The Impact of Terrorist Attacks on U.S.-Mexico Relations

Dr. Susan Kaufman Purcell - Speaker
Vice President, Council of the Americas

Since 1994, Dr. Susan Kaufman Purcell has been Vice President of the Council of the Americas, the leading U.S. business organization dedicated to promoting regional economic integration, free trade, open markets and the rule of law in Latin America and the Caribbean. She also has served as Vice President of the Council's sister organization, the Americas Society, a not-for-profit educational institution focusing on Latin America and Canada.

In addition to her work for the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society, Dr. Purcell has done extensive consulting on Latin American economic trade, investment and political issues for U.S. corporations including AT&T, AT Kearney, Citicorp, The Chrysler Corporation, Ernst & Young, IBM, Sara Lee Corporation, Texaco, Tiffany & Co. and Xerox Corporation, and for foreign companies including Bank of Tokyo, SmithKline Beecham and Toyota.

Dr. Purcell is a member of the Board of Directors of Valero Energy Corporation, a Fortune 500 company based in San Antonio, Texas. She is also a Director of the Argentina Fund, the Brazil Fund, the Korea Fund, the Scudder New Asia Fund and the Scudder Global High Income Fund, and was a Director of the Latin America Dollar Income Fund (1992-98) and Scudder World Income Opportunities Fund (1994-98). Her service on non-profit boards includes the National Endowment for Democracy (1990-99), Freedom House and the Women's Foreign Policy Group. She is also a member of the advisory board of the Inter-American Foundation.

Dr. Purcell was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York (1981-88). Between January 1980 and June 1981, Dr. Purcell was a member of the U.S. Department of State's Policy Planning Staff, serving under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. She was a tenured professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles (1969-79). She was also a visiting professor at Columbia University (1981). She holds a BA degree in Spanish and Latin American literature from Barnard College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and MA and Ph.D. degrees in political science from Columbia University.

A recognized authority on Latin America, Dr. Purcell has written, co-authored or co-edited ten books. The most recent ones are Cuba: the Contours of Change (2000), Mexico Under Zedillo (1998), Brazil Under Cardoso (1997), Europe and Latin America in the World Economy (1994), Japan and Latin America in the New Global Order (1992) and Latin America: U.S. Policy After the Cold War (1991). She has published more than sixty articles on Latin American economic, trade, political and foreign policy issues.

Dr. Purcell is a member of the Economic Club of New York, the Financial Women's Association and the Council on Foreign Relations.

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