PRESIDENT

Careen Shannon was born in California; raised mostly in New York and New Jersey; has lived in Denmark, France and Japan; and now lives full-time in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. She earned her B.A. in English, French and East Asian Studies from Oberlin College, and her J.D. from the public interest-focused City University of New York (CUNY) Law School (whose motto is “Law in the Service of Human Needs”). For 30 years, she practiced immigration law in the United States, most recently as a partner in the world’s largest immigration law firm, where her focus was on pro bono management, corporate communications, thought leadership and immigration policy analysis. Careen was an Adjunct Professor of Immigration Law for more than a decade, and has authored several books and hundreds of articles on topics related to immigration and global mobility. She has also served on the Board of Directorsor as a Special Advisor to several other nonprofit organizations that focus on migration, international education, and human rights.

VICE PRESIDENT

Dr. Daniel Neuspiel is child of a refugee and immigrant, and has been a lifelong advocate for migrant justice.  He attained BA and MD degrees from Rutgers University.  Dr. Neuspiel completed residency training in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, followed by a fellowship in epidemiology and MPH degree at the University of Pittsburgh.  He retired from a career in academic general pediatrics in New York and North Carolina in June 2017, and is Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at Atrium Health. Upon retirement, Dr. Neuspiel and his wife moved to San Miguel de Allende.  He joined the Board of Directors of LARF in 2018, and currently serves as Vice President of LARF.

TREASURER

Dr. Hernán (aka Nano) Drobny was born in Santiago, Chile. He immigrated to the USA and is a naturalized citizen. He attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and specialized in Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan. He taught and practiced clinical medicine there for more than 30 years. In 2002 he started one of the first consulting practices as a patient advocate by a physician. He wrote Your Health, Your Choice (2nd edition 2017) which offers the tools to empower individuals to more effectively participate in making their own health care decisions. He lives with his wife in Ann Arbor, Michigan and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He joined the Board of Directors of LARF in 2020. He also is a member of the Board of Directors of the Charco del Ingenio in San Miguel.

SECRETARY

Rebecca N. Eichler has over 20 years of experience practicing immigration law in the Washington DC area and providing disaster legal aid around the world, working with clients seeking protection under U.S. & international law.  After Trump was elected and on the heels of a year-long road trip from Virginia to Panama in a VW van with her husband Paul Carlino and two young teens, her family moved to San Miguel in January 2018. She founded Language Adventure Pros providing Spanish for Lawyers courses, brews and sells Real Good Kombucha and volunteers as a human rights advocate, advising deportees from the U.S, migrants in transit, and asylum seekers at the US border.

MEMBER AT LARGE

Cat Silverstein has more than 30 years’ experience in project/program management, business development, strategic planning, organizational development, and capacity building in over 25 countries worldwide. Her areas of technical expertise span Economic Growth, Enterprise Development and Finance, Systems Change, Scaling-Up Methods, and Sustainable Development. As Technical Director at Management Systems International, Ms. Silverstein specialized in scaling-up methods to achieve large-scale policy and organizational change, and provided technical expertise in results-based strategic management and performance improvement for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), US Federal Government, and NGO clients. As QED’s Practice Leader for Economic Growth, she managed a global project portfolio and provided strategic direction, technical leadership and project oversight for USAID, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and other donor-funded projects. As Managing Director of Enterprise Resource Group, Inc., she founded and built a successful economic development and management consulting firm, managing and implementing projects on four continents worldwide.

MEMBER AT LARGE

Mario Arturo Hernández Peña, a native of San Miguel de Allende, is the Director General of El Charco del Ingenio, a botanical garden in San Miguel whose mission is to protect and improve Mexico's natural heritage. Mario earned an undergraduate degree in sociology from the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, and a Master's degree in watershed management from the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro. Mario has held several positions at the Director level in civil organizations in San Miguel, including at Save the Children and Audobon. He was also previously a community organizer for the government of the State of Guanajuato. 

MEMBER AT LARGE

Sandy Furrh moved to San Miguel de Allende in 2017 after retiring from her psychotherapy practice in Memphis, Tennessee. In response to the US-funded wars in Central America and the proliferation and threat of nuclear weapons, she began to work with the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center, a multi-issue organization dedicated to organizing and mobilizing communities in the Mid-South and abroad to work for social justice. With the invasion of Iraq in 2003, she switched her focus to protesting and organizing against the US’ war-driven policies and action.
After moving to Mexico, she joined the board of the Latin American Relief Fund (LARF) and served as the board president of Caminamos Juntos (CJ), an organization that helped deported Mexican individuals and families resettle in the San Miguel de Allende area.

MEMBER AT LARGE

Ezequiel Mojica is one of the most experienced figures in the field of civil associations and philanthropy within the San Miguel de Allende community. For thirty years, he has served various nonprofit organizations as a volunteer, board member, employee, and consultant.His extensive background includes six years as Program Coordinator of CASA A.C.; Vice President of the Board of Hospice San Miguel; member of the Board of Directors of LIBROS PARA TODOS A.C.; and Director of the Fundación Comunitaria Don Diego. For the past 21 years, he has served as the Executive Director and Founder of Apoyo a Gente Emprendedora A.C. Ezequiel’s altruistic commitment to the community has earned him several prestigious honors. In 2015, he was named "Citizen of the Year" by the Midday Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende. In 2017, his project won the National Ashoka Award in the Social Entrepreneurship category.A recognized speaker, Ezequiel has delivered lectures and talks on social entrepreneurship throughout Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Born in a rural community to migrant parents, he has personally navigated the challenges of economic migration. This lived experience provides him with the unique perspective and sensitivity needed to bring invaluable depth to the Latin American Relief Fund.

MEMBER AT LARGE

Katrina Leestma is originally from Chicago, Illinois, but lived in Northern California for more than 30 years. As a nurse and therapist she had a 25+year career working in healthcare, specifically with community-based public health nonprofit organizations, with an emphasis on underserved populations, social determinants of health and complex case management. While in college in the 1980s she studied and lived in San Miguel de Allende, studying Spanish at the Academia Hispano Americana and printmaking at the Bellas Artes. Katrina returned to SMA in the 1990s to volunteer at CASA, where she apprenticed with local midwives. Previous toworking in healthcare, Katrina was a visual artist in the San Francisco Bay area. She holds a B.A. in Spanish Literature/Art from Bennington College, an M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute, and an M.A. in counseling psychology from Palo Alto University. She attended Cabrillo College in Aptos, CA for her RN degree. Katrina is passionate about travel, her service work, and now her artwork. She has had a long love affair with Mexico and now happily lives in San Miguel de Allende full-time.

Rhonda Berkower

Sher and Gary Davidson

Hope Frye

Robin Loving

Robert Merropol

Honey Sharp