Karina Valenzuela is a Program Management Officer for Democracy International, where she supports field teams on projects related to violence prevention in Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to DI, she worked as Knowledge Management Specialist on the USAID ASSIST Project in the LAC region to improve health systems with URC. She spent several years working in refugee resettlement in Boston as well as providing humanitarian assistance to Malian refugees in UNHCR refugee camps in Burkina Faso. She also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Burkina Faso, where she worked with community organizations on various gender projects and served on the USAID West Africa Food Security Task Force.

Ms. Valenzuela earned her M.A. in Coexistence and Conflict Resolution and Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Response from Brandeis University in Massachusetts, and completed the Humanitarian Initiative at Harvard University. She holds a B.S. in Criminal Justice and Political Science from Sam Houston State University in Texas. She speaks fluent Spanish and French.