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Bolivia: Culture and Development

Faculty and Staff

Heidi Baer-Postigo, Academic Director

Heidi Baer-Postigo received her MS in Counseling from the University of Oregon in 1995 and her BA in Psychology from Occidental College in 1991.  Her previous experience in Bolivia includes working for several NGOs in La Paz, as a school counselor for S.O.S. Children's Villages, and as a volunteer for the Center for Development and Promotion of Self-Help (CEDEFOA).  Ms. Baer-Postigo's interviews with Aymara women participants of the Centro Femenino Machaq Q'hantati were published in Women: Stories of an Experience (1993) by Silvia Salinas Mulder.  In addition, Ms. Baer-Postigo's overseas experience includes living four years in Germany and eight months in Mexico.  From 1995-1998 Heidi worked at the University of Oregon as an International Student Advisor and as an Overseas Study Program Coordinator.  In Oregon she also worked as a counselor at Lane Community College, where she founded and coordinated a Latino Outreach Project for English as a Second Language students.  Ms. Baer-Postigo has been an Academic Director for SIT in Bolivia since spring 1999.

Ismael Saavedra, Academic Director

Ismael Saavedra's experience and knowledge of his native Bolivia was formed through his careers; first as an Air Force pilot, then as a student of law and law professor, and eventually through his film career.  He received his BA in Law at the University of San Andres, La Paz, in 1977 where he went on to receive his PhD in Political Science and Law in 1980.  After leaving Bolivia in 1980, he dedicated himself to his work in ethnographic and documentary film production.  Among his many film credits, he has worked on Deception (Academy Award, 1992), Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Academy Award nomination, 1984), Chuquiago (a classic Bolivian ethnographic film, 1976), and Landscapes of Memory (prizes at Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals, 1997).  In Mr. Saavedra's own words, he has always seen his film work as an effort to educate the world about the problems of his own country, Latin America and the world. Mr. Saavedra has been an Academic Director for SIT in Bolivia since fall 1999.