Staff Joan Vermeulen
Executive Director
Ms. Vermeulen is the Founding Director of
the Cyrus. R. Vance Center for International Justice Initiatives. She is responsible for the development and administration of a series of
access to justice programs in Latin America and South Africa. Ms.
Vermeulen has also served as a consultant to numerous organizations in
Argentina, Australia and Chile in the areas of pro bono, professional
responsibility and the rule of law. Prior to founding the Vance
Center, she served as Executive Director of New York Lawyers for the
Public Interest from 1985-2000. In this capacity, Ms. Vermeulen was
responsible for the overall management of the public interest law office,
in which she created the Environmental Justice Project, oversaw the
expansion of both budget and staff, and increased the private bar's
involvement in pro bono initiatives. She sits on the Board of
Directors for Conjunction Arts and the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Ms. Vermeulen received her B.A. with
honors and distinction from Mount Holyoke College and was a recipient of
the Joseph F. Skinner Fellowship for Excellence in History. She
spent two years at the London School of Economics as a research student in
political philosophy and received her J.D. from Rutgers University School
of Law.
Elise Colomer Grimaldi
Associate Director/Program Associate
As Associate Director/Program Associate at the New York City Bar
Association's Vance Center for International Justice, Ms. Colomer Grimaldi
coordinates region-wide initiatives in the Americas and country-based
projects in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and the United
States. Her responsibilities include managing the Center's Global Project
Clearinghouse, Amicus Network, and website. Ms. Colomer also provides direct
support to the Vance Center's Executive Director in program development,
fund-raising and operational management. Prior to this, Ms. Colomer Grimaldi
was Coordinator of the City Diplomacy Program at the Glocal Forum, an
international think tank based in Rome that espouses peace building and
development cooperation at the municipal level. Before joining the Glocal
Forum, Ms. Colomer Grimaldi was Business & Partnership Officer at the United
Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), where she managed the
public-private partnership program and project portfolio, providing business
and partnership services to the United Nations and World Bank Group. Ms.
Colomer Grimaldi serves on the Dean's Committee on International Social
Welfare at Columbia University School of Social Work and a serves as an
interviewer on the Tufts University Alumni Admissions Program. Born and
raised in Puerto Rico, Ms. Colomer Grimaldi is bi-lingual in English and
Spanish. She received her M.S. in International Social Welfare
Administration from Columbia University in 1999 and her B.A. in
International Affairs and Peace & Justice Studies from Tufts University in
1997. In 2005, Ms. Colomer Grimaldi was a Senior Fellow Scholar at the
National Leadership Development Institute.
Felipe Lecaros
Network Coordinator
Mr. Lecaros coordinates the Global Network for Justice Initiatives, prior
to which he was a volunteer attorney at the Vance Center. Previously, he was
an associate at Cruz & Cia, Abogados
and legal advisor to the Chilean-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, both in
Santiago, Chile. His practice has been primarily focused on corporate
issues. Mr. Lecaros was a foreign Associate at O'Melveny & Myers, Washington
D.C. office. He is a member of the Colegio de Abogados de Chile
and the New York City Bar
Association and is admitted to
practice both in Chile and in New York. Mr. Lecaros obtained his J.D.
from Diego Portales University School of Law, a Masters in Corporate Law
from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and an LL.M from Duke
University School of Law.
Alyson Zureick
Project Assistant
Ms. Zureick is a Princeton Project 55 fellow at the Vance Center where
she administers the South African Visiting Lawyer Program, serves as
webmaster for the Vance Center website, edits the Vance Center's
electronic newsletter and provides general administrative support to the
Vance Center's programs in Latin America and Africa. She
received her B.A. in politics, with honors and election to Phi Beta Kappa, from
Princeton University in 2006. While at Princeton, she was awarded the
Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence, the Edwin F. Ferris Class of 1899
Prize, and a number of research grants. In 2004 she was named a Mellon Mays
Undergraduate Fellow by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Her writing has appeared in The Nation
(Thailand), The American Prospect and CBSNews.com.
Volunteer Consultants
Carrie Cohen
Ms. Cohen is working with the Vance Center on projects to address issues
facing women in the legal profession in Latin America and South Africa. She
is Chair of the New York City Bar's Committee on Women in the
Profession, which under her leadership launched a blue-ribbon initiative to
develop the Best Practices for the hiring, training, retention and
advancement of women attorneys. Ms. Cohen's work at the Vance Center seeks
to introduce the Best Practices, as set forth in the report, to firms and
in-house legal departments in Latin America and South Africa.
Ms. Cohen is working with the Vance Center while she awaits security
clearance to join the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern
District of New York where she will be an Assistant United States Attorney
in the Criminal Division. Previously, Ms. Cohen was appointed by then
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer as Chief of the Public Integrity Unit in the
Criminal Division of the Attorney General's Office. Ms. Cohen has extensive
experience in both civil and criminal law. She earned her J.D. from the
University of Pennsylvania Law School and her undergraduate degree from
Cornell University. In addition to serving as Chair of the New York City
Bar's Committee on Women in the Profession, Ms. Cohen serves as Chair-Elect of
the New York State Bar Association's Commercial and Federal Litigation
Section and as a member of the Federal Bar Council's American Inn of Court.
Elizabeth Millard
Ms. Millard focuses on
developing partnerships between the Vance Center and law societies, law
firms and NGOs in Africa. She came to the Center after retiring from Credit
Suisse, where she was a Managing Director in the Legal and Compliance
Department. She had previously worked at the law firm of Shearman &
Sterling. Ms. Millard, who holds an M.A. in South Asia Studies from the
University of Pennsylvania as well as a J.D., is active in CARE, the
international humanitarian organization, and is a member of the Steering
Committee of the CARE Women's Initiative of New York and chair of its
education/outreach efforts. While at Credit Suisse she was a trustee of the
Credit Suisse Americas Foundation Trust
Former Staff
Jennifer Bréa
Project Assistant
2005-2006
Rachel Ellenport
Project Associate
2004-2005
Jorgelina Rossi
Argentina
2006-07
Pedro Castro Nevares
Argentina
2004
Niels Bang Sorensen
Denmark
2004
Romina Grinberg
Argentina
2003
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