image: Members of the IFACCA Board at the Americas Cultural Summit
left to right: Bilel Aboudi (Tunisia), Dennis Marita (Solomon Islands), Simon Brault (Canada), Magdalena Moreno, Rosemary Mangope (South Africa), Staffan Forssell (Sweden), Jimena Lara Estrada (Mexico) and Stephen Wainwright (New Zealand). 

We are very pleased to welcome Ms Jimena Lara Estrada, Director General of International Affairs at the Ministry of Culture in Mexico as a member of the IFACCA Board. Ms Lara brings to the Federation a valuable perspective from Mexico - with its rich diversity and digital agenda – as well as the wider Americas region. 

Ms Lara holds a BA degree in Communication from the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City and an MA in Media, Culture and Communication from NYU. In the cultural public administration of Mexico, she has held the positions of Director of International Affairs at the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA); Deputy Director of Artistic Development in the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA); Deputy Director of Promotion at the National Auditorium and Program Coordinator at the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, among others. Ms Lara has been a professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana, is a fellow at the Salzburg Global Seminar in the Cultural Administrators category, and a member of the Board at the Anglo-Mexican Foundation.

Ms Lara Estrada was appointed at the 49th meeting of the IFACCA Board, and her appointment was confirmed on Thursday 11 May 2018 during the Americas Cultural Summit held in Ottawa, Canada. Ms Lara Estrada fills a casual vacancy created by the departure of Iván Petrella in March 2018.