Our Team

Luanne Zurlo | Executive Director

Luanne founded Worldfund after a nine-year career as a securities analyst on Wall Street (Smith Barney, CSFB and Goldman Sachs). During this time, she was ranked by Institutional Investor as one of the top Latin American telecommunications analysts. Luanne has an MBA in Finance and Accounting from Columbia Business School, an MA in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins University SAIS and a BA in History from Dartmouth College.

 

Mary Bourque | Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer

Mary Bourque joined Worldfund in 2009. She is a retired Managing Director from JPMorgan Chase, where she most recently held the positions of Co-Head of the Americas Equity Research Department and Head of the Latin America/Emerging Europe Equity Research effort.  She joined JPMorgan in 1990, and spent several years working in Latin America mergers & acquisitions, and then as an equity analyst covering the Latin conglomerates and oil & gas sectors.  She was Institutional Investor’s #1-ranked conglomerates analyst for five consecutive years.  Ms. Bourque holds a BA in Chemistry from Dartmouth College and an MA in International Relations and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. 

 

Louisa Benton | Director of Development and Communications

Louisa Benton joined Worldfund in 2009 with 10 years of fundraising leadership experience at several major cultural non-profits, including the American Associates for the Royal Academy of Art and American Ballet Theatre. As a journalist, she has written for The Miami Herald, the St. Petersburg Times, and The New York Times, and traveled extensively in Mexico, Venezuela, and Spain. She has taught literacy to at-risk youth on the Salt River Indian Reservation in Arizona and in homeless shelters in New York City. Louisa received a BS in History and Science cum laude from Harvard College and an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University, where she was a Mortimer Zuckerman fellow.

 

Michelle Viegas | Director of Programs and Strategic Outreach

Michelle joined Worldfund after graduating from Harvard Law School in 2005. Previously she worked with the Organization of American States (OAS) and with Casals & Associates on a USAID initiative in Mexico. She also served as the Co-President of the Harvard Latin American Law Society and was a Chayes International Public Service Fellow and David Rockefeller Center of Latin American Studies grant recipient. Michelle graduated summa cum laude with a BA from the University of Notre Dame.

 

Elena Espinosa de los Reyes Wingate | Director of Worldfund Mexico

After 21 years working within Bancomext for the Mexican Government promoting trade and foreign investment, Elena has joined Worldfund as Director for Mexico. She got her undergraduate degree in economics at ITAM (Mexico City) followed by her Masters, also in economics, at the University of Kent, UK. At Colegio de Mexico she researched immigration, minimum wage, and income distribution issues. Other research at Banco de Mexico involved commercial policy. Elena has taught mathematics, statistics and economic development at the UNAM and Anahuac Universities. At Bancomext, Elena was Trade Commissioner in Atlanta, GA and London, UK. She has been the Bancomext Director for both Asia and North America. While in London she was Mexico's representative and alternate member of the board at the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development). In 1995 Elena won the International Woman of The Year Award in Atlanta, Ga.

 

Luiz Sergio Cardoso de Oliveira | Director of Worldfund Brazil

Luiz Sergio joined Worldfund in 2008 after having worked for a number of large industrial corporations in Brazil. He has served on the Board of Directors of several companies and has a strong background in the commercial sector and in new product development. Since 2001 he has been the founding director of a foundation maintained by Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer to support educational projects for economically underprivileged youth. Luiz Sergio graduated from the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and has a M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University.

 

Jim Citron | Director, Inter-American Partnership for Education

Jim, who joined Worldfund in 2007, has worked for over twenty years in language and intercultural education. Based in Hanover, NH where he is an Intercultural Education Specialist at Dartmouth College and a Master Teacher and Teacher Trainer for Dartmouth's Rassias Center for World Languages and Cultures, Jim has taught Spanish and Intercultural Communication at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels and has served in a variety of leadership capacities in international educational exchange in the United States and Mexico. Jim holds a Ph.D. in Educational Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania, an Ed.M. in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and a B.A. in Psychology and Spanish from Dartmouth College.

 

Erin Sawaya | Vice President of Development and Communications

Erin joined Worldfund in 2007. Previously, she worked at Metro Center, an education equity assistance center at New York University, and at Human Rights Watch. She also interned with the Migration Policy Institute and the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea in Washington, D.C. Erin received her MS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and graduated magna cum laude with a BA from Barnard College.

 

Lucy Prado | Office Manager

Lucy joined Worldfund in 2008 after graduating with a BA from New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. At Gallatin, she focused her area of concentration on Marketing and the Construction of the Latino Identity. She has volunteered as a tutor for several NYC public schools. Lucy graduated magna cum laude.