CARE Colombia Team

Meet the team traveling with you!

Catalina Vargas headshot

Catalina Vargas Villamarin

Country Director

Catalina Vargas has served as the Country Director for CARE Colombia for over three years. In this role, she spearheads initiatives to advance the rights of women and girls by working closely with women-led, local organizations, in alignment with CARE’s approach of shifting leadership and decision-making to local organizations. A committed humanitarian worker, Catalina advocates for shifting power and resources to local and communities, particularly in the Global South. With more than 18 years of experience in the humanitarian sector, she has previously led regional humanitarian responses in Latin America and the Caribbean, applying an approach that connects humanitarian, development, and peace-building work.

Luisa Vega headshot

Luisa Vega

Programs Director

Luisa Vega is a lawyer with more than 13 years of dedicated experience in the defense, promotion, and advocacy of human rights, particularly for women, children, and individuals with diverse sexual orientations. She worked extensively with international cooperation organizations, civil society, and the Colombian government. Since joining CARE nearly four years ago, Luisa initially served as Protection in Emergencies Lead for the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region. In 2021, she transitioned to her current role as Programs Director. She has coordinated and implemented development programs and humanitarian responses in crisis situations caused by armed conflict and the movement of migrants and refugees. Her work ensures the effective integration of program quality standards in the CARE portfolio.

Andrés Sarmiento Andrade headshot

Andrés Sarmiento Andrade

Partnerships Manager

Andrés Sarmiento Andrade has been the Partnerships Manager at CARE Colombia since 2022. In this role, he leads resource mobilization efforts to achieve the results of the Programmatic Strategy while enhancing CARE’s positioning and visibility with public, private, and international cooperation stakeholders in Colombia. He also leads the localization agenda, fostering relationships with local partners and women-led organizations to connect humanitarian, development, and peace-building work, and advocacy to multiply CARE’s impact. With more than 10 years of experience in project design, management, and evaluation, Andrés has worked extensively in both humanitarian response and promoting economic, social, and political development for at-risk populations. He holds a degree in Political Science from Universidad del Rosario and a master’s degree in Public Policy from Universidad del Valle.

Jen Haile headshot

Jen Haile

Executive Director, Philanthropy

Jen Haile is Executive Director for Philanthropy at CARE, where she leads a team dedicated to building partnerships with major philanthropists to fight poverty and respond to humanitarian crises worldwide. Jen brings more than 25 years of experience in fundraising, advocacy, and partnership development for global issues.

Prior to joining CARE, she spent many years at Human Rights Watch and National Public Radio. She was instrumental in the launch of Maverick Collective, an initiative to promote greater investment in women and girls. Jen developed her passion for international issues and human rights early on while working in youth camps in Ukraine, volunteering with the International Rescue Committee to help resettle Sudanese refugees, and teaching business development as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Armenia. Jen earned an MBA in International Business from George Washington University. She lives in New York with her husband, Jeremy, a public interest lawyer.