I am seasoned journalist, story teller, researcher, analyst, and communications professional with more than thirty years of experience specializing in issues of human rights, politics, social conflict, and development in Latin America. 

As a journalist I have worked and lived in Venezuela, Chile, France the Dominican Republic and Colombia, where she wrote regularly for The Economist and The Guardian.  My work also appeared in The Washington Post, Americas Quarterly, The Christian Science Monitor, The Miami Herald, The Houston Chronicle, MSNBC.com, USA Today, The London Times, Semana magazine, Time, World Policy Journal, Foreign Policy and on National Public Radio. Between 2017 and 2022, I switched hats and took on the role of advocating for the rights of refugees as communications officer for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency in Washington and Mexico City. Now I am editor of the Colombian independent news portal Verdad Abierta, while seeking to publish my first novel and simultaneously work on another literary project that has me traveling often to Spain. Previously, I co-edited Throwing Stones at the Moon (McSweeney's, 2012, Haymarket, 2023), a compilation of oral histories from Colombians displaced by violence, part of the Voice of Witness series.

I am fully bilingual in English and Spanish and write in both languages (but never Spanglish). I can get by in French and Italian. I have traveled extensively in Africa, the Indian subcontinent and Asia, as well my home turf of Latin America.  I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in magazine journalism and political science from Syracuse University and a Masters in creative writing from the Universidad Internacional de la Rioja. I also studied international relations at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Paris.