JBQ Charitable Foundation
The Team
President
Aerin Workman Benavides, Ph.D
Has a Doctorate in Teacher Education specializing in Science Education and Environmental Education at the Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education, at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). She currently conducts post doctorate research on identity development through engineering for sustainable communities at the middle school level. She has experience in educational research, teaching future teachers, professional development for teachers, Spanish, Science, History, and Economics PreK-16 in both Peru and the United States. She has extensive knowledge about the needs and challenges of Latin American individuals, and of Latin American educational systems and ecosystems, particularly those of North Carolina and Peru. She is fluent in English and Spanish. She is a board member and President of the Immersion for Spanish Language Acquisition (ISLA), a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting literacy locally in North Carolina for native Spanish speaking children from economically challenged families.
Catherine Matthews
Board Members
Is currently a Professor of K-12 Science and Environmental Education in the Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). Catherine has written numerous articles for science education practitioner and research journals and enjoys co-authoring with her students and colleagues. She is the Principal Investigator (PI) on the National Science Foundation grant for Herpetology Education in Rural and Places and Spaces (HERPS) project and co-PI on the Project Excellence in Science Education Learning and a GK12 Grant, Transforming Minds in a Transitioning Environment. She has travelled the world with students on university sponsored trips and as a visiting scholar collaborating with scholars from other countries.
Annick Benavides
Is a Ph.D. student at Harvard University with particular interest in Pre-Hispanic and Colonial art of the Andes. Prior to enrolling at Harvard, she worked as Director of El Museo Pedro de Osma in Lima, Peru. She holds a masters degree in art history from the University of New Mexico and a bachelors degree in art history from Williams College, Massachusetts. She worked for several years developing educational outreach programs for adult and school-aged museum visitors in New York City, Raleigh and Lima. This experience generated for Annick a sense of commitment to non for profit organizations that enrich communities through education, science and arts. She spends her summers investigating art and traveling in South America.
Marcela Burga
An economist, with a Masters Degree from University of Maryland at College Park. A professional with 25 years of experience in Peru and the United States working in international organizations (CAF, IADB, World Bank), investment banking and consulting (corporate social responsibility). Is currently Chairman of the Board of San Silvestre School for Girls, Lima , Peru.
Is currently working in Real Estate and is the Director of a new construction company dedicated to building mixed-use, mixed-income sustainable communities in Peru. Carol grew up in rural Pennsylvania and went on to study architecture at Lehigh University, in Pennsylvania and Columbia University in New York, receiving many distinguished academic awards: Spillman Farmer award and the Lowenfish award. Currently, Carol has been working on certification in Arts Management from UMass. Carol worked for RKT & B, Paul Segal Associates, George How and Sidnam Halsey in Pennsylvania and New York, managing several residential and commercial projects. In 1989, Carol moved to Barcelona to work with Josep Lluis Mateo, and worked on housing in Holland and a mixed use building in Barcelona and then onto Miami from 1991 - 1996 where she taught architecture at Florida International University (FIU), and worked with her husband José, also an architect, on residential and commercial work on projects such as: Cellete Residence, Key Biscayne, BNP Bank. In Miami, Carol was the Chairperson of The Miami Design Alliance, 1993 – 1996, a group that promoted good design awareness to a broad audience. Carol has adopted Peru as her home, bringing her enthusiasm and rich vision of design to the architecture world in Lima. She is especially interested in issues related to: water injustice, investigation to make Lima a more humane city for all, transportation and alternate housing soluitions. She most recently gave a workshop at Colegio Roosevelt in Lima called a Livable Lima.
Executive Director
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Clare has 33 years of professional experience, primarily with the United Nations, where she served latterly as a Senior Administrative Assistant. Her career has spanned UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva, as well as postings to London, Kabul and Khartoum. For many years she was personal assistant and scheduler to UN Secretaries-General Peréz de Cuéllar and Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
Clare Kane
