Jana Radmann earned her M.A. in Latin American Studies in December 2016. She is a native of Rodgau near Frankfurt am Main in Germany. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Mainz, focusing on English Translation, Spanish and Italian. She holds an M.A. in Spanish Linguistics from Louisiana State University, where she also spent an exchange year as a teaching assistant in Spanish. Her thesis was entitled, 'Do You Speak English?: A Study on English Language Proficiency Testing of Hispanic Defendants in U.S. Criminal Courts.' In addition to serving as a TA at LSU, Jana taught Spanish for two years at St. Joseph's Academy in Baton Rouge and spent two semesters teaching a Latin American Studies course at Metairie Park Country Day School. Jana has studied and traveled in Spain, particularly in Seville and Madrid. At the Stone Center, Jana's research focus was on U.S.-Latin American Relations, Venezuela, neo-populism, and contemporary Latin American Politics. She presented her paper 'U.S.-Venezuelan Relations: Can They Recover?' at the 2009 SECOLAS conference held in New Orleans.

Sarah Mellman earned her M.A. in Latin American Studies in May 2017. After completing her M.A. program, Sarah enrolled in the doctoral program in Anthropology at Tulane.  She is also a 2012 graduate of The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA, where she earned her B.A. in Latin American Studies with a minor in Sociology.

During the calendar year of 2011, Sarah directly enrolled in the Social Sciences program at the Federal University of Bahia in Salvador, Brazil and became TEFL certified through a one-month intensive course in Rio de Janeiro. She also completed a two-month internship in the rural indigenous community of Las Salinas de Nagualapa in Rivas, Nicaragua through the Foundation for Sustainable Development and the Global Engagement Summer Institute at Northwestern University (2010). Sarah has founded and volunteered with education and sustainable development programs in Nicaragua, Argentina and Brazil, and she has worked as a freelance Portuguese, Spanish and English translator for 4 years.

In 2013 and 2014, Sarah was awarded two Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship grants for Brazil, where she taught college-level English language and American culture classes at the Federal University of Pará (2013) and at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (2014). During her second Fulbright year, she also served as a mentor to eleven first-year grantees in the southern region of Brazil.

At Tulane, Sarah has focused her research on indigenous ethnobotany, historical ecology, linguistic anthropology and bilingual intercultural education in the Brazilian Amazon.

Originally from Athens, Ohio, Alejandra earned her M.A. in Latin American Studies in May 2017. After earning her M.A., she entered the doctoral program in Medical Anthropology at Tulane. She also earned her B.A. in Political Science from Ohio University. Collectively, she has lived abroad for 8 years in Spain, France, and Latin America, and speaks English, Spanish, and French. In 2015, she was a volunteer for OU's Tropical Disease Institute in an effort to cure Chagas Disease in the south of Ecuador. She has an interest in public health, particularly in reproductive health issues. Her initial research focused in Chile, specifically in the urban migration of the Mapuche population into city-centers like Santiago and how current laws impede their upward mobility; but she has more recently concentrated her research in the area of Cuban public health.

Sarah Bruni earned her M.A. in Latin American Studies from the Stone Center at Tulane in December 2016. She also holds a BA in English literature from the University of Iowa and an MFA in fiction writing from Washington University. She has taught creative writing in St. Louis and New York, and volunteered as a writer-in-schools in San Francisco, and Montevideo, Uruguay. Her first novel," The Night Gwen Stacy Died," was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2013. Her translations have appeared in the Buenos Aires Review. Her research interests at Tulane focused on contemporary Latin American literature, memory, public space, and translation.

Originally from Seattle, Washington, Gwen Murray is also a 2004 graduate of Smith College, having majored in Government and Portuguese and having completed the Brazilian Studies Program. She earned her M.A. from the Stone Center in 2010 after completing a thesis entitled '(Re)Presenting the Periphery: Co-Production and Self-Representation in Contemporary Brazilian Television and New Media.' Gwen has traveled throughout Latin America and spent time in Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico and Puerto Rico. She has spent significant time in Brazil working and researching. Prior to joining the Stone Center, Gwen worked as the Development Coordinator and Public Relations Manager for the Dreams Can Be Foundation in Rio de Janeiro and served as a translator for Jeff Zimbalist's 2005 documentary film, Favela Rising. Since 2009, Gwen has served as an academic tutor and mentor for the Urban League College Track in New Orleans. At Tulane, Gwen focused her research on Brazil, media and development and democratization. She has presented her research at several conferences and also co-authored a book review of Pamela Wilson and Michelle Stewart's 2008 collection Global Indigenous Media: Cultures, Poetics and Politics along with Tulane Communication professor Vicki Mayer and fellow graduate student Melina Leodas. In 2009, she was the recipient of a summer research fellowship from the Tinker Foundation. During the 2010-2011 academic year, Gwen served as a Jones Scholar Intern for the Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives. After defending her dissertation entitled “Latino Families, Parental Engagement, and Public Education in New Orleans: How LEP Families Navigate a Decentralized Educational System and Make Decisions for Their Children,” Gwen graduated in May of 2017 with her Ph.D. in Latin American Studies.

Originally from Kentucky, Sarah Fouts earned her B.A. in History and Spanish from Centre College in 2003. After graduating from Centre College, Sarah served for almost four years in the Peace Corps in Paraguay as both a volunteer and volunteer coordinator. Upon her return from South America, Sarah worked with migrant workers as a bilingual liaison at a small non-profit in Kentucky. Since March 2011, Sarah has served as a volunteer and intern for the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice working specifically with the Congress of Day Laborers. In 2012, upon completion of her thesis entitled 'From Pupusas to Chimichangas: Exploring the Ways in which Food Contributes to the Creation of a Pan-Latino Identity,' Sarah received her M.S. from the University of New Orleans in Urban Studies focusing on Applied Anthropology. While at UNO, Sarah worked as a graduate assistant in the Anthropology and Geography Departments. Her research at the Stone Center focused on migrant workers, immigration in the southeastern United States, foodways, day laborers, civic participation, and globalization. Sarah speaks English, Spanish, and Guaraní. Upon graduating with her Ph.D. in May 2017, Sarah was awarded a one-year Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Latin American and Latino Studies at Lehigh University. Currently, Sarah is an Assistant Professor in American Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). For more information on Sarah’s research and scholarly interests, please visit her website.

Erin Lierl earned her M.A. in Latin American Studies at the Stone Center in May 2018 and her B.A. in Political Science and Latin American Studies from Loyola University New Orleans in 2008. She completed her teacher certification (CELTA) in 2009, and has taught in refugee communities in India and Thailand and at the secondary and tertiary levels in New Orleans. Erin has also worked as a poet in New Orleans and abroad and has self-published and marketed several poetry books. Erin taught part time in a New Orleans charter high school while pursuing her M.A. at the Stone Center. Her research focused on cultural production and social movements in the African Caribbean.