2022 Venezuela Transatlantic Fellows

The Venezuela Transatlantic Fellowship seeks to advance transatlantic US-EU bipartisan engagement on Venezuelan issues, promote a deeper understanding of the complex Venezuelan crisis, identify action-oriented policies that could address the most salient issues around the crisis, and encourage policymakers to align on foreign policy priorities and international cooperation toward Venezuela.

As part of the Fellowship, we will convene US congressional staff, European parliamentary staff, international experts, and emerging Venezuelan political and civil society leaders to open new spaces for transatlantic cooperation and coordination. By promoting a stronger and more cohesive relationship, this cohort of Fellows could play a critical role in identifying new international and domestic avenues towards the resolution of the Venezuelan crisis.

Welcome to the 2022 Venezuela Transatlantic Fellows

The Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center is proud to welcome the 2022 class of the Venezuela Transatlantic Fellowship!

2022 Venezuela Transatlantic Fellowship Co-Chairs

2022 Venezuela Transatlantic Fellows

Bios

Ana Rosa Quintana is professional staff of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, responsible for Western Hemisphere policy for Ranking Member Michael McCaul (R-TX). She is also the lead Republican staff for the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Civilian Security, and Trade. Prior to Congress, Ana served as senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, leading the organization’s Western Hemisphere portfolio, and served at the Defense Intelligence Agency. She has a BA in political science, with certificates in Latin America and Caribbean and national security studies, and an MA in global affairs, both from Florida International University.

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Lukas Manske is the head of office of David McAllister MEP, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (AFET). Lukas advises the chair in foreign policy matters and coordinates the work of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Recent bills that he has been working on include the report on the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union (EU) and the report on the EU’s security interests in the Indo-Pacific Region. Lukas studied political science at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, as well as foreign policy and American politics at American University in Washington, DC.

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Alex Sadler has served as a policy analyst for the Western Hemisphere on the US House Foreign Affairs Committee since 2019. Previously, Sadler worked as a program assistant on the Cuba and Colombia programs at the Washington Office on Latin America. Born to and raised by Argentinian parents in New York, he has had a deep interest in Latin America throughout his education and professional career. Sadler holds a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University where he double majored in international studies and Latin American studies, with a minor in Portuguese.

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Alexander Hendriks is the foreign policy officer of the Farmer-Citizen Movement in the Dutch House of Representatives and advises Representative Caroline van der Plas on matters of foreign policy, military, European Affairs, police, and national security. After growing up in the rural village of Mijdrecht, he pursued journalism studies in Utrecht, specializing in the European Union and Russia. Later he studied law and economics at Leiden University, before starting his master’s degree in European and international law at the Free University of Amsterdam. He is motivated by a desire to pass freedom and prosperity to the next generation though maintaining a strong civil society. In this society, rural communities play a decisive role and deserve the attention and investment they currently lack.

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Amy English is foreign policy advisor to US Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NJ). Amy leads on her foreign policy priorities through her leadership as subcommittee chair on the Europe Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, and as co-chair of the Senate NATO Observer Group. Previously, she was director of advancement and external affairs at Pathfinder International, a reproductive rights nonprofit organization. She also worked as congressional advisor at the British Embassy in Washington. Amy is a passionate advocate for diversity and equality, with success in amplifying this agenda within the workplace and beyond. Amy was educated at the University of San Diego and the University of Warwick and speaks French. She is the recipient of British Empire Medal (BEM) in 2017 for services to UK-US relations.

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Austin Johnson is foreign policy advisor to Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, focusing on the politics of Latin America and foreign policy issues around the globe. Prior to working in Congress, he directed a development project at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and worked for a private business in Bogotá, Colombia. He is a Miami native and holds a bachelor of arts from the University of Miami and a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

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Brandon Ramsay is a foreign policy legislative correspondent in the Office of US Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), where he covers the Middle East with a special focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, sub-Saharan Africa, the Western Hemisphere, and veterans’ affairs. He received his master’s degree in security studies from the Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. During his graduate studies, Brandon served as an intern at the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Albright Stonebridge Group. From 2018—2019, Brandon served as a Congress-Bundestag youth exchange fellow in Mainz, Germany. Brandon received his bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from Howard University and studied abroad in Morocco as a critical language scholar, in Jordan as a Benjamin Gilman scholar, and in Israel.

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Derek Luyten currently serves as the executive director of the House Democracy Partnership (HDP). Founded in 2005, HDP is a bipartisan commission of the US House of Representatives that works to promote responsive, effective government and strengthen democratic institutions by assisting legislatures in emerging democracies. Before joining HDP, Luyten served as the regional director for Asia at the International Republican Institute (IRI), where he was responsible for overseeing US and foreign government grants and guiding program development and implementation in fifteen countries throughout Asia. He also spearheaded an organization-wide effort to collaborate with tech companies interested in preserving electoral integrity and defending against online disinformation, resulting in IRI’s first partnership with a global tech company. Previously, Luyten was the director for IRI’s Thailand and Malaysia programs based in Bangkok, overseeing programs on public opinion research and political and civic engagement. Luyten also worked in a variety of posts throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), including country director in Morocco, implementing local governance programs, and nearly three years on the Iraq program as the director for political parties and research. While working in MENA, he established new programs in Tunisia and Libya after the start of the Arab Spring. Luyten has served as a foreign election observer twelve times.

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Enric López Jurado is a political advisor to MEP Javi López in the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Security and Defence Subcommittee, and the delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. He is an expert in international relations, security, and defense. He previously served as an advisor to the socialist group in the Parliament of Catalonia and was responsible for the Parliamentary Office of Javi López in Barcelona. López Jurado has interned at the Consulate General of Spain in San Francisco, USA and the European Parliament in Brussels; participated in a course on economic development at the summer school of the London School of Economics, where he took part in the III National Defence Course for young leaders of the CESEDEN-Ministry of Defence of Spain; and attended an executive course on cybersecurity at the Harvard Kennedy School. From 2015–2021 he was the international secretary of the Joventut Socialista de Catalunya and has been the vice president of the Young European Socialists since 2019. López Jurado has a degree in political science and administration with a specialty in international relations from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, and a master’s degree in security, leadership, and society from King’s College London.

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Guillermo Perez serves as speechwriter for US Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ). A native of Caracas, Venezuela, he brings his unique perspective as a dual citizen to his work on Capitol Hill, which has included stints in the offices of Representative Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Guillermo is a proud graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.

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Jay Kronzer is the legislative director for US Congressman Mark Green (R-TN-07). Jay oversees the legislative team and handles a diverse policy portfolio, including the member’s position on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as foreign trade, transportation, and financial services. He completed his BS in government: politics and policy at Liberty University in 2015. Jay and his wife Trina call Virginia home along with their dog and two cats. Jay enjoys camping, hiking, reading non-fiction, and spending time with family and friends.

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Karina Gaete Llanos is an advisor at the European Parliament, where she assists the Spanish Socialist Delegation at the Committees on Legal Affairs, Culture, and Petitions, as well as at the Delegations of the European Parliament to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly and to the Delegation to the EU-Chile Joint Parliamentary Committee. Karina previously served as a business consultant in Barcelona and Los Angeles, where she contributed to and advised on issues related to international business relations, management of global accounts, and customer service. Among her volunteer activities, Karina has helped with the Los Angeles Homeless Count, been involved in Toastmasters International for public speaking, and served as an instructor at the Long Beach Museum of Latin American Art. Karina holds a postgraduate degree in International Trade from Université Libre de Bruxelles-Solvay Business School, Belgium; a bachelor’s degree in tourism and hospitality administration from Universitat Oberta de Catalunya; and is a certified teacher of Spanish as a second language. She also holds numerous certificates in the fields of team management, emerging markets, corporate social responsibility, public relations, and languages..

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Nina Redmann is a senior policy adviser and chief of staff to MP Bettina Lugk, member of the German Parliament and deputy spokesperson of the Social Democratic Party’s Parliamentary Group on Foreign Affairs, where she manages the foreign policy portfolio with a focus on the Andean states. Prior to joining Lugk’s office, she began her career in the German Parliament in the offices of Members of Parliament Dagmar Freitag and Niels Annen, also focusing on foreign policy issues. Redmann holds a master’s degree in international relations from the Free University of Berlin, the Humboldt University of Berlin, and the University of Potsdam, as well as a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Liverpool, England. She gained work experience at diplomatic missions in Panama and Mexico, and speaks Spanish.

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Charles Orta is a legislative and policy analyst at the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), where he works on issues related to the Western Hemisphere, global counternarcotics, and law enforcement. He previously served on SFRC as the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 2021–2022 Facebook graduate fellow, where he worked on issues related to Spanish-language dis/misinformation, nearshoring, and democratic backsliding, among others. Charles graduated with a juris doctor and master of public olicy from Harvard Law School and Harvard Kennedy School in May 2021, respectively, completing a joint curriculum focused on international law and policy. Prior to that, he earned a bachelor of arts in government with magna cum laude honors and a certificate in Latin American studies from Harvard College in 2016. Charles is also a proud Cuban-American hailing from Miami, FL.

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Pablo Ruiz Vicente has served as a parliamentary assistant at the Spanish Congress of Deputies for the Socialist Parliamentary Group since September 2019 and for Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Dr. Pau Marí Klose since February 2020. In the past, Ruiz Vicente served as a researcher and data analyst for institutions including the Spanish Socialist Party (2011); the Center for Sociological Research (2013); the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Environment (2014–2015); and the Professional Association of Political Scientists and Sociologists (2019). He has authored or co-authored articles and presentations in academic conferences, mainly about coalition governments, and has been involved in several national and European research projects. Ruiz Vicente has a BA in political science and public administration, with a double specialization in international studies and political analysis; a BA in sociology; and an MA in political analysis, all from the Complutense University in Madrid, Spain.

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Pedro Palma dos Santos is the chief of staff for Isabel Santos, member of the European Parliament (MEP). He is in charge of following the workflow of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Subcommittee on Human Rights, the Eurolat Parliamentary Assembly, and the Mashreq Delegation. He has worked in the European Parliament since 2007, where he has worked for two of the latest chairs of the Mercosur Delegation, for the spokesperson of the Socialists and Democrats for Latin America issues, and for the Human Rights Subcommittee. Before working with MEP Isabel Santos, he worked for MEP Sergio Sousa Pinto, currently chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Portuguese Parliament, MEP Elisa Ferreira, currently commissioner for cohesion and reforms in the European Commission and MEP Francisco Assis, currently chair of the Social and Economic Council in Portugal. Dos Santos has a degree in marketing and advertising from the IADE University in Lisbon, Portugal—his hometown.

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Alessandro Iachetta is a personal and legislative assistant serving in the office of the Head of the Italian Parliamentary Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, MP Luca Frusone, where he handles policy relating to international relations, space, artificial intelligence, defence, geopolitics, and social welfare issues. Alessandro meets with stakeholders, drafts legislation, works on floor speeches, and conducts geopolitical research. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Italian Association of Parliamentary Assistants (AICP) and the European Association of International Studies (AESI), where he organizes and promotes international university cooperation activities and humanitarian aid programs, especially in crisis areas. He holds a master’s degree in law from Sapienza University of Rome where he was also awarded a scholarship for his thesis abroad at the University of Coimbra, a piece about comparative public law and the Portuguese and Brazilian executive constitutions that sparked a sustained interest in the constitutions of Latin America. Specialized in diplomatic studies and export management, he has also worked for a consulting firm.

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Lauren Wolman is legislative director and floor director for US Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). Wolman’s portfolio includes foreign policy and the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee, where the congresswoman serves as chair. She also manages the leadership operations for the congresswoman in her role as chief deputy whip. Wolman has been working on Capitol Hill since 2010, including nine years with her hometown member of Congress, Representative Brad Sherman (D-CA). Wolman was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, and has a bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Barbara.