At the IAF
In April, IAF’s program office concluded most of its in-house review for more than 1800 proposals received in the 2005 funding cycle. Approximately 50 will receive funding. Applicants are reminded that the IAF will only consider submissions that strictly adhere to our instructions as to information required, criteria and page limit. New proposals may now be submitted throughout the year and will be reviewed as they are received. For more details, see the application guidelines for how to apply for a grant on the IAF Web site.

Executive Travel
IAF vice president for programs Ramón Daubón, attended a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) democratic dialogue workshop in Geneva, Switzerland, March 28-31. The Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), the UNDP, and the Department of Democratic and Political Affairs of the OAS, with the support of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), met to develop a practitioner’s handbook on democratic dialogue.

Patrick Breslin, vice president for external affairs, spoke on six panels during the 57th Annual World Affairs Conference, in Boulder CO, April 4-8, and also spoke on IAF’s work to University of Denver graduate students.

April 10-12, Marcy Kelley, deputy vice president for programs, attended the Council on Foundation’s 56th Annual Conference, in San Diego, Calif.

IAF director of evaluation Emilia Rodriguez-Stein attended the 28th Eastern Evaluation Research Society Meeting on Ethics, Evidence and Evaluation in Absecon, New Jersey, April 17-19.

Walter Price, IAF director of corporate programs, attended the RedEAmérica advisory council meeting in Caracas, Venezuela, April 14-15. Representatives from 12 countries met to discuss ongoing activities.

Staff Activities
Grantmakers without Borders, an international NGO promoting global social change, highlighted IAF representative Kevin Healy’s advice for successful grassroots development projects on its Web site. The excerpts come from Healy’s book Llamas, Weavings, and Organic Chocolate: Multicultural Grassroots Development in the Andes and Amazon of Bolivia (Notre Dame Press: 2001). For more information and Healy’s recommendations visit <www.internationaldonors.org/gscp/grassroots.htm>.

IAF public affairs specialist Heidi Smith spoke at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Decentralization, Local Initiatives and Participation Research Seminar in Guatemala City on April 8. Teresa Gutierrez, IAF Guatemalan data verifier, Rolando Gutierrez, IAF contractor for El Salvador, Rosamaria Cruz, IAF contractor for Guatemala, and Marcos Rodriguez from Salvadoran grantee FUNDE joined more than 150 Guatemalan students, academics and partitions to evaluate a recent decentralization law. For more information see <http://www.flacso.edu.gt/dialogo/40/7.HTM>.

Jill Wheeler, IAF representative for Mexico, spoke on the role of foundations at the international seminar on problems and changes facing migration and development in the Americas, held in Cuernavaca, Mexico, April 7-9. IAF representative for El Salvador Kaye Pyle also attended.

New Faces
Tina Balin-Brooks, new foundation representative for Haiti and the Dominican Republic, has more than 10 years experience working on refugee issue. She worked in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba during the 1994-1995 Cuban and Haiti boat people crisis with the Department of Health and Human Services’ office of refugee resettlement. Balin-Brooks lived in Haiti for four years with a U.S. Department of Justice program. She is fluent in French, Spanish and Haitian Creole. A native of Washington, D.C., she has strong Caribbean ties: her parents are from Guyana and Haiti and her husband is Jamaican. Tina has a B.A. in French literature and Psychology from Washington College in Chestertown, MD, and is completing an M.A. in world politics at Catholic University.

Farewell
President David Valenzuela retired from the IAF in January with thirty years of U.S. government service. He is currently directing a local development and alternative crop project funded by U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Peru.

Valenzuela joined the IAF in 1979 and became president in April 2000. He served as representative for Peru and Bolivia, senior representative for the Andean Region, regional director for the Southern Cone and Brazil, and regional director for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean as well as vice president for programs.

Valenzuela directed the U.S. Peace Corps office in Chile and served as deputy director in El Salvador; represented the Andean region for Church World Service; and worked as the Latin American program officer for the International Secretariat for Volunteer Service (ISVS), which became the United Nations Volunteer Program.

Spring Interns
Melissa Budahazy, an M.A. candidate in international communications at American University, worked with the Office of External Affairs. She plans to work with former IAF grantee Oficina de Investigaciones Sociales y del Desarrollo (OFIS) in Cuenca, Ecuador.

Melissa Draper, an M.A. candidate at the John Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Affairs, worked on Bolivia proposals with the Program Office.

Jennifer Hebets, a George Washington University undergraduate majoring in international affairs and Spanish, reviewed IAF funding to migration and development and researched the fair-trade honey market.

Laura Kurland, an M.A. candidate in international peace and conflict resolution at American University, researched IAF eco-tourism projects.

Carolyn Meushaw, a Towson University undergraduate majoring in geography and environmental planning, worked with the Office of Evaluation on gender equality.

Student volunteer forms for the 2005/06 academic school year are available. Current students are encouraged to apply. For further information, e-mail info@iaf.gov.

Kudos
The IAF is proud to announce that Waskar Ari, founder of a former IAF grantee, an IAF Fellow both for his graduate study in the U.S. and dissertation field work, on May 20 received his PhD in History from Georgetown University. Ari is the second Aymara indigenous person from Bolivia after Tomas Huanca (also an IAF Fellow) to have received his Ph D in the social sciences from a U.S. university.