Meet the Team


Ruth Chisholm

Ruth Chisholm

Country Program Director, Jamaica

Ruth Chisholm is the Jamaica Country Director for the USAID Advance Program. A project manager and communication specialist with experience in behaviour change communication, social marketing, and training and development, she has over fifteen years of international development experience with organizations such as USAID, the Red Cross and Population Services International (PSI). Her experience spans multiple sectors including: education, workforce, sexual and reproductive health, youth development, agriculture and economic growth. Prior to FHI 360, she provided strategic planning, social research and behaviour change program design services. Ms. Chisholm is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Technology. She has provided creative direction to the Literary Genius Foundation—an organization building the reading competence of Jamaica’s youth at the early childhood level, and has been a co-editor for Do Good Jamaica. She holds an MA in Communication for Social and Behaviour Change and a BA in Journalism and Mass Communication.


Juan Carlos Rodriguez

Juan Carlos Rodriguez

Country Program Director, Honduras & Guatemala

Juan Carlos Rodríguez is the Honduras Country Director for the USAID Advance Program. Mr. Rodríguez has over thirteen years of progressive leadership experience in education development and providing technical assistance for education development projects with a focus on quality, equity, access and gender. For seven years, Mr. Rodriguez worked with the Program for Educational Development of Equatorial Guinea (PRODEGE), implemented by FHI 360. In this role, he developed the country’s first-ever education management information system, supported institutional strengthening of the Ministry of Education and served as Technical Director and acting Chief of Party. Mr. Rodriguez also worked as a Quality Education Senior Specialist in El Salvador with FOMILENIO II, funded by MCC and the Government of El Salvador, with Care International on a child labor regional project funded by US Department of Labor, and with the Academy for Educational Development (AED) as a Research and M&E specialist in El Salvador. Mr. Rodriguez is currently working toward a PhD in Education Evaluation from the Anahuac University of Mexico, and holds two Master’s degrees—in Educational Planning and Management from the International Institute for Educational Planning, Buenos Aires and Paris, and in Management & Public Policy from the University of Chile.


MERCEDES MATRILLÉ 

Country Program Director, Dominican Republic

Mercedes Matrillé Lajara is the Dominican Republic Country Director for the USAID Advance Program. Ms. Matrillé has more than 25 years of experience in the management of technical vocational education and training services, linked to research, admission and employment, curriculum design and development, teacher training, educational standards for secondary education and training, linkages with external sectors and implementation of cooperation projects. For ten years, Ms. Matrillé was Director of Technical Vocational Education at the Ministry of Education of the Dominican Republic.