Biography
I was born in Brooklyn Jewish Hospital, in Brooklyn, NY. I spent the first year of my life on Decatur Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant. That neighborhood is now undergoing rapid gentrification. Anyway, we moved to East Flatbush, where my family still lives.
My love affair with Latin America began at an early age. My family went to Guatemala for vacation when I was 11. I did all the translating!! That affair continued as a teenager when I rode the subway to Washington Heights, where I participated in a science program while in high school. Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where the program was held, is in a largely Dominican neighborhood. So there were lots of opportunities to speak Spanish!!
I attended Stuyvesant High School, which was and continues to be a great place!! It was like a mini-United Nations. I moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to attend Harvard College where I concentrated in history. After graduating in 1989, I worked for a few years doing environmental and public health—lead poisoning prevention, actually. Then I found a job in the field of propaganda and disinformation, also known as public relations. I learned a lot through that job about the power of the media.
I decided to continue my education. In the fall of 1991, I began graduate school at M.I.T. in the political science department. My intention was to study U.S. foreign policy and international relations. But I found a home in comparative politics. Latin America became my focus and I did my fieldwork in Brazil. I even lived in Ipanema in Rio de Janeiro. I really was “The Girl from Ipanema.”! Graduate school was really tough, but quite rewarding. I left MIT with a great education and great friends. It took a while to get that degree, but I did—in June 1998. After teaching at a number of schools, I ended up at Brandeis University, where I teach in the politics department.
In addition to my scholarly work on multilateral development banks and the politics of Latin America, I do a fair amount of consulting. Domestically, I work with faith-based and other non-profit organizations, doing grantwriting, program design, curriculum development, and program evaluation. Internationally, I do a good amount of consulting work around development issues. I’ve worked with the World Bank, the Ford Foundation, and the Inter-American Development Bank, analyzing issues related to Afro-Latin and indigenous groups and related environmental issues.
I live in Boston with my son, Brooks. In my spare time, I enjoy working out, hiking, swimming, travel, cooking, knitting, dancing, and reading. My family are members of Life Church, located in Dorchester, MA, and pastored by two MIT alums, Rocklyn and Eva Clarke.