A LOOK AT THE SPECIAL SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS

A LOOK AT THE SPECIAL SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS:

EXAMINING THE KEY ISSUES”
Speaker Biographies

Sheila M. Donovan

Sheila M. Donovan is a magna cum laude graduate of Mount Holyoke College, with a specialization in Inter-American politics and economics. Ms. Donovan has made Latin America the centerpiece of her professional career, which has spanned the public and private sectors.

After a short stint at a consulting firm concentrating on funding for Inter-American initiatives, Ms. Donovan spent five years as Executive Assistant to the then-Secretary General of the OAS, Alejandro Orfila, of Argentina, and two more years at the OAS office in Geneva, Switzerland, as financial officer.

A career switch to banking took Ms. Donovan to Spain and then to New York with the international division of Banco Atlantico (a mid-sized Spanish financial institution), where she advanced over the next several years to Senior Vice President and Manager of the New York Branch of the bank. Her career at the bank covered a wide array of experiences in business development, treasury and foreign exchange, corporate finance, structured trade finance, and investments in Latin America and the United States.

Her return to the public sector and to the Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development took place in 2001 to head operations and finance for the Agency, and in late 2002 she added the Department of Development Programs to her responsibilities. The Development Programs area is responsible for developing and implementing economic and social development projects for OAS member states, and for forging new alliances with private and public sector entities.

Ms. Donovan spent her formative years in Spain and is a native Spanish speaker. She also speaks fluent French, and gets along in Portuguese and Italian.
Richard Feinberg

Dr. Richard Feinberg is an authority on U.S. foreign policy, multilateral institutions, and summitry. He is an expert on trade and investment, globalization, democratization, and non-governmental organizations. Feinberg serves as director of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Study Center, dedicated to research, scholarly exchange

and public education on subjects of interests to APEC member countries. He is co-director of the Leadership Council on Inter-American Summitry, a blue-ribbon council that evaluates progress in U.S.-Latin American relations. He is also the coordinator of the APEC International Assessment Network (APIAN) a pan-Pacific coalition of experts that monitors and evaluates APEC's performance. Feinberg has authored more than 150 articles and books.

As an International Political Economy Professor at the University of California San Diego, Feinberg teaches classes on APEC: Regional Integration, Policies and Procedures; Current Issues in U.S.-Latin American Relations; Making U.S. Foreign Policy; and Civil Society and Development: How NGO’s Can Make a Difference. Feinberg served as special assistant to President Clinton for National Security Affairs and Senior Director of the National Security Council's (NSC) Office of Inter-American Affairs. While at the NSC, he was the principal architect of the 1994 Summit of the Americas in Miami. He previously served as President of the Inter-American Dialogue, Executive Vice President of the Overseas Development Council, and has held positions on the policy planning staff of the U.S. Department of State and the Office of International Affairs in the U.S. Treasury Department. He joined IR/PS in 1996, has a Ph.D. in International Economics from Stanford University, a B.A. in European History from Brown University, and speaks fluent Spanish.

Marc Lortie

Ambassador Lortie is a career diplomat and currently the Assistant Deputy Minister for the Americas of Canada. He was born in Beauport, Québec in 1948. He obtained a B.A. at the Séminaire de Québec and a specialized B.A. in Political Science (International Relations) at Laval University. He joined the Department of External Affairs in 1971.

He served abroad in Tunisia (1973-75) and Washington (1979-83). He was seconded to the Prime Minister’s Office in 1985 where he was in charge of relations with the international media until 1987, when he was named Press Secretary.

In 1989, he returned to the diplomatic service and served in Paris as Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs and as Personal Representative of the Prime Minister for La Francophonie. He was named Canadian Ambassador to Chile in 1993 and served in that position until 1997, when he was nominated Fellow at the Centre for International Affairs at Harvard University.

Mr. Lortie returned to Ottawa in September 1998, where he was appointed Senior Coordinator for Federal-Provincial Relations at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and, on January 25, 2000, he was appointed sherpa for the Third Summit of the Americas.

Don Mackay

Don Mackay is a career Foreign Service Officer in Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. He is currently on sabbatical from the government and is serving as Executive Director of the Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL).

From 1995 - 2000, he served as Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington D.C. There, he was the Deputy Trade Advisor in the Trade Unit and the Coordinator for the OAS's Foreign Trade Information Service (SICE). The OAS Trade Unit supports 7 out of the 9 Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Negotiating Groups (Subsidies, Antidumping and Countervailing Duties; Agriculture; Investment; Services; Intellectual Property; Competition Policy and Dispute Settlement).

Mr. Mackay was a member of the Canadian negotiating team for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), participating in the negotiation of NAFTA's chapters on Professional Services, Telecommunications, Temporary Entry, Transportation and Financial Services. In addition, he assisted with the negotiation of the chapter on Binding Dispute Settlement on Final Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Measures (Chapter 19). Prior to arriving at the OAS, Mr. Mackay served as the Head of the NAFTA Section at the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City (1993-95). Prior to the NAFTA, he served on the implementing team for the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (1989-1991). Mr. Mackay joined the Foreign Service in 1982 and his other foreign postings include Prague, Czechoslovakia (1984-86) where he was responsible for human rights issues.

Sophialeticia Morales Garza

Sofialeticia Morales Garza is the Director of the OAS Social Development and Education Unit. Prior to joining the OAS, Ms. Morales was the General Director of International Affairs at the Mexican Ministry of Public Education and before that Advisor to the Minister of Public Education and Coordinator of National Strategic Programs.

Ms. Morales was also Director of Education and Population for the National Population Council and Advisor to the Undersecretary of Population and Migratory Services as well as Director of Social Development liaison with NGOs at the Ministry of Social Development.

Her academic background includes a Doctorate in Administration, Planning and Social Policy (APSP) and a Master in Science in Education with an emphasis on organizational development and international organizations both from Harvard University, as well as a Master in Science in Education with a concentration in human development from The University of Kansas and a Bachelor in Spanish Literature and Philosophy from the Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Mexico.

Ms. Morales has received a number of awards, including a second place award in Memories of Action –a National Solidarity Program on actions to defeat poverty. She has also published a wide range of works on education and social development issues.

Elizabeth Spehar

Elizabeth Spehar has been Executive Coordinator of the Unit for the Promotion of Democracy of the Organization of American States since January 23, 1995. In this capacity, she has spoken extensively on OAS and democracy issues as well as written on

these themes for a variety of publications. Among other duties, she has been involved in organizing a number of the Organization’s largest electoral observation missions and has also been strongly involved in the development of the Unit’s expertise and activities in the emerging field of conflict resolution. Prior to her position at the OAS, she was Head of the Americas Programme at the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development in Montreal, Canada (1990-1995).

Previous professional experience includes work as a development consultant for agencies such as the International Development and Research Centre (IDRC) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), particularly in the areas of Latin American regional organizations, human rights and women and development; United Nations Development Programme (Programme Officer); Match International, an NGO dedicated to women in development (Project Officer - Latin America).

Her academic background includes a B.A. (Honours) from Queen’s University at Kingston, Canada, Diplome d’Etudes Superieures from the Université de Pau, France, and a Masters Degree in International Affairs (Development Studies - concentration in Latin America, Women in Development), from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

Mrs. Spehar is also currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL).

December 03, 2003