CENTRAL AMERICAN STAFF
Jorge was born in Managua in 1983 and continues to live there with his wife and daughter. He studied law at the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) and later went on to get a Masters in Non-Profit Administration at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, España (UAM).
The last 10 years he has worked as a professor of law and as a university administrator the past 10 years. At the same time he also coordinated a 3 year initiative by the Organization of American States (OAS) that worked with dozens of organizations dedicated to various programs, including the youth, violence, art, peace culture and education.
He currently forms part of the Evaluations Team, helping the project improve its methodology and conduct impact evaluations of organizations we are considering funding & collaborating with
Jorge Francisco Morales
Social Impact Coordinator
Evan Durand
Regional Director
Evan is originally from Athens, Ohio but settled in Granada, Nicaragua over a decade ago. Over the years he’s been an entrepreneur, project manager and bicultural consultant for individuals and business. In addition to spending time with his family, he currently serves as the director of our operations in Nicaragua and Guatemala.
While in the past Evan worked directly with artists and partner organizations, his latest role is developing and supporting our local team to manage operations. He also leads student and teacher trips, helps guide our strategy in the region, and spends time investigating high-impact organizations for the Pulsera Project to partner with!.
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Skarlette Bermudez
Artisan Advocate
Born and raised in Granada, Nicaragua. Skarlette is both local and has ample experience traveling and working throughout the Americas. She majored in Pedagogy at La Universidad Catolica and has over a decade of experience teaching. Before joining the PP she served as Educational Programs Director for different non-profits and has found a happy home with the PP.
Though Skarlette provides perspective on everything we do, her main focus is working directly with artisans and promoting their well-being. She oversees the formation of new artists groups, the purchase of their pulseras, and coordinates our health, housing and scholarship programs. When not in the field, she likes to spend her time with family, reading, watching movies, and gathering with friends.
U.S. STAFF
Chris Howell, Co-Founder
In addition to working with teachers across the country to coordinate pulsera sales, Chris heads the project’s educational mission in the U.S. He leads the project’s Educational Committee and has collaborated with Spanish teachers to develop the videos, activities, and lessons that we offer to all schools hosting pulsera sales.
Chris also plans and co-leads the teacher trips to Central America with Evan Durand. He wrote & developed the project’s core educational values, and is developing a guide that further examines the lessons we’ve learned over the past decade. He also manages inventory, films & edits the project’s growing video collection, and develops new initiatives for teachers to see the work we do in Nicaragua & Guatemala firsthand.
Colin Crane, Co-Founder
Colin led one of the first-ever pulsera sales while still attending American University in D.C. in 2010 and has been working to build and expand the Pulsera Project ever since.
Colin handles a wide range of essential tasks in the project, from creating all of our visual branding & design materials to managing the website and social media, coordinating pulsera sales with hundreds of teachers and university students each year, handling much of our U.S. accounting, co-creating all of our educational videos, acting as resident photographer, sending out retail orders, attending state & national language conferences, and getting covered in paint making our colorful sale folders and tri-fold displays.
Jillian Bonner, U.S. Administrator
Jillian joined the U.S. Operations team in 2013 to develop Spanish curriculum when the educational program was in its infancy. She has collaborated with teachers during trips to Nicaragua and the Educational Committee to grow this integral part of the project. She is proud to have watched the educational mission of The Pulsera Project come to fruition and to have enriched K-12 Spanish classrooms in all 50 states.
Jillian coordinates pulsera sales with teachers and students across the U.S., packs and ships every pulsera box, counts through mountains of pulseras, attends regional World Language conferences and takes care of the Pulsera mascot, Kennedy.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Daniela was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela and has spent the last 6 years living in Mexico and the US. She holds a Master’s in Public Administration and has over three years of experience in communications and marketing in non-profit organizations and technology firms. She received a Certificate in Social Enterprise Management and Impact Investment with the Frontier Market Scouts program and was connected to the Pulsera Project.
She spent two years helping design and implement the projects approach to evaluating social impact. She now serves as a volunteer member of our committee that oversees investments in projects, organizations, and community development initiatives.
Daniela Guerrero
Cathy McCauley
Cathy McCauley is the newest addition to the Pulsera Project's Board of Directors, joining us at the end of 2022.
Cathy has taught Bilingual, ELL and AP/IB Spanish courses over her 30 year career. She has worked with the Pulsera Project for over 10 years and has participated in two of the teacher trips to Central America, connecting with pulsera artisans and partner groups in both Nicaragua and Guatemala.
She has also represented the project at the AZLA and CLTA foreign language conferences on the project's behalf.
Sue Patterson, Co-Founder
Sue is the project's wonder-woman accounting guru, and handles all of the project's financial tasks! She works as a volunteer and dedicates hundreds of hours to the project on top of her full-time work as a software support team-leader for Ellucian.
Sue has been part of the project's unpaid staff since 2009, keeping track of school sales and Nicargua projects along with mountains of receipts. When Sue's sunny disposition isn't visiting the project's many artisans or educational partners, she and her husband Chris are scouting the Nicaraguan outback looking for new student trip adventures.
EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE
Cathy McCauley has taught Bilingual, ELL and AP/IB Spanish courses over her 30 year career. She has worked with the Pulsera Project for over 10 years and has participated in 2 of the teacher trips to Central America. She has also represented the project at the AZLA Spring conference. She is a current board member and looks to increase teacher usage of materials as well as expand the educational mission.
Cathy McCauley
Colleen Vallin
Colleen Vallin taught Spanish at the high school and middle school levels for 15 years in both Illinois and Minnesota. In 2022 she began teaching elementary Spanish Immersion. She has been involved with the Pulsera Project since 2018 by hosting yearly sales. She has also had the opportunity to represent the project at her state conference and travel with the Pulsera Project team to Guatemala. Her goal with her work on the education committee is to help promote the Pulsera Project within the elementary immersion community.
Kristen has been teaching French and Spanish for 24 years at Commack Middle School. She’s worked with the Pulsera Project since 2016, and particularly enjoys the Project's values of connecting cultures and "coloring the world" through education. Kristen is the Middle Years Programme Coordinator at an International Baccalaureate World School, and brings a globally-minded approach to education that builds intercultural understanding and respect for all. Kristen has been married for 22 years and has two children. Her daughter will be attending Ithaca College in the fall to play field hockey and her son is a junior in high school who loves playing football and basketball.
Kristen Kornweiss
PULSERA PETS
Kennedy
Kennedy joined the project in 2014 as our official puppy mascot. Her professional strengths include barking at delivery personnel, begging for food, supervising pulsera counting, and general adorableness.
She enjoys sleeping, playing frisbee with the US Operations team and going home at the end of the day.