Board of Directors Bios

Nancy Hirschhorn
Interim President

Nancy Hirschhorn served over 30 years with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), and retired as a Branch Chief for Horticultural Crops where she oversaw the Foreign Market Development and Market Access Programs for more than 30 horticultural product industry organizations.  Her vast experience with FAS includes oversight of the Emerging Markets Program, Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops Program and Quality Samples Program.  She is a Spanish speaker, having lived and worked in Latin America and Spain. Since her retirement from USDA in December, 2016, Ms. Hirschhorn has volunteered with Carecen, HIAS, and the Smithsonian Museum of American History.


Thomas Armbruster
Board Member

Thomas Armbruster is a retired U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of the Marshall Islands.  He is currently the Team Leader for the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. State Department.  Previous diplomatic assignments include Front Office positions in Russia, Mexico and Tajikistan as Consul General and Deputy Chief of Mission.  In addition, he was Control Officer for Presidential visits in Finland, Russia and Mexico and Lead Negotiator for U.S. Russian emergency response treaty.  He earned a master’s degree in International Relations and Affairs from St. Mary’s University and a master’s degree in International Relations and National Security Studies from the Naval War College.


Steven Beasley
Board Member

Steven Beasley is a retired agricultural economist who served 30 years at the United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) headquarters in Washington D.C.  As a Senior International Marketing Specialist, he supported U.S. agriculture commodity organizations (“Cooperators”) helping them secure public funding to increase agricultural exports and to mitigate sanitary and phytosanitary trade impediments. 

He also served in the Office of Capacity Building and Development at FAS developing and leading international technical assistance projects to improve the integrity of perishable supply chains and to enhance the knowledge of critical technological developments in agriculture such as biotechnology and food defense


Ernesto Cruz
Board Member

Ernesto Cruz is on the North American Business Planning team with Nike, Inc. in Beaverton, Oregon.  He earned an MBA at UCLA Anderson School of Management. Prior to Anderson, Ernesto was with Deloitte in New York City, focusing on Audit Enterprise Risk and Mergers & Acquisitions. Originally from Monterrey, Mexico, Ernesto is a graduate of University of Texas at Austin where he earned his master’s degree in Accounting & Business Management and ITESM in Mexico where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Accounting & Finance.


Colby Duren
Board Member

Colby Duren is Director of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative at the University of Arkansas and served prior to this was the Policy Director and Staff Attorney with the Initiative.  He has over 11 years of experience in federal Indian law and policy, with a specific focus on food, agriculture, natural resources, and economic development. Prior to joining the Initiative, Colby served as Staff Attorney and Legislative Counsel for the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) in Washington, DC, Legal Assistant for the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Washington, DC office, and a Paralegal and Legislative Assistant at a Washington, DC law firm specializing in food and agriculture, and represented Tribes on land reparation and agriculture issues. Colby earned his law degree from the American University Washington College of Law and his Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College. In 2016, Colby was nominated by the Native American Bar Association of Washington, DC for its Significant Contribution in Indian Law Award for his work on environmental issues in Indian Country.


Scott Hansen
Board Member

Scott Hansen is the Principal and Intellectual Property Attorney at Viking IP, firm that he founded.  Prior to creating Viking IP, Scott served as a technology attorney at the headquarters of Western Digital, one of the largest computer hard disk drive manufacturers in the world.  He was also partner at an international law firm and an attorney at a top intellectual property boutique firm.  He is a member of the Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association (LAIPLA), where he has chaired the Sponsorship Committee.  Scott earned his J.D. (cum laude) from Indiana University Maurer School of Law, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UC Santa Barbara, and a B.S. with degrees in Political Science and Applied Mechanics from UC San Diego.


Paul Moorehead
Board Member

Paul Moorehead is a principal in Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville’s Indian Tribal Governments Group.  Paul’s practice is dedicated exclusively to federal Indian law and policy, and includes appropriations, commercial transactions, energy and natural resources development, trust reform, environmental protection, gaming, healthcare and telemedicine, housing and infrastructure development, tribal self-governance, taxation, and Indian land and water rights settlements.

From 1997 to 2005, Paul served as chief counsel and staff director to the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.  Prior to his tenure in the Senate, Paul was counsel and government affairs director to the National Congress of American Indians, the oldest and most representative Indian tribal advocacy organization in the nation.   Paul holds a J.D. from Temple University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Economics from the University of Delaware.


Juan Cariaga
Board Member Emeritus

Juan Cariaga was Bolivia’s Minister of Finance in the mid 1980’s, and he led the team that ended Bolivia’s extreme hyperinflation. Since then he served as a member of the board of directors of the Inter-American Development Bank and, some years later, as a member of the board of directors of The World Bank. Mr. Cariaga headed a post-graduate university in Bolivia that trains economists in economic analysis and policy formation. He was also the representative for Standard and Poors in Bolivia.  He currently works as a journalist, writing articles about the economic growth and development of Bolivia and other countries in Latin America.