Key People - biodata

James Watson, Deputy Director

Mr. James Watson began his USAID career in 1989 in Washington, D.C., after graduating from the University of Virginia.  From 1992-1996, he served in Budapest as USAID/Hungary’s Project Development Officer and Local Government Team Leader.  He subsequently spent three years in Washington working in the Europe and Eurasia Bureau where he was the Romania and Turkey Desk Officer and later the Deputy Chief of the Civil Society Division.  From Washington, Mr. Watson spent two years in Georgia at USAID/Caucasus as Chief of the Economic Restructuring Office, fives years as the Program Officer at USAID/Mozambique, and two years as the Program Officer for USAID Southern Africa. 

Dora Plavetic, Program Development Officer

Dora P. Plavetic joined USAID/Dominican Republic on September 8, 2008. She served as the Deputy Program Officer prior to her assuming the position of Program Office Chief in June 2010. She directs the Program Office and manages two U.S. Direct Hires and six Foreign Service Nationals. For the past two years Dora has backstopped the Economic Growth Team, managed the Living Museums in the Sea - Captain William Kidd Project with Indiana University, and served as the Gender point of contact for the Mission. Her first overseas tour with USAID was in Ghana from June 2006 to June 2008, where she directed the Food for Peace Program and was Deputy Program Officer. Ms. Plavetic has over 16 years of international working experience in the Balkans and Latin America with organizations like the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, International Rescue Committee, USA for UNHCR, World Relief, and Croatian Democracy Project. Ms. Plavetic also worked as a Personal Service Contractor with USAID/Montenegro‘s Democracy Office. Ms. Plavetic enjoys the outdoors, art, dancing and

Heather Schildge, Regional Legal Advisor

Heather Schildge is USAID’s Regional Legal Advisor, covering USAID programs in the Dominican Republic, Barbados, Guyana, Haiti and Jamaica.  She has held this position since August 2010.

Prior to arriving in Santo Domingo, Ms. Schildge served with USAID’s Office of General Counsel, focusing on programs in East Africa.  She previously spent 12 years as an attorney with the State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser, engaged on a variety of legal issues relating to international claims, economic sanctions, U.S. export restrictions and UN peacekeeping.  From 2005-2008 she was posted to U.S. Embassy The Hague as Legal Counselor, representing the United States before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, as well as other international legal institutions.  Earlier in her career, she worked at the Treasury Department’s Office of General Counsel, as a law clerk for a federal judge and as a Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho.

Ms. Schildge grew up in New Jersey.  She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (B.A.), the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (M.A.L.D.) and Harvard Law School (J.D.).  She is married to Erwin Deininger and they have three children.

 Robert Rhodes, General Development Officer

Robert S. Rhodes is a Career Foreign Service Officer who joined the Agency in March 2002.  In his current capacity as Supervisory General Development Officer, Mr. Rhodes serves as Director of the USAID/Dominican Republic Office of Democracy and Governance and leads a $7.5 million annual program portfolio with activities in civil society, political party development, rule of law, public transparency and anti-corruption.  Prior to his current assignment, Mr. Rhodes served as Division Chief for Policy, Outreach, Strategy and Evaluation within the USAID Africa Bureau (2007-2009) and Senior Policy Advisor within the USAID Office of the Administrator (2009-2010). Rhodes has over 15 years of foreign assistance management experience and expertise in the areas of strategic planning, project development, food security, and democracy and governance. His overseas experience includes USAID tours in Madagascar (2004-2007) and Haiti (2003-2004), as well as assignments in Senegal (2000-2001), Burkina Faso (1999-2000) and Benin (1997-1999) with the U.S. Private Voluntary Organization Africare.  Rhodes is the recipient of multiple USAID Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards.  In recognition of his outstanding contributions to whole of government strategy and program development, Mr. Rhodes was named a U.S. Department of State Powell Fellow in October 2006 where he completed high level policy briefings and seminars with the Secretary of State (Rice / Powell), and senior interagency and multilateral partners (Defense, Treasury, World Bank).  He is a native of Ann Arbor, Michigan and is a graduate of Hampton University (1994) and The George Washington University (1997).  He is married with two children.

Duty Greene, Senior Economic Advisor

Dr. Duty Greene has served as USAID/Dominican Republic’s Economic Policy Advisor since February of 2006. With a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics, Dr. Greene was also the Economic Policy Advisor for USAID/Honduras (1997-2006) and USAID/Ecuador (1987-1993), as well as for IDB-UNDP in Nicaragua from 1993 to 1997.  After receiving his BA degree in Political Science from Brown University in 1966, Dr. Greene served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Chile until 1969.

Amr H. Elattar, Regional Controller

Mr. Elattar joined USAID in September 2000. He was posted to USAID/Southern Africa in Botswana as the Regional Deputy Controller, covering Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho. From August 2004 to July of 2008 he was the Controller for USAID/Nepal. He subsequently spent two years in USAID/Uganda as the Mission Controller before arriving at USAID/DR. Prior to joining USAID, Mr. Elattar worked as a Revenue Agent for US. Treasury, Internal Revenue Service. He was also a Senior Tax Auditor for the State of California, and Director of Internal Audits for PacifiCare Health Systems. Mr. Elattar is a Certified Internal Auditor and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration (majoring in Accounting and Financial Management) from California State University at Long Beach

Luis F. Garcia, Regional Contracting Officer

Mr. Luis F. Garcia joined USAID in 2002 in Washington D.C.  He currently serves as the Supervisory Contracting Officer for the Office of Acquisition and Assistance in the Dominican Republic. He provides acquisition and assistance services to client missions including Jamaica, Guyana and Barbados.  From March 2003 to June 2008 he served as Deputy Director for the RCO in El Salvador covering all of Central America and Mexico.  From June 2008 to June 2009 he served as the Supervisory Contracting Officer in Pakistan overseen a program value at over two billion dollars. He is a graduate of Northeastern University, Chicago, IL. Prior to joining AID Mr. Garcia worked for the Social Security Administration in Chicago as a Social Security Specialist on title XVI and a Contracting Officer in Baltimore MD.  He is joined in the Dominican Republic by his wife and baby girl.

Jana Wooden, Education Officer.

Jana Wooden began her Foreign Service career with USAID in September 2005 as an Education Officer.  The Dominican Republic is her first post where she overseas the $20 million Education Portfolio and is leading a new 5-year $20 million Cross Sectoral Youth Program.  Prior to joining USAID she worked for Peace Corps for 11 year in various positions in Education, WID, and was the Associate Peace Corps Director in Mozambique.  She served as a Health and Education volunteer in Sao Tome and Principe.  She has worked for NGOs in family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention and care in the States.  She has her master’s degree in Applied Development from Tulane University.

Penelope A. Thomas-Attar, Regional Supervisory Executive Officer.

Ms. Penelope  A. Thomas-Attar joined USAID in 2002. She has served as a Supervisory Executive Officer (EXO) in Washington, DC, Egypt, Mali and Bangladesh. Ms. Thomas-Attar has also been the Acting EXO in Nepal, Morocco and Kenya. She joined the USAID/Dominican Republic (DR) Mission in August 2010 where she serves as the Regional Supervisory EXO for the DR, Barbados, Guyana and Jamaica.
Originally from Minneapolis Minnesota, Ms. Thomas-Attar moved to Burkina Faso in 1979 where her father was posted as an employee of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). She attended a French high school in Burkina Faso thus becoming fluent in both French and Spanish. After graduating from St. Olaf College with a Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish and French, she joined the United States Peace Corps in Gabon, Central Africa, where she taught English in a rural village from 1989 to 1991. Ms. Thomas-Attar has more than twenty years of experience working in international development organizations including AFRICARE and the Service and Development Agency Inc. of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME-SADA). In addition to her passion for international development, Ms. Thomas-Attar is also an accomplished singer. To her credit, she has performed at numerous U. S. Embassy independence celebrations around the world. Ms. Thomas-Attar was a member of a local gospel group from Minnesota, The Sounds of Blackness, from 1988 to 1989. She has also performed with many famous artists, including Prince, Harry Belafonte and Sheila Escovido (Sheila E). Ms. Thomas-Attar is married to Mr. Hicham Attar.