Staff Listing
Staff
Louis A. Pérez, Jr.
Director of Institute for the Study of Americas and Professor of History
Global Education Center 3202
919-962-6880
perez@email.unc.edu
Louis A. Pérez, Jr. is the J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of History and the Director of ISA. His most recent books include Rice in the Time of Sugar: The Political Economy of Food in Cuba (2019) and Intimations of Modernity: Civil Culture in Nineteenth-Century Cuba (2017) Pérez's principal teaching fields include twentieth-century Latin America, the Caribbean, and Cuba. Research interests center on the nineteenth and twentieth-century Caribbean, with an emphasis on Cuba.
Beatriz Riefkohl Muñiz
Executive Director and Director of Undergraduate Study
Global Education Center 3203
919-962-2418
riefkohl@email.unc.edu
Beatriz Riefkohl Muñiz joined ISA in 2005 after nearly a decade working to strengthen Latin American studies at the University of Chicago and Yale University. She graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree in Anthropology. At ISA, she advises students on academic and funding opportunities, manages and develops grant and endowment programs, and oversees the activities of the UNC and Duke Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. She volunteers with local organizations working to provide opportunities to Latin American immigrants.
Hannah Gill
Associate Director, Director of Latino Migration Project
Global Education Center 3205
919-962-5453
hgill@email.unc.edu
Hannah Gill is an anthropologist and oral historian with a specialization in Latin American and Caribbean migration studies. She is Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of the Americas and oversees the Latino Migration Project. She received a DPhil in Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford, England and a BA from UNC Chapel Hill.
Corin Zaragoza
Outreach Coordinator
Global Education Center 3204
(919) 962-2414
cmzarago@email.unc.edu
Corin Zaragoza joined the Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies as the Outreach Coordinator in 2019. In this role, she coordinates outreach programs and events for the educational community and the general public. Previously, Corin worked with students for nine years as an English as a Second Language teacher. She also provided professional development to teachers working with English language learners. Corin holds a B.A. in English with a double minor in Spanish and Latin American Studies from Loyola University New Orleans and her M.A.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction in ESL and Multicultural Education from Virginia Tech.
Joanna Shuett
Department Manager
Global Education Center 3206
919-966-1484
joshuett@email.unc.edu
Joanna Shuett is from Melbourne, Florida, and graduated from Florida Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, where she also worked a little over a decade in administrative roles. She moved to the Chapel Hill area in 2006, and after working many years in the operations and finance areas within the manufacturing industry, she realized her passion was working in academia and wanted to join UNC to provide support to those making improvements both locally and globally through research and education. As the Department Manager, she coordinates administrative, financial, and personnel duties, and is especially enthusiastic about supporting the faculty, staff and students in their pursuit of knowledge of the Latin American experience in the Western Hemisphere.
Brianna Gilmore
Program Associate
Global Education Center 3219
briannag@live.unc.edu
Brianna Gilmore recently graduated with a degree in Latin American Studies with a double minor in Hispanic Studies and Geography from UNC-Chapel Hill. In addition to her studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, she volunteered in Ecuador with Global Citizen Year and studied sustainable development with the School for Field Studies in Costa Rica. As a work-study student with the Institute for the Studies of the Americas for the past three years, she has created promotional material for events, managed the ISA website, social media accounts, and the Latin American Film Library. She looks forward to continuing her work with ISA as a Program Associate.
Andreina Malki
Film Library Assistant
Global Education Center 3218
amalki@email.unc.edu
Andreina Malki is a doctoral student in Geography interested in space, power, and questions of legality. Her dissertation will address the spatial and legal dimensions of the corporate-state collaboration as it manifests in for-profit non-citizen detention and incarceration in the United States. Andreina earned a MA degree in Global Studies from UNC-CH, and her thesis examined the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism codified in bilateral investment treaties in Latin America. Before starting graduate research Andreina directed a leadership institute with farmworker youth in rural North Carolina at Student Action with Farmworkers (Durham, NC). Prior to that, she worked as International Outreach Coordinator at the Via College of Osteopathic Medicine with rural communities in Central America and the Caribbean. Andreina has been involved with local activist groups in the Triangle area in North Carolina.
Nicole Fortoso
Building Integrated Communities Intern
Global Education Center 3219
nfortoso@unc.edu
Nicole Fortoso is a UNC-CH graduate student in the 12-month advanced standing Master of Social Work program specializing in Community, Management, and Policy Practice. She is from Charlotte, North Carolina and holds a B.A. in Spanish and a BSW degree from UNCW. Passionate in her commitment to serve the Latinx and immigrant community, she completed her BSW field placement with Catholic Charities in Wilmington, working with their Immigration Specialist and a Spanish internship with Loaves and Fishes in Charlotte. She served as a Community Liaison with El Cuerpo, a Hispanic ministry in Wilmington striving to connect Latinos to spiritual, health, and educational resources. Nicole values community engagement, regularly volunteering with various local nonprofits organizations in the areas where she resides. Nicole is looking forward to working with BIC to expand her macro skills and better learn how community stakeholders, organizations, and local governments can work together to accomplish collective goals.