Board of Directors

Dr. Ruth B. Cowan
President, Pro Mujer
New York, NY

Dr. Cowan has a decade of experience working in Latin America. She was a founding member and the first President of the Board of Directors of Pro Mujer, an international organization whose mission is to enable poor women to raise themselves and their families out of poverty through micro enterprise. At its inception, Pro Mujer had a small local program in Bolivia. It now offers its program nationally in Bolivia and Nicaragua and regionally in Peru. Pro Mujer currently serves over 40,000 clients to whom it has lent over $30,000,000. She has spoken and written extensively about Pro Mujer and micro enterprise as poverty alleviation, economic development, and empowerment strategy. She has also worked in El Salvador to facilitate the development of a culture of peace in the Lower Baja River region.

She has a long history of active engagement in advancing human rights, with particular emphasis on the status of women. She chaired the New York statewide meeting preparatory to the first United Nations International Conference on Women and led various panels at the subsequent international meetings; represented the city of New York at the 1995 International Women's meeting in Bejing; chaired the New York City Commission on the Status of Women during two mayoral administrations and continues to serve as a member of that commission; serves on the board of directors of the U.S. Committee for UNIFEM; and was a founding member on the Board of Directors of the Women's Leadership Foundation. As a result of her work on behalf of human rights, the Council for Human Rights in Latin America invited her to join its delegation in observing the Nicaraguan elections of 1990.

She had an extensive career in higher education: as a teacher, administrator and a "turnaround" consultant to presidents and board members at failing colleges. Her perspectives on institutional revitalization, including board development, were featured at higher education seminars and conferences and in articles.

She served on a number of government commissions and on more than a dozen regional, national and international boards of directors. She holds degrees in political science and labor relations from Cornell University, the University of Illinois and New York University and completed post-doctoral studies in higher education administration at Harvard University.

SShe is currently examining and writing about democracy building in Latin America.

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