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Fr. Roy Bourgeois - SOA Watch Founder

Born in Lutcher, Louisiana, Fr. Roy served as a Naval Officer for two years before entering the seminary of the Maryknoll Missionary Order. Ordained a Catholic priest in 1972, Roy went on to work with the poor of Bolivia for five years before being arrested and forced to leave the country, then under the repressive rule of dictator and SOA grad General Hugo Banzer.

In 1980 Fr. Roy became involved in issues surrounding US policy in El Salvador after four US churchwomen--two of them friends of his--were raped and killed by Salvadoran soldiers. Roy became an outspoken critic of US foreign policy in Latin America. Since then, he has spent over four years in US federal prisons for nonviolent protests against the training of Latin American soldiers at Ft. Benning, Georgia. In 1990, Roy founded School of the Americas Watch. Read Fr. Roy's full bio here.

Hendrik Voss - National Organizer

Born in Germany, Hendrik started his political activism as part of the antifascist movement against the resurgence of nationalism and racist violence following the reunification of Germany in 1990. In order to avoid the military draft in his home country, he moved to the United States and started to work in the DC office of SOA Watch in 1999. Hendrik and his partner, Gail Taylor, spent seven months living in Guatemala and working with Puente de Paz, a mental health and human rights group that works with survivors of political and domestic violence. Puente de Paz works to empower women in indigenous communities as they reweave the social fabric torn apart during Guatemala's 36-year internal armed conflict.

Lisa Sullivan - Latin America Liaison

Lisa Sullivan has lived in Latin America since 1977. She worked for 21 years as a Maryknoll lay missioner in Venezuela and Bolivia, raising her three children in the barrios of Barquisimeto, Venezuela. She is the founder of the grassroots leadership group, Centro de Formación Rutilio Grande.

Lisa is currently the coordinador for Partnership America Latina (PAL). This initiative of SOAW seeks to connect North and South partners in the movement to close the School of the Americas and promote peace in the Americas. Lisa has helped to organize numerous SOAW delegations to meet with leaders in Latin America, leading to announcements of withdrawal from SOA of five countries.

Pablo is a Chilean human rights activist and journalist who lives in Santiago, Chile. During the 1990´s he worked in Chile with the Committee Against Impunity, seeking to bring to trial military who had committed human rights abuses during the dictatorship of General Pinochet. In 1999 he joined the Kamarikun Human Rights Committee and in 2002 became a member of the Human Rights Education Team of the Chilean branch of Amnesty International.

Pablo´s focus on the SOA began in 2000 when he spearheaded efforts of Kamarikun to seek the withdrawal of Chile from the SOA. He organized the visit of the SOAW delegation to Chile in 2006 and 2008, and joined several SOAW delegations to Colombia, Panamá and Ecuador. Currently, Pablo works as the Coordinator for SOA Watch's work in Latin America

Nico Udu-gama - Field Organizer

As an international human rights observer in Colombia,  Nico spent one year in the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, and three years with the communities in the Magdalena Medio, Arauca, Catatumbo and Bogotá.  Later, he worked with tenants facing displacement in Brooklyn, NY, and spent time with the villages resisting the Apartheid Wall in Palestine.  He loves learning languages, eating, day-dreaming of a better world and spending time with his friends, family and his lovely Carmen.

Jenna McElroy - Operations & Development Coordinator

Jenna joined the organization from the Philadelphia area, where she completed her Masters in Social Service and Masters in Law & Social Policy at Bryn Mawr College. Prior to graduate school, she spent some time in Nayarit, Mexico where she witnessed the immediate impact of the "drug war" as it moved into Tepic. Following her time in Mexico, she spent some time with No Mas Muertes in the Sonoran Desert, with the ACLU in San Diego, and with Juntos in Philadelphia, where she learned from communities as they organized and fought back against divisive and racist legislation. Jenna is excited to be a part of the movement and maybe if there's a minute, to learn a thing or two about dance!

Dominique Diaddigo-Cash - Intern

Dominique began interning for the organization in January 2013, after moving from Minneapolis, where he helped to facilitate the growth of an ecological movement for people of color in urban areas, protested with the American Indian Movement, and supported the actions of Occupy Homes.  He first learned about SOA Watch after the coup in Honduras ousted Manuel Zelaya in 2009, and has been following us in the news and through our own media, as well as organizing teach-ins and distributing literature ever since.  Dominique joined us at Ft. Benning for the first time in 2012, and is eager to gain greater hands-on experience in supporting our struggle.

Arturo J. Viscarra - Advocacy Coordinator

Arturo was born in El Salvador, but was forced to leave with his family due to the civil war. His family lived in Guatemala and Colombia before permanently resettling in the U.S. He studied International Relations at the University of Delaware before obtaining a Master's in International Relations and a Juris Doctor from Boston University. He has spent the last 5 years practicing immigration law, which has allowed him to better understand the root causes that make Central Americans emigrate to the U.S. - principally the disastrous US-sponsored military and economic policies. The SOA graduate-led Honduran coup of 2009 outraged and inspired Arturo to transform from an observer into an activist.

Rachel Reist - Intern

Rachel started interning for SOA Watch in May 2013 as part of her Masters program in Peace and Conflict Studies at Conrad Grebel College in Ontario, Canada. Rachel first became involved in the movement in 2007 when she first participated in the vigil. Following this first experience, she traveled to Nicaragua in 2008 on a solidarity and service visit. In the summer of 2012, Rachel lived in El Salvador for two months as part of a solidarity group founded on the idea that "while we can't think ourselves into new ways of living, we can live ourselves into new ways of thinking". These experiences have led her to intern with SOA Watch and Rachel is looking forward to being involved in the movement more directly and to have the opportunity to contribute her skills, passion and enthusiasm, as well as apply what she has been studying in university.