(BA Latin American Studies & History):
On Friday, May 14, 2010 Wm & Mary alumnus Doug Mercado was inducted into the Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Mercado graduated in the class of 1985 with a double major in Latin American Studies and History and extensive work in Spanish; he was also a resident in the Spanish House [now the Hispanic House].
Doug Mercado is employed by the United States Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and currently serves as the Humanitarian Affairs Adviser at the United States Mission to the United Nations in New York. He has worked in the field of international disaster assistance and post-conflict recovery for most of the past 19 years on assignments with the United Nations, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and various non-governmental organizations (NGOs). He has managed humanitarian relief interventions in over a dozen countries including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Iraq, Nicaragua, Angola and Eritrea. Doug photographed the conflict in Darfur, Sudan and its impact on civilians and exhibited his work at the ARC Gallery in Chicago in 2006. Aside from his career in international affairs, he served as an officer in the United States Navy and as an editorial assistant at Américas magazine. Doug holds a Master in Public Policy from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and a Master of Arts in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.
(Updated 2010)