Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian: "Don't Thank Me, Pay It Forward"

Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian is Director of the Department of Social Inclusion of the Organization of American States (OAS). She has a Ph.D. in Political Science from Florida International University, Miami, FL and a Master’s in International Relations from the University of South Florida, Tampa, FL. She has conducted research and published various contributions on issues of democracy, dialogue and conflict resolution and the political participation of women, among other topics. More recently, her focus has been on issues of social inclusion and equity in the Americas. Some of her recent publications include the book Women, Politics and Democracy in Latin America, published by Palgrave McMillan (NY, NY) in January 2017, and the book Equity and Social Inclusion: Overcoming Inequalities towards more Inclusive Societies, published by the OAS in 2017 as well. Betilde is also a Judge of the Intercultural Innovation Award of the United Nations Organization, and the BMW group, and a Member of the UN Women Reference Group to evaluate the strategy for promoting women’s leadership and political representation at the global level. In 2008 and again in 2016, she received the Outstanding Performance Award of the OAS General Secretariat in recognition of her extraordinary performance and contributions to the institution.

Betilde is also one of the founders and coordinators of a network of women in political science called Red de Politólogas. She also recently debuted as a columnist of El Nacional and Caracas Chronicles focusing on Venezuela's migration crisis. It would be impossible to count all the ways that she has helped young women in their career as a mentor; that is why we wanted to start the mentoring section with her bio. Thank you very much, dear Betica!

Stay tuned and follow her on twitter: @BeticaMunozPogo