Janeth Cuji has been director of indigenous women's affairs in local, regional, and national organizations in Ecuador. Formerly with the Confederation of Amazonian Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, she is currently working at the national confederation, CONAIE.

Marco Murillo is one of the more important young leaders in Ecuador, and is now President of the Federation of Evangelical Indians of Ecuador (FEINE).

Ampam Karakras has been active as a leader and advisor in the Shuar Federation, CONFENIAE, and CONAIE. He was the first Director of the World Bank-supported Project for the Development of Indigenous and Black Peoples of Ecuador (PRODEPINE) and a Consultant at the Indigenous Fund.

Victor Hugo Cárdenas has had a distinguished career in Bolivian and transnational politics. He was a leader in the national indigenous-peasant confederation, head of an indigenous political party, Vice President of Bolivia, and most recently, the head of the multilateral Indigenous Fund.

Margarita Gutierrez of the Mexican Asamblea Nacional Indígena Plural por la Autonomía (ANIPA) served as an advisor to the Zapatistas (EZLN) during the 1996 negotiations with the Mexican Government concerning indigenous women's rights within the broader theme of "Indigenous Rights and Culture." She currently serves on the Executive Committee of ANIPA.

Nicolás Montero is president of the Bolivian Confederation of Indigenous Peoples and was formerly president of the Assembly of Guaraní People.

Policy Makers and Development Professionals

Waskar Ari is a founder of the Kechuaymara Foundation in La Paz, Bolivia and a member of Indígena Amauta Foundation. He holds degrees in Sociology, Political Science, and is currently a graduate student in the History Department at Georgetown University.

Shelton Davis is an anthropologist by training and currently heads the World Bank's Program on Indigenous People.

Kevin Healy has a distinguished record of development work with the Inter-American Foundation and is a specialist on the politics of development projects in Bolivia. He is the author of Llamas, Weavings and Organic Chocolate: Multicultural Grassroots Development from the Andes and Amazon of Bolivia, (University of Notre Dame Press 2000)

Chuck Kleymeyer is currently a Senior Fellow at the Center for Support of Native Lands. Before moving to the Center, Dr. Kleymeyer coordinated programs of the Inter-American Foundation with indigenous organizations in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.

Daniel Moss coordinates indigenous programs for Ox-Fam America, the first international NGO to support indigenous political organizing in the Andes.

Igidio Naveda heads the Andes Program of Ox-Fam America and has extensive experience working with indigenous organizations in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru.

Social Scientists

Robert J. Andolina, a political scientist, has a great deal of experience working with indigenous organizations in Ecuador and Bolivia. He currently is involved in a joint research project on transnational communities at Cambridge University and the University of Newcastle.

Araceli Burguete Cal y Mayor earned her master’s degree at the University of Chapingo en Guerrero, Mexico and is presently an investigator at the Center for Superior Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS) in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. Araceli has done extensive work on indigenous autonomy, Indian law, and ethnic political parties. She has also served as an advisor to the Independent Front of Indian Peoples (FIPI) as well as to ANIPA.

Marcelo Fernández is a member of the Andean Oral History Workship and the author of various works on Bolivian highland communities.

Silvia Hirsch teaches anthropology at Princeton University and has extensive field research experience on indigenous movements in Bolivia and Argentina.

Jorge León earned his Ph.D. at the Sorbonne and is one of Ecuador's leading sociologists. He is a founding member of the Center for the Study of Ecuadorian Social Movements and the author of many works on Andean indigenous movements.

José Antonio Lucero is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Politics and is completing a study of indigenous organizations and political representation in Bolivia and Ecuador.

Shannan Mattiace is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Allegheny College. Her research interests center on the dynamics of indigenous movements and regional autonomy in Mexico.

Sarah Radcliffe is University Lecturer in Geography at Cambridge University and has published widely on indigenous movements, transnationalism, and cultural geography.

Deborah Yashar is Associate Professor of Politics and the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton and has researched indigenous social movements and democratization in Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru.