Review Committee

The Américas Award is awarded based on the input of the Américas Award Review Committee, the members of which serve three-year terms.

Julia Byrd, Co-Chair (2025-2027)
Julia Byrd is the Associate Director at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) at the University of California, Berkeley. She has experience in philanthropy and educational programs in the U.S. and in Latin America, working with U.S. universities and community-based non-profit organizations. At CLACS, she manages and develops grant and endowment programs; administers student fellowships; and oversees programs, staff and daily operations. She oversees CLACS outreach efforts, partnering with units across campus and the United States. She created the Nahuatl and Mam language programs at Berkeley in collaboration with community groups to serve Berkeley students and the broader Bay Area. Julia has degrees from Wesleyan University and Stanford University in Latin American Studies. She is also a parent of two children in elementary school and spends what feels like hours every day reading children’s literature.

Jessi Nicholls, Co-Chair (2026-2028)
Jessi Nicholls is a literacy specialist and reading interventionist located in New Orleans, LA. She was born in Yuma, AZ and was raised in Phoenix, AZ, with many visits to her family on both sides of the US-Mexico border. Nicholls received her B.A. in Spanish Literature from Hendrix College and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Tulane University. She quickly fell in love with teaching young children, enjoying the dynamic challenges and joyful community found in schools. She has been teaching for fourteen years and does not see an end in sight.

Laura Gonzalez (2027-2029)
Laura Gonzalez is a first-generation Cuban-American raised in Weehawken, NJ, in a region referred to at the time as “Havana on the Hudson.” She received her BA at the University of Pennsylvania in Psychology and discovered her love for teaching while working as a Spanish teacher in a Montessori preschool in Northern California. After receiving her teaching credential and MA at UC Berkeley, she was a first- and second-grade bilingual teacher in East Harlem and then East Oakland. It was the hardest job she’s ever loved.

Currently, Laura is a public school librarian/teacher at Melrose Leadership Academy in Oakland, CA. MLA is a TK-8 Dual Immersion Title I school with a vibrant and diverse community. She manages the libraries on both the upper and lower campuses and sees all elementary students once a week as part of their enrichment program. Laura is passionate about children’s literature, reads a wide range of children’s books and has the pleasure of receiving children’s reviews and thoughts on the books they read on a daily basis. She’s the mother of a 23-year-old and an 11-year-old, both of whom are bilingual and avid readers. She lives with her family in Berkeley.

Marisela Ramos (2026-2028)
Dr. Marisela Ramos is starting her twenty-seventh year as an educator. She spent fifteen years as a professor and scholar of Latin American and U.S. history before moving into secondary education. During her ten years at Phillips Academy Andover, she became the first woman to chair the History and Social Sciences Department. She now serves as Associate Director of the Prep Division at Windward School, in Los Angeles.

Marisela’s parents came to the United States from a remote village in central Mexico. Once here, they came to the conclusion that one of the things that made this country special was access to education, something they did not have in Mexico, but which Marisela did by virtue of being a U.S. citizen. Going to school in East L.A., Marisela was fortunate to have had talented and compassionate teachers who genuinely cared about their students. Later, she earned a full scholarship to attend a New England Boarding school, which created the opportunity for her to attend Brown University, where she eventually earned a Ph.D. in History. Marisela has made education her life purpose because she concluded—just as her parents had—that education is essential to our lives. Primarily, education is the key to social justice. Education teaches us a way of being—to understand who we are as individuals, how we relate to others, and how we fit in our world. Marisela identifies as a queer Chicana. She grew up speaking Spanish as her first language and was the first in her family to earn a college degree.

Vivian Santana Pacheco (2026-2028)
Vivian Santana Pacheco is Chicana, indígena, daughter and granddaughter of Mexican immigrants raised in Southeast & Northeast Los Angeles. Vivian is an urban farmer dedicated to creating green spaces where communities can grow ancestral and fresh food. In addition to working with youth and adults to reconnect with Earth Mother, she has also worked as a public policy researcher in the philanthropic field and a behavioral health educator for a community clinic. She has a BA in Sociology from Pomona College and MPP from UC Berkeley’s Goldman School. She lives in Oakland with her life partner Isaac and 7-year-old son Moisés.

Flavia Vidal (2026-2028)

Flavia Vidal (she/her) has recently joined Purdue University as the Senior Director of Student Success at the College of Science. She holds a BA from Hampshire College and a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, with a joint MA program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, from Brandeis University. Her dissertation examined the role of gendered diasporic polyphony in the Caribbean, with a focus on the novels of Maryse Condé and Rosario Ferré. Prior to Purdue, Flavia taught at Boston University and then spent 20 years at Phillips Academy, where she was Instructor in English and Interdisciplinary Studies under the Jonathan French Foundation endowed chair. One of her most popular electives was a course on children’s literature as a social construct. During her time at Andover, Flavia directed the Brace Center for Gender Studies and created and directed its Summer Gender Institute for K-12 Educators. She was also a founding member of the Global Perspectives Group and led one of Andover’s Learning in the World summer travel programs, Brazil PLACES (People, Landscapes, Arts, Culture, Environment, Sustainability). In 2021-22, Flavia was a Visiting Scholar at the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women at Brown University. For the last three years, she was the Director of Teaching and Learning at The Overlake School in Redmond, WA, as well as a faculty member at the Northwest Association of Independent Schools’ Institute for Early Career Educators. Flavia grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and her 30+ years as a Latina in the US inform her scholarship, which focuses on intercultural studies, postcolonial literature, transnational feminisms, intersectional gender studies, culturally responsive teaching, equitable and inclusive curriculum development, and best practices in progressive pedagogies. Flavia is a member and former chair of Hampshire College’s Alum Action Group and a recipient of the McKeen Award for dedicated leadership in education.

Kristine Witko (2026-2028)

Kristine Witko works for the Center for Writing Excellence at Montclair State University and supports with the development of K-12 outreach curricula for the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona. Previously, Kristine worked as an educator in social projects in Brazil, and for several years, she split her time between Rio de Janeiro and the United States. She ultimately moved back to the East Coast full time and worked as an elementary school teacher in Brooklyn, where she taught kindergarten and English as a second language. In 2023, she moved to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona and complete a Master of Arts in Latin American Studies. She was awarded the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship twice to study Portuguese and was given the Tinker Field Research Grant to conduct fieldwork in Brazil. Her master’s thesis focused on the perspectives of educators working in conflict zones. Kristine is an avid reader and writer who thinks that books do more than just tell a story; they connect us to others, broaden our perspectives, and help us to understand the world around us.