Name: Maria Valancia-Guatierrez

Home: Teaneck, New Jersey

What country did you emigrate from? Colombia

When did you emigrate to the U.S.? 1965

How did you arrive in the U.S.? By Airplane

Why did you immigrate to the U.S.? It was always my dream to go to an American University. However, I was already married and had a year old daugther whom I brought with me we came to reunite with her father. She is now 41 years old and has a Master Degree in social work from New York University. I later divorced my daugther's father and re-married. With great difficulty I was able to attend college at the New School for Social Research (The New School University as it is called now). I graduated college in 1975 and graduate school in 1981. I have a Masters in Economics. I went on to work for various employers on Wall street but I dreamt with an international job. The opportunity came. I got a job with an international family planning organization that worked with Latin America. I fulfilled that dream of being able to use my native language. I traveled all over Latin America and the Caribbean for ten years. The I felt it was time to move on. Through contacts I've made while working in Latin America as an advisor, an opportunity came to do consulting work for the US Agency for International Development (USAID)in other regions of the world besides Latin America and the Caribbean. I worked for USAID and other international agencies like UNFPA, the World Bank, The UN and private organizations in various parts of the world providing technical assistance in health financing for the last 25 years. I recently retired and are writing a book on my experiences in the field. I have several other ideas for other books I'll like to write including books relating to immigrants like myself who come to the US go to school and have a very different experiences in US from the experiences the media so persistently portrayed of all immigrants from Latin America. I also serve as VP, Finance & Administration in our own company. My husband and I own a Vector control company that serves both the public and commercial sectors.

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