White House Author

Andrea Cornejo is a Research Assistant at KNG Health LLC, where she conducts empirical research projects to analyze the social and economic impacts of annual US health policies and regulations on various health sectors, and a LOFT Foreign Affairs Fellow for the LOFT Institute, for which she has organized the First Annual Foreign Affairs Bootcamp in Washington D.C. earlier this year. Previously, she was a Scholar at the Center for Progressive Leadership while serving as a Research Assistant at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, where she published four academic and journalistic articles on economic and political developments in the Latin American region. Prior to joining Partners of the Americas, Andrea interned at France Amerique Latine, a human rights NGO focused on Latin America based in Paris, France. There she organized several fund raising events and cultural fairs with the Latin American immigrant population. Andrea graduated with a B.A. from Swarthmore College in 2010 with a degree in Economics and Political Science, with a concentration in international development. At Swarthmore, she was the recipient of the Talisma Nasrin Community Building Award. In her free time, Andrea loves to dance salsa, read, travel, and visit her family in Miami and Peru. Andrea was born in Newark, New Jersey, and was raised in New Jersey, Miami, and Chimbote, Peru. Her most amazing accomplishment so far has been during her time with Partners of the Americas, where she worked closely with the Partners Chapter in Texas and in Lima, Peru to build and implement a library for the Viña Vieja elementary public school in Ica, Peru. Andrea first discovered Partners of the Americas early 2008 through a Swarthmore College alumni connection. Through the Partners network later that year, she teamed up with Peruvian Texas Partners Director Iliana Diaz that same year to found and direct Project Viña Vieja (PVV) with a team of college student from Lima and support from the international NGO Partners of the Americas. PVV consisted of the implementing a school library and community center in a small, rural community in Chincha, Peru. Since then, she has ensured it’s sustainability and growth by ensuring continuous community participation and an annual group of US and local volunteers coming together to head micro-enterprise workshops, the rehabilitation of the community clinic, and successfully soliciting financial support from the local agricultural business to provide the Viña Vieja Community with running water as well as regional collaboration to promote reading and educational program in the library and community. Recently, Andrea joined the Communications Team for the World Youth Summit for Volunteering organized by Partners of the Americas as the Social Media Coordinator, where she has been leading an international team in the US and Colombia to implement diverse initiatives to promote awareness and increase international youth engagement with the Youth Summit, to take place in Barranquilla, Colombia in November of 2011.