Jenny Villatoro is the current director of programs where she leads the strategy behind the Council’s calendar of public programming. Jenny previously served as a program manager for the Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative. Her main policy areas included economic development in Northern Central America, gender-based violence in Central America and Mexico, domestic immigration policy, and North American trade. Jenny’s policy interests focus on the nexus of challenges that span across issue-areas, such as the nexus between gender-based violence, economic development, democracy, and immigration. In her undergrad, Jenny was a “Delegada” or delegate, for the University of Texas at Dallas Center for U.S./Latin American Initiatives which promotes research and educational initiatives in Latin American studies and works to strengthen the intellectual and cultural connections between students and faculty at UT Dallas and their Latin American counterparts. Jenny has a Master of Science in international political economy with an area focus on Development in Latin America from the University of Texas at Dallas and a Bachelor of Science, also in International Political Economy from UTD.