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.

CURRENT STAFF & VOLUNTEERS

Rob Tuebner and Elly Goetz, Current
Rob and Elly are co-directors. Rob was born in Washington, D.C., then quickly moved overseas with his parents. Since 1980, Rob has lived in Botswana, Panama, Guatemala, Ivory Coast, Paraguay, Ecuador and the United States. He graduated from Hampden-Sydney College in 2003 and joined the Peace Corps, working as an Agro-forestry volunteer for two years in Paraguay and another year in Ecuador, focusing on watershed management. Rob then returned to the U.S. to teach science and environmental education classes to inner city school children in Brooklyn. Elly, a native of Durham, North Carolina, attended the University of Colorado, Boulder. Upon graduating, she remained at the university to teach sociology and work for an inter-disciplinary service-learning program that trains college students to be effective leaders for social justice and sustainability. In 2005, Elly taught English in Ecuador, where she and Rob first meet. She recently finished her graduate degree in Environmental Planning at Pratt Institute. Rob and Elly are currently living in El Pital, Honduras and will be working there for the next two and half years.

Ken Hutz, 2000-present
Ken is the founder of Un Mundo and served as the Executive Director for many years. Currently, Ken is on Un Mundo's Board of Directors. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in history and minoring in philosophy. After traveling throughout Central and South America, Ken lived in Honduras for five years, where he founded a guest ranch, Finca Papagayo, and Un Mundo. Ken then returned to the U.S. 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.

Tim Watson, 2002-present
Tim is Un Mundo’s Financial Director and on the Board of Directors. 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 publishes our newsletter and web pages. In addition to helping Un Mundo, Margaret works as a technical writer and editor.

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 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.

Rachel McIntire, 2003-Present
Rachel McIntire is an artist originally from Northern California who has been engaged in the study of art, culture and education for more than ten years. Before pursuing her master's degree from Harvard's School of Education, Rachel played a fundamental role in developing a cadre of art-based programs serving youth throughout the Bay Area. Rachel has worked to create art programs that activate youth as a viable resource in their community through public art works and exhibitions. She has a particular interest in using art as a tool for cultural understanding, transcending the constructs of society, and engaging individuals in a dialogue for positive social change.

Rachel has worked nationally and internationally in Mexico City, Seoul, Korea, and Honduras, where she has continued her research on the role of the arts in community development, exploring how the arts can promote transformative dialogues in public space. Rachel and partner Amanda Lichtenstein co-founded Break Arts (www.breakarts.org), an international arts and education collaborative, in 2005. Currently, Rachel is the art faculty at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in San Francisco.

PAST STAFF & VOLUNTEERS

Dan Keane and Kendra Curry, November 2004-April 2005
Dan and Kendra were co-facilitators in El Pital. Dan grew up in Phoenix and spent three years as an award-winning journalist in Texas. He has a BA in Environmental Science from Columbia University, and studied at the Biosphere 2 Center in Arizona. He has also worked as a hand on a Colorado dude ranch, a blues deejay in New York City, a salmon packer in Alaska, and most recently as an English teacher in Oaxaca. Kendra is a Mainer and Texan by heart. She is trained in community art education and studied sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she helped pilot the Community Arts Partnership. She interned at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX. Kendra has extensive experience painting murals and using art in public spaces to beautify and educate. She recently worked for Francisco Toledo's painting program at the State Prison in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Ronald Reinds, 2004-2005
Ronald and his girlfriend Lise Winters have been in Honduras since 2003. He met Ken Hutz at one of the Cinema Campesino film festivals in El Pital and then decided to offer his expertise in film and audiovisual arts to help facilitate this program. After securing funding from the Dutch foundation HIVOS, Ronald went about setting up a system of traveling film festivals in various communities throughout Honduras. He is currently seeking funding to open a Cinema Campesino film institute in Honduras. Ronald studied audiovisual design in Holland and has made films for museums in Holland. He has also worked for Dutch television and for the Audiovisual Archive in Holland.

Hilde Susan Jaegtnes, 2003-2004
Hilde was born in Pennsylvania and at age 7 moved to Norway, where she finished high school. She has since studied mathematics, philosophy and environmental science at the University of Oslo, and acting and music in London. She has worked as a nanny in France, on a farm in Iceland, at a law firm in Oslo, at a hotel in Key West, at an investment company in Switzerland — and has written two novels. Hilde visited El Pital during the summer of 2003 and again in 2004, where she designed and implemented educational workshops promoting critical consciousness around the issues of languages, theatre, music, computers, environmental science, journalism, and animal husbandry.

Kate Venner, 2003 to 2004
Kate was an Un Mundo on-site facilitator in El Pital, Honduras, from April 2003 to October 2004, touching the lives of many Hondurans and developing several Un Mundo projects along the way. Kate’s dedication to the people of the Cangrejal River Valley was unequaled. Kate significantly expanded the organization’s reach by establishing strong partnerships with the surrounding communities, all the while advancing the ongoing work of Un Mundo in El Pital. Kate, a native of the United Kingdom, graduated with a dual degree in English Literature and Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Adults from the University of Wales. She also received an NCTJ Post Graduate Journalism diploma. Before coming to El Pital, Kate worked as the assistant editor of a newspaper in Bolivia and helped manage a bookshop in Ireland. She currently lives in England.

Bertin Lobo, 2002-2006
Bertin has been Un Mundo's general contractor and do-it-all guy in Honduras. He helped to start the construction of a high school. On the weekends he is center forward for a third-division professinal soccer team. Bertin lives in El Pital with his wife Celinda and sure-to-be-professional-soccer-player son, Richie.

Holly Meyers, 2001 to 2002
In September 2001, Holly Meyers signed on as the first-ever Un Mundo on-site facilitator. Holly brought to her work two years of Peace Corps experience in Zimbabwe, Africa; a year of teaching experience in the U.S.; and sensitivity to the many issues that make development work an art rather than a science. Un Mundo and many folks in Honduras are grateful for the service of such a caring and talented person in this challenging volunteer position, which paved the way for our current on-site volunteers.

Adonis Lobo, 2000-2002
Adonis worked with Un Mundo at its inception. He grew up on the north coast of Honduras in the town of El Pital, where he graduated first in his high school class. Adonis is currently living in England, where he is an apprentice carpenter; and studying English; and a roadie to a salsa group; and, from what we hear, raising eye brows on the soccer field. His industry and sensitivity have been indispensable to the success of Un Mundo's operations in Honduras