Safeguarding and Enhancing Democracy in the U.S. and Abroad

[petoand]

The Center for Policy Studies & the Master's Program in Public Policy

cordially invite you to a seminar entitled 

Safeguarding and Enhancing Democracy in the U.S. and Abroad 

ZAIDA ARGUEDAS
League of Women Voters of the United States

2:30 p.m., Wednesday, 7 September 2005

Open Society Institute (Október 6. St. #12) Conference room, 3rd floor


Zaida Arguedas currently serves as Deputy Executive Director of the League
of Women Voters of the United States and as Director of the League's Global
Democracy Programs. Since 2001, she has also led the League's nation-wide
education efforts to educate citizens about the importance of a fair access
to an independent judiciary. Over 400 Leagues have participated in this
program. Ms. Arguedas will also lead a three-year program entitled
"Safeguarding U.S. Democracy: Promoting an Independent Judiciary by
Defending the U.S. Constitution" beginning this fall.

In her capacity as Director of Global Democracy Programs, Ms. Arguedas works
and maintains the League's close relationships with its partners and former
participants in Africa, Latin America, and the Russian Federation, traveling
abroad frequently to meet with them. During 2004, Ms. Arguedas managed a
program for the elections in Malawi, organized a workshop on transparency
and accountability in Chile, and participated as an international election
observer in the municipal elections in Brazil. On the domestic front, she
organized 25 public forums under THE PEOPLE SPEAK banner of the United
Nations Foundation, an additional 16 under BY THE PEOPLE, an initiative of
the MacNeil-Lehrer Productions, and 12 town hall meetings under WOMEN
ENGAGING GLOBALLY, a program designed for U.S. women to connect with women
globally by advocating for better foreign policy decisions. 

In 1998 Ms. Arguedas was invited to run for a seat on the local political
party committee to which she was elected to a 4-year term in 1998. Ms.
Arguedas ran unsuccessfully for a delegate seat to one of the national
conventions. In October 2001 Ms. Arguedas ran, and after defeating three
opponents, was appointed by the governor of Maryland to a vacant seat in the
Montgomery County Board of Elections.