Nicaragua: Revolution, Transformation, and Civil Society

Faculty and Staff

Aynn Setright, Academic Director

Aynn Setright, Academic Director
Aynn Setright has lived and worked in Nicaragua since 1985 and has developed a profound knowledge of the country and the Nicaraguan people. A native of Wyoming, Ms. Setright has a B.A. in international relations from the University of Wyoming and a M.A. in the history of Latin American and the Caribbean from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua (UNAN-Managua). She initially came to Nicaragua as a member of the Witness for Peace Long Term Team, and from 1987 and 1993 she worked with and later directed the Proyecto Cristo Rey project in Matagalpa and the Autonomous Regions providing support for internally displaced families and war refugees. This project was awarded the Institute for Policy Studies Letelier-Moffit Memorial Human Rights Award in 1991.  In Managua, Ms. Setright was the Director of International Relations for the Nicaragua Community Development Loan Fund and also was Interim Program Coordinator for the Augsburg College Center for Global Education. Ms. Setright has directed the SIT Nicaragua: Revolution, Transformation, and Civil Society program since 1999.

Guillermo Perez Leiva, Academic Seminar Coordinator
Guillermo joined the Sandinista guerrilla movement as a young man. After the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution in 1979, he participated as a founding member of the Popular Sandinista Army (EPS) and was sent to Cuba for a year for officer training. In the early 1980s, he was wounded in combat fighting the Contras as they crossed into Nicaragua from Honduras. He was then sent to study at the military academy in Minsk, Belarus, where he earned his master's degree in military and political science.

After the Sandinistas were defeated in the 1990 elections, Guillermo worked with the United Nations peacekeeping troops in the demobilization of the Contra forces. He stayed in the Nicaraguan army until 1999, promoting the professionalization of the army and the establishment of a military code. Guillermo retired from the army as a major in 1999, having received national honors and special recognition as an officer. Since then, Guillermo has worked actively in Nicaragua's emerging civil society and with various sister-city relationships and educational tourism. He was the Nicaraguan coordinator for the 2001 Global Exchange International Election Observation team.

Key instructors for this program include:

Dora María Téllez, Lead Instructor (History Module)
Dora María received her M.A. in history from the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in Managua in 1998.  Since 1997, she has been a professor and thesis tutor at the Universidad de la Regiones Autónomas de la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua (URACCAN) and at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua.  Dora María has published a number of essays on diverse topics and in 1999 published the book ¡Muera la Gobierna! The book analyzes the socioeconomic development of Matagalpa and Jinotega in the 19th century amidst the expansion of coffee and indigenous struggles to defend their rights.  She is currently an associate of the Instituto de Historia de Nicaragua y Centroamérica (IHNCA) and an internationally renowned analyst and consultant on public policy.

Dora María joined the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional in 1977 and played a decisive role during the armed struggle against the Somoza Family Military Dictatorship.  After the Sandinista triumph, she was named Representative to the State Council (in 1980) and served as the Vice President of the State Council until 1984. She was elected as a Deputy to the National Assembly and served in this legislative body from 1985-1991.  She was appointed as the Nicaraguan Minister of Health in 1985, a position she held until 1990.  Dora Maria was elected to a second term as Deputy to the National Assembly representing the FSLN from 1990-1996. In the National Assembly, she presided over the Comisión de Asuntos Económicos, Finanzas y Presupuesto and also served on other commissions including the Commission for Constitutional Reforms in 1995.  She is currently president of the Movimiento Renovador Sandinista (MRS).

Dora María has taught the history module for SIT Study Abroad Nicaragua since 2004.

María Teresa Blandón Gadea, Lead Instructor (Social Movements/Civil Society Module)
María Teresa earned her B.A. in social sciences from the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in 1991 and later completed an M.A. at the Universidad de Barcelona in Gender and Development.  She is currently the director of the Gender and Development Master’s Program at UCA and regularly serves as a consultant with a multitude of NGOs and multinational organizations on gender issues. María Teresa has taught numerous post-graduate courses including Investigation with a Gender Focus, Feminist Theory, Identity and Subjectivity, Sexuality and Reproductive Rights, and Citizenship.   María Teresa co-authored Nicaragua: “Voces sobre el aborto, desde la ciencia, los derechos y la fé” published in 2006 by Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir.  She is also the co-author of A Regional Investigation and Analysis on the Participation of Women in Elected Offices, published by the Asociación de Mujeres Profesionales para el Desarrollo Integral (AMPDI).

María Teresa is the founder and regional coordinator of La Corriente, a Central American feminist organization launched in 1993. La Corriente seeks to contribute and strengthen the women’s movement in Central America through research, analysis, and debate on the situation of women in Central America, in the specific social, cultural, economic, and political context of the region. Under María Teresa’s leadership, La Corriente has produced diverse research and publications, as well as organized national, regional, and international meetings to strengthen the feminist movement.

María Teresa has taught and coordinated the social movements/civil society module for SIT Study Abroad Nicaragua since 2000.

Zoilamérica Narváez, Lead Instructor (Culture of Peace Module)
Zoilamérica Narváez graduated with a B.A. in sociology in 1995 from the Universidad Centroaméricana (UCA) in Managua and completed post-graduate studies in conflict transformation at the Easter Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. 

Zoilamérica is currently the executive director of the Centro de Estudios Internacionales (CEI) and the founding director of Fundación Sobrevivientes, an organization dedicated to supporting victims of sexual abuse. Zoilamérica and the Centro de Estudio Internacionales are renowned for their work in peace studies and conflict resolution during the post-war period in Nicaragua. CEI has worked laboriously with former combatants from the Nicaraguan Resistance and with former Sandinista soldiers.  The formation of the Peace Promoters and the development of Peace Promoter Networks have been used as a model in other post-war societies and is the subject of the books: Una Tragedia Campesina and Los Desmovilizados Hablan.  

Zoilamérica has collaborated with SIT Study Abroad Nicaragua as an ISP tutor since 2001 and has taught and coordinated the Culture of Peace module since 2007.