BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

 Debra Hain Rodman was born in Tallahasse, Florida and raised in Miami, Florida. In 1990,

after graduating with a bachelor of arts in anthropology and a minor in women's studies, Debra

attended the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science

(RSMAS), where she earned a master's degree in marine affairs and policy. During her time at

RSMAS, Debra worked on advocacy, as well as gender and development issues, at varied

locations, participating in projects in Central America and the Caribbean.

 This work inspired her to pursue her doctoral degree in anthropology at the University of

Florida, where she studied in conjunction with the Latin American Studies Program and the

Center for Tropical Conservation, training under several leading scholars in WID (Women in

Development) and GAD (Gender and Development). She became interested in transnational

migration while working for the Harvard Immigration Projects, under the direction of Drs.

Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco. Her research among Guatemalan immigrants in Boston led

to her pre-dissertation research in the migrants' home communities, where she led an

ethnographic field course through the Universidad del Valle in Guatemala. With the assistance of

a Fulbright fellowship and a RAND/Andrew W. Mellon Grant for Research on Central America,

she conducted her doctoral dissertation work on the impact of transnational migration on gender

and ethnic relations in Eastern Guatemala.