Founders

Miguel Carter is a senior political scientist with expertise in democratic governance, transparency, state fragility, social accountability, and rural development. He has a PhD from Columbia University, in New York, and a post doc from the University of Oxford, as a research fellow in politics at St. Antony’s College and the Centre for Brazilian Studies. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science and Latin American studies from the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis. Carter served as a lecturer at American University’s School of International Service in Washington, DC, and has consulted widely, for the EU, IDB, World Bank, IFC, UNDP, UN Peacebuilding Fund, International IDEA, Oxford Analytica, and Creative Associates, among other institutions, across Latin America and parts of West Africa. Prior to this, he collaborated with Paraguay’s Church Committee for Emergency Help (CIPAE), at the time, the country’s leading human rights organization. Carter is the author of numerous publications related to democratization, authoritarian legacies, corruption, elections, public opinion, religion, social movements, agrarian reform, and has a forthcoming book on Paraguay’s forfeited energy wealth.

Nicolás Carter is a theater director, harpist and educator, with a Masters in Fine Arts and specialty in theater direction from the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, and bachelor’s degree in theater and visual arts from the same university. He completed post-graduate studies at the Center for the Theater of the Oppressed, in Paris. He has served as a teacher and theater director in Paraguay, Minnesota, Uruguay and New York, and has collaborated with the Children’s Theater Company of Minneapolis in promoting the Neighborhood Bridges program, a nationally recognized curriculum for arts education and civic literacy using storytelling and creative drama. Nicolás is also an accomplished Paraguayan harpist and musical composer. He has published more than a dozen CDs and made extensive musical tours throughout the United States, in addition to having performed concerts in various parts of Europe, Latin America, West Africa, Israel and Palestine. Building on the family legacy, Nicolás has worked with puppet theaters and the camp pedagogy in Paraguay and the United States.

Yvette Carter Galland is an educator specialized in literacy training, with a master’s degree in child education from the University of Puerto Rico, at Río Piedras, and a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis. She has served as a school teacher, university lecturer, teaching supervisor, curriculum designer, teacher trainer, video producer for educators, and pedagogical adviser, in Puerto Rico and Paraguay. Yvette is the author of several works of children’s literature. She has also published books aimed at a teaching public, offering practical and motivational tools. These works include, Juguemos con Sonidos y Palabras (Let’s Play with Sounds and Words) and Educando con éxito: Estrategias para crear un ambiente de respeto, aprecio y eficiencia (Educating with Success: Strategies to Create an Environment of Respect, Appreciation and Efficiency). Yvette has worked with the camp pedagogy from an early age, as a leader, director and trainer, in Paraguay and Puerto Rico.