The Un Mundo family is comprised of many experienced, dynamic and dedicated people all working to further the visions and goals of the organization. Following are brief bios of Un Mundo volunteers, with the dates of their involvement in Un Mundo.

Core Staff

Elly Goetz, Executive Director, 2007 - Present Community organizer, educator and environmental planner, Elly Goetz is committed to cultivating community leaders and social and environmental justice in the U.S. and abroad.  In Colorado, Elly trained college students to be effective and sustainable leaders inside and outside of the classroom as a faculty member at the University of Colorado and a legislative aide to the Assistant Majority Leader of the Colorado State Legislative body.  In 2005, Elly moved to Ecuador where she educated students on important social issues through participatory hands-on English classes, developing a profound connection to Latin America and its people.  Before moving to Honduras, Elly worked at Pratt Center for Community Development in New York City providing under-represented populations the tools to make empowered decisions about their communities.  With a M.S. from Pratt Institute in Environmental and Community-Based Planning and BA from the University of Colorado (CU) in Sociology and Community Leadership Development, Elly brings extensive experience in community planning processes and developing sustainable leadership.  Elly has been serving as the Executive Director with Un Mundo since 2007 and currently lives in El Pital with her Honduran family Ramon, Lourdes, and Joselin.

Carl Smith Hunnicutt, Volunteer Coordinator, Jan. 2010 - PresentCarl grew up in Asheville, NC.  He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in Sociology and a minor in Social and Economic Justice.  Through his time at UNC, he was able to cultivate his passion for social justice and improving race relations in the United States.  In 2007, Carl was the Marketing and Development intern at A Helping Hand in Chapel Hill, NC, a local non-profit that focuses on supporting the geriatric community.  After graduating in 2008, he moved to Washington, D.C. and worked as a Campaign Director with Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. specializing in running field outreach campaigns for different progressive, non-profit organizations.  His drive to achieve and promote equality and social awareness has lead him to work with Un Mundo.

Heather Clark, Communications & Development Director, 2010 - PresentHeather, originally from Bradenton, Florida, attended Florida Gulf Coast University where she earned a Bachelors of Social Work.  Throughout college, Heather worked to raise awareness about civil and human rights violations in the United States and internationally through educational efforts and promoting legislation regarding human trafficking.  Additionally, she worked as a victim's advocate and counselor at a domestic violence shelter and rape crisis center where she was involved in outreach education, crisis intervention and advocacy.  In 2008, she volunteered at an orphanage in rural Guatemala where Heather fell in love with the people and culture of Latin America.  Before moving to Honduras, Heather lived in Washington, D.C. working as a Campaign Director at Grassroots Campaigns, Inc., a political consulting firm that focuses on fundraising and awareness campaigns for various progressive non-profit organizations. 

Benjamin Henle, Cultural and Art Festival Coordinator, 2010Benjamin grew up in a little town just outside of Stuttgart, Germany. In 2004, Benjamin left for Australia to “travel for a few months.”  He ended up staying for a year and almost another to travel all over South East Asia, where he learned most of his English skills and broadened his horizons. He became fascinated by the simple lifestyles, foreign cultures and exploring wildlife and was amazed by how tangible life is in the developing countries of South East Asia. Since then, he has been travelling whenever he can. In 2007, Benjamin began to study International Communications in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Before joining the Un Mundo team, Benjamin studied in Monterrey, Mexico, where he took a course in Anthropology and learned to speak Spanish. Benjamin is currently living in El Pital coordinating Un Mundo’s Annual Arts and Cultural Festival, ARTE_RIO.

Board of Directors

Jamie Rezmovits, Board Chair, 2009 - PresentJamie is an artist, educator, and attorney.  At the University of Colorado, she worked as a faculty member for the INVST Community Studies Department where she trained community leaders to work for the benefit of humanity and the environment. Additionally she taught with the Civic Education Program at Northwestern University, combining education and community service to promote civic responsibility among young people. Most recently, she fostered global and cross-cultural knowledge and understanding as an International Trip Leader with the LEAP Now Program, in affiliation with the New College of California. She currently works as an Associate Attorney with the Scheitler & Elio law firm in Denver, Colorado. Jamie is also working as the Project Director for the Global Youth Forums Project, seeking to involve and empower youth from all over Kenya by creating opportunities for leadership development and increased civic engagement in local, regional and national issues.

Paul O'Hainle, Treasurer, 2009 - PresentPaul grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended UC Berkeley as an undergraduate, earned a law degree at UC Davis, an LLM in tax law at the University of Washington, and practiced law in Seattle before returning to California as an undefeated trial lawyer (1-0). Currently Paul works at Plagemen Lund & Cannon, LLP in Oakland, California.

Ken Hutz, Secretary and Founder, 2000-presentKen is the founder of Un Mundo and served as the Executive Director of Un Mundo for many years. Currently, Ken is on Un Mundo's Board of Directors. Ken received a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in history and minoring in philosophy and earned a law degree from the University of California, Davis. He now splits his time between working as an appellate attorney for indigent defendants and helping realize the mission of Un Mundo.

Rachel McIntire, 2003-PresentBefore pursuing her Master’s Degree from Harvard’s School of Education, Rachel McIntire played a fundamental role in developing a cadre of art-based programs serving youth throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including the art program at the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula, The International Art Alliance, and East Palo Alto Mural Art Project. She has partnered with organizations such as Educacion Publica in Mexico City in the Department of International Relations developing public arts curricula that supports youth in border transmigration and is the co-founder of several non-profit organizations including Break Arts International and REV-.

Nathan Johnston, 2009 - PresentNathan is both the director and co-founder of the Small World Project, an ongoing workshop series piloted in Hong Kong and California secondary schools in 2008-2009 which is designed to connect students around the globe through short video production and online collaborations. Nathan has earned degrees in the areas of Computer Science (Bachelor of Science, Stanford University) and Arts In Education (Master of Education, Harvard University), and has worked between technology and education at Apple Computer and Study Abroad Italy.

Joshua Spetter, 2009 - PresentJosh is from Dayton, Ohio and is pursuing a Masters Degree in Sustainable Development from SIT Graduate Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont. He has been working for governmental and non-governmental organizations in Latin America for the last eight years in the areas of beekeeping, conservation agriculture, food security, maternal and child health, training design, fundraising and program management. Several of those years were spent as a Peace Corp Volunteer and Manager.

Rob Tuebner, 2007 - PresentAfter years of living in Africa, Central America, the US and upon graduating from Hampton Sydney College, Rob Tuebner served in the Peace Corps for two years developing agro-forestry projects in Paraguay and one year in Ecuador working for a watershed management organization. Following his Peace Corps service, Rob taught environmental education to inner city youth in Brooklyn, NY. In 2008 Rob moved to Honduras and served as the Co-Executive Director for Un Mundo from 2007 until 2010.  As Director, among many other contributions, Rob played an imperative role in the construction of the first public high school in the Cangrejal Valley, Un Mundo’s largest project to date.  Rob is currently living in Boston, MA completing his Master in International Sustainable Development at Brandies University.

Advisors

Tim Watson, 2002-present Tim is Un Mundo if the former Financial Director and Board of Directors Chair and long-time member and most importantly organization co-founder. He received a bachelor's degree in history, with an emphasis in Latin American Studies, from Boston College and a law degree from the University of California, Davis. As a paralegal, law student and lawyer,Tim has represented hundreds of Central American immigrants and refugees in their immigration proceedings. After working for a few years
as a corporate stiff in Silicon Valley, he moved to Oaxaca, Mexico, where he helped arrange loans to marginalized indigenous women in southern Mexico. Tim has made several trips to Honduras and now works at the San Francisco law firm of Watson and Lanctot, LLP.

Margaret Hutz, 2000-present
Margaret has been involved with Un Mundo since day one. She is currently serving as the office manager and also helps with the Un Mundo newsletter and web pages. In addition to helping Un Mundo, Margaret works as a technical writer and editor.

Brian Goetz, Education Coordinator & Facilitator
Brian was born and raised in Wheaton, IL, in the heart of suburban sprawl spreading west of Chicago. At an early age he became fascinated by the possibilities proposed by music and poetry. While attending the University of Wisconsin in Madison, he majored in Comparative Literature and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. There, an intense interest in the peoples, rhythms and geography of the America previously unknown to him drew him in like a magnet. He studied in Santiago, Chile, and hitch-hiked north and south along that country, meeting many wonderful people; spending time in solitude in the desert, mountains and Patagonian forests; and witnessing the hard realities that all of Latin America has suffered at the hands of the rest of the world for half a millennium. After playing guitar in a Madison–based funk and reggae band, Chafo, for a couple of years and completing his degree, he came across Un Mundo and contacted Rob and Elly to express his interest in working in Honduras, a decision based on his shared philosophy, hatred of injustice, and love for people.

Maureen Taylor, Environmental Health Coordinator & Facilitator
Maureen is originally from the Philadelphia area. She studied sociology at the University of Colorado, where she first discovered her love of travel and of understanding other people and cultures. She has worked with the I Have a Dream Foundation, helping to tutor and mentor youth in the Boulder, Colo., area. During her time in Boulder she also interned with Boulder County Social Services, helping and mentoring children who have been in and out of foster care. Her love of volunteering and traveling took her to Ecuador, where she volunteered on a spectacled bear reservation, helping to reintroduce the endangered bears to the area. Recently she has spent time in Central America, studying Spanish in Guatemala and volunteering in Nicaragua. She hopes to pursue a degree in nursing after returning from her experience in Honduras. She would like to continue traveling to countries where health professionals are hard to find but desperately needed.

Melissa Bride, 2002-present
After a 12-year Spanish teaching career, Mel, shown far right with co-op head Rosario Lobo (left) and "Mama" (center), the late Lobo family matriarch, shifted her focus to international development through microbusiness and has served as US Representative for Sales and Marketing for the Juan Pablo Segundo Sewing Cooperative since 2002, visiting the co-op annually. While those in El Pital focus on finding in-country outlets for the growing line of products made by the women of the co-op, Mel has focused Stateside on spreading the word about the importance of supporting microbusineses like the co-op by speaking at churches, schools and benefit dinners. She has recently gained Fair Trade Federation certification for the co-op, which provides new outlets for co-op products. In June 2004, Mel led a group of 12 volunteers to El Pital to see the co-op and work in the community.

Meredith Ferrill and Evan Cauble-Johnson, 2008-Present
Evan manages the Team in Training fundraising campaign for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in Chicago, Illinois. He enjoys music, particularly classical and jazz, and teaches guitar to children and young adults. Meredith lives in Chicago, Illinois, and attends DePaul University, where she is pursuing her Masters in Writing and Publishing. She has studied ballet and jazz for sixteen years and currently has a work-study internship at Visceral Dance Chicago. She traveled to El Pital in July 2008 to teach five weeks of dance classes, and she returned in December to lead a dance concert in the community.