service learning

Vivian Brates is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she attended the University of Buenos Aires. She received an M. A. degree from Georgetown University in Latin American Studies, with a focus in Economic Development, and previously an M. A. degree from UC Santa Barbara in Spanish and Latin American Literature. She worked for several years as an International Consultant in Washington DC in roles such as Human Rights Observer (with the United Nations/OAS International Civilian Mission in Haiti), Election Monitor (Haiti, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Guatemala), advocate, and lobbyist. She has volunteered for the International Red Cross, and more recently for the Prison University Program teaching Spanish at San Quentin Prison, and the International Institute of the Bay Area preparing immigrants for the citizenship exam. In addition to her professional and volunteer pursuits, she enjoys traveling with her husband and teenage children, watching movies and plays, swimming, and working out.

Todd began his career with a BA in Spanish from Brigham Young University (Magna Cum Laude 2005) and immediately followed with an MA in Spanish Peninsular Literature (2007), also from BYU. The title of his Master's thesis is The Postmodern Spanish Hero’s Journey: Compassion and Postmodernism in Contemporary Spain. His dissertation, entitled Open Wounds: Reading Contemporary Novels of War, Repression, and Memory in Four Rural Spanish Communities, focuses on the the intersection of memory, literature, and place through a study of the reception of several contemporary novels of memory in the communities they describe. In his free time he enjoys spending time with his three children and his wife, Betty. He is also an avid runner.