Most development operations in Latin America have faced shrinking budgets in recent years. In spite of this trend, Population Services International intensified its presence in the region in 2008, when it transferred its Latin America program office from Washington to Guatemala City.
Deputy Regional Director Judith Heichelheim helps manage PSI's 200 Central America field staff and a regional public health portfolio that includes a rapidly expanding reproductive health program supported by European and U.S. donors.
Heichelheim has more than 15 years of experience working in the public health sector, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health and sexually transmitted disease prevention. Prior to the deputy regional director position, she worked in PSI's Washington headquarters and in the field in Russia and Botswana.