Reflections on Peacebuilding in Colombia and Security in Latin America

Mauricio Artiñano (A’06, EPIIC’04) currently serves with the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, where he has been Mission Planning Officer, Special Assistant to the Head of Mission, and Senior Reporting Officer; he also leads the Mission’s youth engagement strategy. Mauricio has served with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), and the UN Mission in Colombia, the predecessor to the current verification mission. From 2008 to 2009, Mauricio was a diplomat for Costa Rica during its term as elected member of the United Nations Security Council.

Helaina Stein graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University in 2010 with a B.A. in International Relations. At Tufts, she was a member of the 2007-2008 EPIIC Class, an EMPOWER Fellow of the IGL, and a recipient of the IR Department’s Distinguished Achievement in International Relations Award. During her undergraduate studies, Helaina connected students with community development initiatives and research opportunities in Haiti, interned for the Becket Fund at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, and interned with the Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. After graduating, Helaina was a Princeton-in-Africa fellow in Kigali, Rwanda, where she coordinated university mentoring and capacity-building programs. Helaina joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 2012 as a political officer. In her first two assignments in Nigeria and Argentina, she monitored bilateral and multilateral security assistance, oversaw civil-military developments, adjudicated visas, and trained immigration officials in fraud prevention. Helaina is currently a U.S. Representative at the Organization of American States, where she advances U.S. policy and programs in support of citizen security in the Western Hemisphere at the OAS Committee on Hemispheric Security. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Security Studies at Georgetown University.