Mileydi Guilarte serves as Deputy Assistant Administrator within USAID's Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). In her role, she is responsible for a foreign assistance budget of over $800 million in programs to improve the promotion of democracy and governance, economic growth, and climate change. She currently leads the strategy, budget and oversight responsibilities for development assistance in Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama. She also regularly engages other U.S. Government entities and international stakeholders on humanitarian and development responses in these countries to ensure effective coordination. Recently Guilarte led the LAC Bureau’s team that oversees the Agency’s response to migration challenges throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Guilarte’s previous government roles include serving in the White House as Director for Central America at the National Security Council and as a Senior Policy Advisor for former USAID Administrator Gayle Smith. In 2014, Guilarte was nominated by President Obama as the United States Alternative Executive Director at the Inter-American Development Bank.
Guilarte has over twenty years of development experience focusing on the promotion of democracy and human rights. She brings experience from working in government, non-profit as well as multilateral organizations, including the World Bank, United Nations, and the International Monetary Fund. She has worked and lived overseas in Central America and Southeast Asia. Prior to her current role, Guilarte was the Country Representative for a U.S.-based non-profit in El Salvador, leading a human rights project to strengthen the role of civil society and regional human rights accountability systems.
Guilarte was born in Cuba and grew up in Miami where she became the first college graduate in her family. She has a Master’s degree in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University in Washington, D.C., and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Florida.