CLAI Staff
Dr. James Ferrer Jr. is
the director and founder of the Center for Latin American Issues (CLAI)
and of the Institute
of Brazilian Issues (IBI). Jim has a distinguished academic career. He received
a BA in History from Alliance College in his home state of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Ferrer then went on to receive an MA in Latin American Studies
and a PhD in
Latin American History at the University of California at Berkeley and a
MPA in economics from Harvard University. He is fluent in Spanish and
Portuguese.
Before creating CLAI, he worked for the Department of State for 30 years,
holding such posts as Deputy US Ambassador and Acting Ambassador in
Brazil; Alternate
US Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council; and
the Director of Economic Affairs at the US Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal.
Kevin
Kellbach has been
the Administrative Director at CLAI since 1994. Before that, he
was a Portuguese language instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Kevin develops and administers CLAI programs and manages the Center’s
finances. He also served for seven years as the Managing Editor
of Brazil File, CLAI’s monthly publication about economic
and political developments in Brazil. Kevin was graduated Phi Beta
Kappa with his
BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he majored in
Political Science, Latin American Studies, and Spanish. He also
earned a Master’s
degree in Luso-Brazilian Studies at UW-Madison. During his years
of college, Kevin studied at the Universidade de Coimbra in Portugal
and
at the Universidad de Guanajuato in Mexico. He is fluent in Spanish
and Portuguese.
A
native of New York City, Ray Marin was
a career diplomatic officer with the U.S. Department of State, serving
at embassies and consulates in Central America, Canada, Western Europe,
and South Asia, and at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. Following
his retirement from from the diplomatic service, he became a private
business consultant and served for two years as the Executive Director
of the Pakistani-American Business Association, a Washington, DC-based
organization. He joined CLAI in 1999, where he has specialized in developing
new programs. A native speaker of English and Spanish, Ray speaks also
Portuguese and French. Ray earned a BA in Political Science from the
City College of New York, a Master’s degree in Applied Economics
from the University of Michigan, and is a graduate of the Foreign Service
Institute’s Advanced Economics Training Program and of the U.S.
Army War College.