/ / Fulbright Excellence Award

Fulbright Excellence Award

The Fulbright Excellence Award is a recognition granted to a former grantee for their outstanding work both in their professional role and as an agent of change, fostering educational, cultural, and mutual understanding ties between the United States and Colombia, contributing to innovation, science, peacebuilding, and Colombia’s economic and social development.

Each year, partners of the Commission, members of the Fulbrighters Community, the Board of Directors, and Fulbright staff nominate individuals who embody the core values of the Fulbright Program.

  • 2024 Award

     

    Jorge Andrés Forero González

    Beca Hubert H. Humphrey 2018

    Jorge is an economist from the National University of Colombia, with a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of the Andes. He specializes in Rural Development and Peacebuilding at the United States Institute of Peace, University of California-Davis, and the University of Montana. He is also an expert in the design, construction, and implementation of public policies from the State, multilateral organizations, and with indigenous, Black, Afro-Latino, peasant, and urban and rural youth communities and peoples.

  • Sandra Valenzuela de Narváez

    Fulbright Scholarship for the Study of the Amazon Basin 2001

    Current Executive Director – WWF Colombia. Lawyer specializing in environmental law, with a Master’s degree in International Relations and Development Policy from Ohio University. With more than 25 years of professional experience in conservation and social development at the global, regional, national, and local levels, and more than 15 years of experience leading multidisciplinary and multicultural teams in organizations such as Parques Nacionales de Colombia and WWF.

    Sandra has been a facilitator and creator of public and private partnerships to support ethnic and rural communities, women, youth, and children in vulnerable situations, promoting restoration processes, regenerative economies, and the adoption of legal instruments.

    In October 2021, she was recognized by the Women Economic Forum (WEF) as Conservation Leader of the Decade.

     

    2023 Award

  • 2022 Award

     

    Karol Arias Lloreda

    2014 Fulbright Scholarship for Colombian English Teachers

    Educator with a Master’s degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from ICESI University, Bachelor’s degree in English and French from the Technological University of Chocó (UTCH).

    He was awarded the 2014 Fulbright Colombian English Teacher Scholarship (FLTA), which enabled him to teach (supporting the teaching of Spanish as a second language) at St. Thomas University in the United States.

    Karol was born in Quibdó (Chocó) and has been recognized for the creation and development of Institutional Educational Projects (PEI), the design, planning, and implementation of learning curricula, and the application of best practices and innovation in teaching. In 2015, she founded the first English language academy in Chocó, Be Smart School. This initiative has strengthened the English skills of more than 1,000 students, of whom more than 110 have achieved the highest scores on the Saber Tests.

  • Adriana María Pulido Camargo

    Fulbright Saldarriaga Concha Scholarship 2011
    Master’s Degree in Communication

    She holds a degree in Philology and Languages from the National University of Colombia and a Master’s degree in Communication from the University of Florida (United States). She is currently a Social Inclusion Advisor for the Physical Rehabilitation Program at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and is also the Colombian Ambassador for OrCam Technologies, promoting an artificial intelligence device that gives greater autonomy to people with visual impairments, allowing them to improve their quality of life.

    He worked at the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MinTIC), where he promoted important projects to encourage the inclusion of people with disabilities through the use and appropriation of technology. One of these is ConverTIC: a pioneering global project that enables blind and visually impaired people to use computers independently thanks to the free download and installation of screen reader and magnifier software.

    She has worked as a university professor and lecturer on issues of inclusion, accessibility, and universal design. In addition, she is an activist for the rights and inclusion of people with disabilities and is part of the Network of Women with Visual Disabilities, which promotes the empowerment and social inclusion of blind or low-vision women in Colombia.

     

    2021 Award

  • 2020 Award

     

    Clemente Forero Pineda

    Beca J.William Fulbright 1968 / Ph.D. en Civil Engeneering 1958

    Civil Engineer from the Institut National de Sciences Appliquées – INSA (Lyon, France). Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University. He has been a professor at the Universidad de los Andes since 2001 and is one of the 42 members of the Mission of Wise Men appointed by President Iván Duque to work on the development of science, technology, and innovation in the country, specifically forming the group in the area of social sciences for human development and equity.

    He was also a professor at the National University, Visiting Professor at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, President of the National Council for Participatory Planning in Bogotá (1990), and Director General of Colciencias. Dr. Forero has made significant contributions to scientific studies on public policy; public administration studies; innovation and industry; violence, insecurity, and contingent cooperation; organizational hybrids, conflict, and regional development.

    Among the honors received by Dr. Clemente, both nationally and internationally, the following stand out: Emeritus Researcher recognized by Colciencias – Call 737 of 2015; Honorary Professor, National University of Colombia, 1999; Palmes Académiques, French government, 1995; Simón Bolívar Award for Economic Journalism, Seguros Bolívar, 1978; and University Medal of Merit.

  • Andrés Jaramillo Botero

    Fulbright ICETEX Scholarship 1990 – Master’s Degree in Computer Science

    Electrical Engineer from Boston University (1986), Master’s Degree in Computer Science as a Fulbright Scholar from the State University of New York (1990), and Doctorate in Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (1998). He developed his doctoral dissertation as a visiting researcher at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) between 1996 and 1997, and postdoctoral work in Nanoscale Science as a NSF (National Science Foundation) fellow at Caltech and the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), between 2002 and 2005.

    He joined Caltech full-time in 2006 as a Research Scientist and Director of Science and Multiscale Simulation at the Materials and Processes Simulation Center (MSC) in the Chemistry Division. There, he has been the leader/co-leader of multiple research programs funded by the U.S. government (DOE, DOD, DOT, NSF, and NASA, among other national agencies) and applied research efforts funded by national and international industry, as well as the lead author of numerous peer-reviewed scientific publications and patents.

    Dr. Jaramillo-Botero has been a member of the academic community at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (PUJ) since 1990, where he became a tenured professor in 1999 and was inducted into the Javeriana honor society in 2001.

     

    2019 Award

  • 2018 Award

     

    Brigitte Baptiste

    1991 Fulbright Laspau Scholarship – Master’s Degree in Tropical Conservation and Development

    She holds a degree in Biology from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Florida. She spent her early years as a researcher in the Rural Studies Unit of the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the Javeriana University, where she began her teaching career in the Master’s programs in Rural Development and Environmental Management at the same university. She has participated in numerous national projects on conservation and environmental planning, cultural landscapes, analysis of land transformation processes, ecological and economic history of production systems, multicultural analysis of biodiversity use and management, biocomplexity, biospeleology, and biopolitics. She is also interested in gender and cultural issues.

    She was director of the Humboldt Institute, representing Colombia’s scientific authority at the time before the International Convention on Wildlife Trade (CITES). She currently serves as rector of EAN University, becoming the first transgender woman in the country to hold that position.

  • Juan Manuel Santos

    Beca Fulbright Fletcher 1980 – Inv. & Doc. Public Administration

    Juan Manuel Santos, former Fulbright scholar, President of Colombia (2010-2014, 2014-2018) and Nobel Peace Prize winner, In 1981, Santos was a beneficiary of the Fulbright Fletcher Visiting Fellows Program, a professional development program that allowed him to take graduate courses in public administration at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Harvard University, and M.I.T.

    In 2007, he was the special guest at the Fulbright Scholarship Award Ceremony, where he stated that Fulbright’s work is “a priceless contribution” because “the best contribution one can give to a country is its human capital, its education.”

    He is an economist and business administrator from the University of Kansas, with postgraduate studies in economics and economic development from the London School of Economics, and was also a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. Throughout his career, he has held several public positions. For nine years, he represented the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia before the International Coffee Organization in London, was deputy director of El Tiempo, and served as Minister of Foreign Trade in 1991. In 2000, he was appointed Minister of Finance. In 2006, he was appointed Minister of Defense until May 2009, when he retired to run for president.

     

    2016 Award

  • 2015 Award

     

    Helena Alviar

    Beca J.William Fulbright 1996 – Master’s Law

    Dr. Helena Alviar García is a lawyer from the University of the Andes, specializing in Financial Law from the same university. She holds a Master’s degree in Law and a PhD in Economic Law and Gender from Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was a Fulbright scholar between 1996 and 1997, during which time she completed her postgraduate studies at Harvard University. She has taught and lectured at several universities, including Harvard Law School, United States; Brown University, United States; University of Wisconsin, Madison, United States; University of Turin, Italy; and the University for Peace, Ciudad Colón, Costa Rica. In August 2001, she joined the Los Andes Law School as a full-time professor. She was Dean of the Law School at the University of Los Andes and is currently a tenured professor at that university.

  • Paula Marcela Moreno

    Beca Hubert H. Humphrey 2010 – Urban & Regional Planning

    Paula Moreno is a former Fulbright scholar of the Hubert H. Humphrey Program in 2010, who studied Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She was also the youngest minister in Colombia’s history and the first Afro-Colombian woman to hold a ministerial position. Among her awards are the Cross of Boyacá and the Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest distinctions of the Colombian and Mexican governments, respectively. In 2014, she was selected by the BBC as one of the 100 most important women in the world, and in the same year, SEMANA magazine and the Leadership and Democracy Foundation recognized her as one of the most important leaders in the country. She is currently a founding partner and president of the Manos Visibles Organization.

     

    2014 Award

  • 2013 Award

     

    Juan Carlos Esguerra

    Beca J.William Fulbright 1972 – Master’s Financial Law

    Juan Carlos Esguerra is a lawyer from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, a specialist in socio-economic sciences from the same university, and holds a Master of Laws (LLM) from Cornell University. In addition to serving as Minister of Justice and Law, he was Secretary General and Deputy Minister of Communications, Delegate to the National Constituent Assembly, Minister of National Defense, and Ambassador of Colombia to the United States between 1997 and 1998. From 1991 to 1995, he was Dean of the Faculty of Legal Sciences at Javeriana University. Since 1992, he has also been a member of the Advisory Council of the Cornell University Law School. On two occasions (2004 and 2006), he has served as an ad hoc judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and has been an associate judge of the Council of State and the Constitutional Court on several occasions.

  • Pedro Vicente Obando

    Beca Fulbright Laspau 1980 – Master’s Linguistics.
    Beca Fulbright Laspau 1988 – Ph.D. Education

    Dr. Pedro Obando was born in Pasto in 1947 and graduated with a degree in modern languages from the University of Nariño. He then went on to earn a master’s degree in linguistics from Southern Illinois University, thanks to a Fulbright scholarship, and a doctorate in ethnolinguistics from the University of Texas. In 2011, he completed a master’s degree in politics at the Externado University. He has spent most of his career within the University of Nariño system, first as director of the university’s high school, then as head of the Language Department and dean of the Faculty of Education, and finally as academic and administrative vice-rector. In 1995, he was appointed rector of the university, a position he held for a decade, and was recognized for transforming it into a quality institution, expanding its infrastructure, and establishing a direct election process for the rector. He was mayor of Pasto from 2016 to 2019.

     

    2012 Award

  • 2011 Award

     

    Juan Antonio Cuéllar

    Beca J.William Fulbright 1996 – Master’s Music

    Dr. Juan Antonio Cuéllar is a musician from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Thanks to the J. William Fulbright Scholarship, he obtained his Master’s Degree in Music Composition at Indiana University and later completed a Ph.D. in Music Composition at the same university. He has received several awards for his work, including the National Composition Prize from the District Institute of Culture and Tourism of Bogotá, the Indiana University Dean’s Prize in Composition, the Arte de la Música Composition Prize, and the Kuttner String Quartet Composition Competition. He has also taught theory and composition at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and the Indiana University School of Music. For several years, he served as Academic Dean of the Faculty of Visual Arts at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. He served as Executive Director of the Batuta Foundation and is currently a professor at the Universidad Javeriana.

  • Patricia Cardoso

    Beca J.William Fulbright 1987 – Master’s Filmmaking

    Filmmaker Patricia Cardoso studied anthropology at the University of Los Andes. In 1987, she won the J. William Fulbright Scholarship to pursue a master’s degree at the UCLA School of Film and graduated in 1994. In 1996, she was the first person in Colombia to receive an Oscar, the Student Academy Award, for the short film “El reino de los cielos” (The Kingdom of Heaven). As an archaeologist, she taught at Javeriana University and was deputy director of the Colombian Institute of Culture. She has worked at the Sundance Film Festival, where she became director of Latin American Programs. She is a member of the Directors Guild of America, where only four percent of members are women. She currently teaches at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.

     

    2010 Award

  • 2009 Award

     

    Bernardo Hoyos (qepd)

    Beca J.William Fulbright 1959 – Master’s Comparative Law

    Bernardo Hoyos was born in Santa Rosa de Osos, Antioquia, in 1934. He was a lawyer by profession and a cultural journalist by vocation. In 1958, thanks to a Fulbright Scholarship, he completed a Master’s Degree in Comparative Law at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Among other positions, he worked as a broadcaster and reporter for the BBC in London, Director of the Spanish edition of International Management magazine, Director of Radio Bolivariana, Cultural Director of RTI Television, and Cultural Advisor to Caracol Radio. From 1999, he was Director of the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University radio station (HJUT). During his professional career, he received recognition from the Medellín Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Education, and was awarded five Simón Bolívar Prizes, including the Grand Prize for Life and Work in 2008 in recognition of his 55-year career dedicated to cultural journalism.

  • Ramón Fayad

    Beca J.William Fulbright 1976 -Ph.D. Molecular Biology

    Dr. Ramón Fayad holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics, a Master’s degree in Physics from the University of Puerto Rico, and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics (Biophysics) from Lehigh University. At the National University of Colombia, he was head of the biophysics section (1980-1985), director of the Scientific Research and Development Committee (1982-1984), Secretary General (2003-2005), and Rector (2005-2006). He was Dean of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of the Andes (1993-1997) and is currently a Full Professor in the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Rosario. He has received several national and international awards, including the Javeriana National Medal for Educational Merit, a distinction for exceptional teaching at the National University and the Rosario University, and a distinction for academic and administrative contributions to the National University. He is a member of the Program Advisory Committee of the Fulbright Commission Colombia.

     

    2008 Award

  • 2007 Award

     

    Javier Botero

    Beca J.William Fulbright 1982 – Ph.D. Physics.

    He was born in Bogotá, Colombia, on May 5, 1960; he graduated as a Civil Engineer from the Colombian School of Engineering in 1981 in Bogotá, and, as a Fulbright Commission Scholar in 1982, he obtained a Doctorate in Physics in 1986 from Louisiana State University. He created the Center for Research and Special Studies at the Colombian School of Engineering, where he later served as Academic Vice-Rector between 1997 and 2001. In 2002, he was appointed to head the Higher Education Directorate of the Ministry of National Education, and a month later he was named Deputy Minister of National Education and then Deputy Minister of Higher Education. Since September 2013, he has been a Senior Education Specialist for Latin America at the World Bank.

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