Meet the Santiago Faculty
Learn Latin America from Chile—where global questions become visible on the ground.
Stanford in Santiago gives students direct access to Chile as a living classroom: from Atacama skies to Patagonian ecosystems, and from the Andes to the Pacific. Through small classes, field-based learning, cultural immersion, and internship pathways, students connect Stanford rigor with the questions shaping Chile and Latin America today. Courses are led by Stanford Faculty-in-Residence and BOSP Santiago faculty—scientists, social scientists, writers, historians, policy leaders, and expert language educators—whose work connects scholarship, teaching, and public engagement.
Build Your Santiago Pathway
Connect coursework to internships, cultural immersion, speakers, research translation, and Chile’s social and policy landscape.
Esteban Calvo, PhD, MsPH
Program Director; internships, cultural immersion, health, longevity, and public policy
What you’ll explore: Pathways linking coursework with Chile’s policy, cultural, and institutional life through internships, speakers, immersion, and hands-on learning. Strong fit for HumBio, Econ, IR, STS, PolSci, Sociology, Psychology, Public Policy, ILAC, and students interested in evidence-based policy, social impact, and experitnil learning.
Academic profile: Sociologist and epidemiologist whose work spans longevity, health, inequality, and public policy. Dr. Calvo has led interdisciplinary academic and research initiatives in Chile and the United States, served as Dean of a large multidisciplinary faculty, and founded “cells-to-society research centers. His research uses large-scale longitudinal data across more than 160 countries and has informed public policy and institutional strategy.
Frontier Science, Data & Sustainability
Study science, technology, dark skies, biodiversity, and sustainability where global infrastructure and environmental change are visible in place.
Sharon Reid, PhD
Biodiversity, global change, sustainability, and field ecology
What you’ll explore: Use Chile’s geography as a living laboratory for ecology, conservation, sustainability, and earth stewardship. Strong fit for Bio, Earth Systems, HumBio, Bioengineering, Engineering, STS, and students interested in sustainability, conservation, climate, and field learning.
Academic profile: Biologist and ecologist who has taught with Stanford in Santiago since 2008. Dr. Reid’s work centers on biodiversity conservation, environmental education, ecology, sustainability, and field-based learning. She brings students into direct contact with Chilean ecosystems and the environmental questions shaping the region.
César Fuentes, PhD
Dark skies, big data, astronomy, observatories, and development
What you’ll explore: Use Chile’s world-class observatories to understand how frontier science becomes data infrastructure, technology, public policy, and societal value. Strong fit for CS, DS, A&A, Engineerings, Math, STS, Earth Systems, and policy-minded STEM students.
Academic profile: Astronomer, Assistant Professor at Universidad de Chile, and Associate Researcher at CATA. Dr. Fuentes earned his PhD in Astronomy from Harvard University and works on planetary formation, exoplanets, moving-object detection, time-domain astronomy, precision photometry, big data, and new observatories such as LSST.
Democracy, Public Policy, Health & Belonging
Examine democracy, inequality, migration, gender, health, cities, rights, and public policy from inside one of Latin America’s most dynamic societies.
Germán Correa, PhD
Public policy, cities, transportation, democracy, and statecraft
What you’ll explore: Learn how public policy works from someone who has studied institutions and led them at the highest levels of Chilean government. Strong fit for Econ, IR, PolSci, Sociology, Urban Studies, Public Policy, and students interested in democracy, Latin American development, governance, and transportation.
Academic profile: Sociologist from the University of Chile who pursued doctoral studies in Sociology at UC Berkeley. Correa has taught with Stanford in Santiago since 2004 and has served as Chile’s Minister of Transport and Minister of the Interior. His career spans urban development, mobility, decentralization, governance, and consulting for organizations including UNDP, the World Bank, IDB, CAF, ECLAC, FAO, IUSSP, and CELADE.
Claudia Dides, PhD(c)
Gender, health, human rights, migration, and public policy
What you’ll explore: Examine urgent social questions with a scholar-practitioner whose work has shaped Chilean debates on gender, health, rights, and public policy. Strong fit for HumBio, Psychology, Sociology, IR, PolSci, Public Policy, CSRE, and students interested in gender, sexuality, human rights, and migration.
Academic profile: Sociologist with a master’s degree in Gender and Culture Studies from the University of Chile and doctoral training in Communication. Dides works on gender studies, sexual and reproductive health and rights, sexuality education, gender-based violence, migration, qualitative methodology, and public policy. She has held leadership roles at FLACSO-Chile, Corporación Miles Chile, Universidad Central, and Universidad de Santiago, consulted for UN and public-sector organizations, and received national recognitions for her rights-focused work.
Carol Chan, PhD
Migration, race, mobility, identity, and belonging in Latin America
What you’ll explore: Go beyond the classroom to understand migration as it unfolds in Santiago through fieldwork, participant observation, community engagement, policy debate, and comparison with the United States. Strong fit for IR, Sociology, Anthropology, PolSci, Psychology, CSRE, ILAC, and students interested on migration, race and ethnicity.
Academic profile: Associate Professor of Anthropology at Universidad Diego Portales with a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Chan works on migration, racialization, gender, intergroup relations, labor, and belonging, and has authored and co-authored books and peer-reviewed articles on migration, Chinese diasporas, racialization, and precarious labor in Chile and beyond.
Culture, Memory, Arts & Public Imagination
Read Latin America from Latin America—through literature, history, music, film, climate, memory, and public debate.
Sergio Missana, PhD
Literature, climate, human rights, journalism, and global public imagination
What you’ll explore: Encounter Chile and Latin America through literary craft, Stanford training, journalism, climate leadership, and human rights experience. Strong fit for Comparative Literature, Spanish, English, Communication, ILAC, and students interested in climate and humanities, human rights, and creative writing.
Academic profile: Chilean author, scholar, editor, journalist, and activist. Missana holds a PhD in Spanish from Stanford University and has authored sixteen books across fiction, essays, children’s literature, and travel writing. He serves as Secretary-General of the Climate Parliament, an international multipartisan network of legislators working on climate change and planetary protection, and has worked in publishing, philanthropy, international research collaboration, and human rights documentation.
César Albornoz, PhD
Latin American history through music, art, film, literature, and popular culture
What you’ll explore: Study Latin America through the cultural forms people hear, see, read, and debate—not only through dates and political events. Strong fit for Spanish, English, History, Art History, Music, Film and Media Studies, Design, ILAC, Comparative Literature, and students interested in creative approaches to social understanding.
Academic profile: Historian with a PhD in History and an academic at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Dr. Albornoz’s work focuses on contemporary history and culture, especially popular music, rock, cinema, visual arts, and historical thought. His courses combine historical analysis with artistic sensitivity to help students understand Latin America from the region itself.
Spanish in Action & Cultural Fluency
Build Spanish fluency for everyday life, academic work, local voices, cultural interpretation, and field-based learning in Chile.
Mabel Abad
Spanish language, immersion, and cultural fluency
What you’ll explore: Learn Spanish for real academic and everyday life in Chile, with a professor who has spent more than two decades helping Stanford students move from classroom knowledge to confident communication. Strong fit for all majors seeking Spanish language growth, immersion, cultural confidence, conversation, and academic Spanish.
Academic profile: Abad has worked with Stanford in Santiago’s Spanish Language and Cultural Program since 2002. She has taught international students at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and other study abroad programs, including ECLAC/United Nations contexts, and has also taught in PUC’s postgraduate program in Teaching Spanish as a Second Language. She is the author of books supporting Spanish-as-a-second-language learning, including Aim & Hit in Spanish as a Second Language and 12 Verbs in Contexts of Speaking.
Ximena Lavín, MA
Spanish writing, speaking, pronunciation, and academic language
What you’ll explore: Receive individualized support to become a clearer, more confident Spanish speaker and writer in academic and everyday contexts. Strong fit for all majors seeking stronger Spanish writing, pronunciation, grammar, reading comprehension, academic language, and confidence in conversation.
Academic profile: Spanish tutor at the Stanford Center in Santiago. Lavín is a language professor with a degree in Letters and a MA in Hispanic Lexicography, with expertise in Spanish usage, grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, pronunciation, and academic writing. Her tutorials respond to students’ specific goals and challenges through sustained practice.
Víctor Pinochet, MA
Applied linguistics, Spanish language learning, and Chilean culture
What you’ll explore: Build practical Spanish skills for daily life, academic participation, and cultural navigation in Santiago. Strong fit for all majors seeking applied Spanish, Chilean culture, everyday communication, academic participation, and field-based language learning.
Academic profile: Pinochet has taught Spanish as a foreign language in the Bing Overseas Studies Program in Santiago for five years. He holds MA in Education, with interests in applied linguistics and the teaching of Spanish and English. His courses combine applied language learning with field-based engagement in Chilean and Latin American culture.