ministry of Public Health on infant mortality reduction and scientific/technological programs during 1988-90 and taught in Managua Universities under a cooperation agreement with WHO and UNESCO. While in Cuba, he collaborated with professors at Wake Forest, Minnesota and Washington Universities. In 2006, he had to retire as MD, because from 1994-2009 the Cuban Ministry of Public Health denied exit permission for 33 invitations from U.S. universities/societies to lecture and collaborate.
Soren Triff, escritor y activista de la sociedad civil, es profesor de español y culturas hispánicas en Bristol Comunity College, Massachusetts.
Roberto Veiga González, Attorney-at-Law, editor of Espacio Laical, professor of Seminario San Carlos y San Ambrosio, responsible for the Justice and Peace Committee of the Archdiocese of Havana, and member of Laboratorio Casa Cuba.
Maria Werlau is an international consultant and independent scholar based in northern New Jersey and Co-founder/Executive Director of the non-profit “Cuba Archive” project.
Andy Wolfe is an advisor in the Human Resources Department of the International Monetary Fund. He has taught at Bowdoin College and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Antonio Zamora has practiced law in Miami since 1973. He has a B.A. in Political Science/Latin American Studies and a Law Degree from the University of Florida. He also has an M.A in International Studies from the University of Miami. He is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Florida International University and co-owner of CubaNews.
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