Pathways To Opportunity Series: Careers in International Trade, Supply Chains, and Logistics
The WITA Academy Pathways to Opportunity program consists of a series of career pathways sessions hosted by trade professionals from the Washington D.C. policy community. The curriculum, divided between the public and private sector, highlights different roles and career paths that are available in Washington D.C. and around the world.
Students will gain insight from trade professionals, pose questions to policymakers, and learn about exciting career opportunities in international affairs, political science, business, and trade. Students come away with an understanding of the trade policy-making community, the role of its key players, and the opportunities for internships and careers available to them.
Registration is free for students and faculty – must use university email to register.
Hosted in Partnership with
AGENDA
11:00 AM ET: Introduction and Welcome
Diego Añez, Executive Director, WITA Academy; Managing Director, Washington International Trade Association (WITA) (University of Georgia)
Kenneth I. Levinson, Chief Executive Officer, Washington International Trade Association (WITA) (M.A. New York University, B.A. University of Massachusetts)
11:05 AM ET – 11:30 AM ET: Opportunities in the Public Sector
Lea-Ann B. Bigelow, Director, Green Trade, U.S. Customs & Border Protection (University of Pennsylvania & Indiana University Bloomington)
Andrew Petrisin, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Multimodal Freight, U.S. Department of Transportation (University of Notre Dame)
11:30 AM ET – 11:55 AM ET: Opportunities in the Private Sector
Maria Luisa Boyce, Vice President, International Policy for Global Public Affairs, UPS (Universidad Externado de Colombia & Harvard University)
Ralph De La Rosa, President, Imperial Freight Brokers (Florida International University)
Closing Remarks
Diego Añez, Executive Director, WITA Academy; Managing Director, Washington International Trade Association (WITA) (University of Georgia)
Rafael Centeno, WITA Academy Fellow, Washington International Trade Association (Florida International University)
Gregory G. Maloney, Ph.D., Director, PayCargo Supply Chain and Logistics Program and Associate Teaching Professor, Department of Marketing and Logistics, Florida International University
For questions about the event, please contact the WITA Staff events@wita.org.
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Lea-Ann (Lea) Bigelow is a versatile and solutions-driven operations expert with a unique track record of innovation, strategy and policy development and execution, coalition building and results delivery across the Federal, private and non-profit sectors. Ms. Bigelow’s 20 years of public sector leadership crosses the Executive Office of the President, two Cabinet Departments (Homeland Security and Commerce); and two independent Federal agencies (Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the National Gallery of Art.)
Ms. Bigelow was appointed CBP’s Director, Green Trade, Trade Policy & Programs in October 2022. Ms. Bigelow serves as CBP’s primary champion for execution of its Green Trade Strategy, which was launched in June 2022 as an agency-wide initiative to guide and inspire CBP’s enterprise-wide actions in the global fight against climate change and environmental degradation in the context of the trade mission. More specifically, Ms. Bigelow leads CBP efforts to develop new green technologies, innovation and research, drive environmental trade enforcement and climate Bodog Poker policy engagement with Partner Government Agencies and international customs entities, and engage with strategic partners from industry, academia and NGOs to explore green trade incentives and best practices.
Immediately prior to assuming her current role, Ms. Bigelow served as Director of International Engagement at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), leading global programs focused on government sustainability and climate, including the Greening Government Initiative, a first-of-its-kind community of practice with 48 participating countries working to build climate resilience in the public sector.
From 2018 to 2021, as CBP’s Director, Interagency Collaboration Ms. Bigelow fostered and drove CBP’s partnerships with over 50 U.S. federal agencies, and global public and private sector entities with equities in cross-border trade towards optimization in 1) trade policy, 2) trade-facilitating technology, and 3) trade security and enforcement. In that role, she oversaw the Border Interagency Executive Council (BIEC), the decision-making body charged with enhancing coordination across federal agencies with border responsibilities to measurably improve supply chain processes and the identification of illicit and high-risk shipments, and led design of the Global Business Identifier (GBI), a pilot program that will test the concept of a single business identifier solution to improve the U.S. Government’s and industry’s visibility into complex supply chains and facilitate legitimate trade. Ms. Bigelow was also the policy lead for CBP’s Import Safety and Agriculture Priority Trade Issues, and directed ongoing interagency technology enhancements to the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), otherwise known as the U.S. “Single Window,” the data exchange and warehouse through which all commodity imports to and exports from the U.S. are processed. ACE is the system of record by which electronic trade and related financial transactions relating to cross-border goods flows are conducted and recorded by CBP.
Ms. Bigelow’s previous U.S. Federal government service also includes: Deputy Director, Performance Strategy & Systems, U.S. Department of Commerce; Director, Performance & Risk Management bodog casino for the First Responders Network Authority (FirstNet); and Associate Director of Enforcement Operations, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Her government service began in 2004 when she joined the Treasurer’s Office of the National Gallery of Art, where she served for six years as the Gallery’s Director of Budget and Planning.
Before entering public service, Ms. Bigelow operated for several years as an investment banker and strategy consultant, specializing in international M&A, venture capital and project finance. She holds a B.Sc., magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
In 2016, Ms. Bigelow was awarded the Commerce Gold Medal, the highest form of honorary recognition the Department of Commerce bestows, for distinguished contributions to Organizational Development. Ms. Bigelow and her team were also recently recognized with the 2022 DHS Secretary’s Award for Innovation for their work in trade-facing Robotic Process Automation. She lives with her husband and daughter in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
María Luisa Boyce is Vice President of International Policy for Global Public Affairs, bringing more than 25 years of experience and leadership in international trade, customs affairs and cross-border trade. In her current role, she is part of the team working on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C., United States, advocating for UPS’ priorities, she leads UPS’s government affairs efforts in Latin America, advocates for global policy impacting UPS’s Small Business Enterprise (SMEs) customers and leads for the Global Public Affairs team the UPS Women Exporters Program. As a policy leader, Maria Luisa participates in different roles, including as Co-Chair of the Trade Facilitation Committee of the American Business Dialogue, representing UPS at the Alliance for eTrade Development, and Chair of the Supply Chain Security Policy Committee with the American Trucking Association, among others. In her professional career, Maria Luisa has held different positions and functions in both the private and public sectors of the United States, to include U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Border Trade Alliance. She has worked in regional committees, and partner with multilateral organizations. This has allowed her to have a solid knowledge of cross-border trade, understanding of logistics and the challenges faced by SMEs around the globe.
Originally from Bogotá, Colombia, María Luisa holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance and International Relations from Universidad Externado de Colombia and has a Certificate from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government for Strategic Management for Regulatory and Compliance Agencies.
Ralph De La Rosa currently serves on the board of the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) and was recently named as the Vice Chair of the NCBFAA Customs Committee as well as chair of the NCBFAA Trade Interruption and Resumption Subcommittee. He is also Vice President and Customs Committee Chair of the Florida Customs Broker and Forwarder Association (FCBF). He has been a Board member of FCBF since 2018. Additionally, he serves as President and CEO of Imperial Freight Brokers, a full-service supply chain, logistics, customs brokerage, and transportation firm based in South Florida that has been serving the global marketplace for the past 52 years. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Florida International University and is a licensed customs broker.
Andrew Petrisin is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multimodal Freight at the U.S. Department of Transportation. His focus is building the administrative and policy apparatus for the short and long-term policy, organizational, and administrative changes necessary to make the country’s goods movement system more efficient and resilient. This includes leading the development of the Freight Logistics Optimization Works (“FLOW”) effort to improve data sharing and transparency across the supply chain and development of the Office of Multimodal Freight Infrastructure and Policy Office (“Freight Office”) as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Implementation. Andrew previously worked in alternative delivery, procurement, and federal funding delivery. Andrew graduated with a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Notre Dame.
Diego Añez is the Managing Director of the Washington International Trade Association (WITA) and the Executive Director of the WITA Academy. He is responsible for management of operations, policy programs, strategic engagements and member services for the organization’s 5000+ members and corporate sponsors across all 50 states and over 100 countries worldwide. He provides direction, with the WITA CEO and Board of Directors, to WITA’s portfolio of programming and capstone events, such as the Washington International Trade Conference and Annual Dinner.
Diego also spearheads the organization’s WITA Academy – a program of the Washington International Trade Foundation which strives to make trade education and career opportunities in international trade accessible to communities in the United States and around the world. The mission of the WITA Academy is to make the trade community itself more diverse and inclusive.
Diego is originally from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia and was raised in Mobile, Alabama. Diego graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs with concentrations in International Political Economy and Comparative Politics.
Ken Levinson serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Washington International Trade Association (WITA) and Washington International Trade Foundation.
WITA is the world’s largest non-profit, non-partisan membership organization dedicated to providing a neutral forum for the open and robust discussion of international trade policy and economic issues. WITA and its affiliated groups have over 10,000 members, and more than 160 corporate sponsors and group memberships.
Ken has over 30 years of experience working with companies, associations, NGOs and governments, advocating innovative solutions to complex public policy challenges. Over the years, Ken has worked with clients in the technology, telecommunications, biopharmaceuticals, agriculture and food, financial services, retail, apparel, energy, and consumer products sectors.
Previously, Ken served as Senior Director for Global Government Affairs for AstraZeneca. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Ken served as Senior Vice President and COO at the Washington, DC consulting firm of Fontheim International. Ken joined Fontheim after spending six years on the staff of U.S. Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV. Ken advised the Senator on foreign policy and national security matters, and served as the Senator’s chief advisor on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, dealing with issues related bodog poker review to international trade and tax policy.
Ken received his Master’s Degree from New York University after doing his undergraduate work at the University of Massachusetts, in Amherst. Ken also spent a year studying at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Ken and his wife, the Reverend Donna Marsh, live in Bethesda, MD, with their two daughters.
The mission of the WITA Academy™ is to make trade education and career opportunities in international trade accessible to communities in the United States and around the world, and to make the trade community itself more diverse, equitable and inclusive.
The WITA Academy works with trade leaders in businesses, law, academia, NGOs, embassies and the U.S. Government to help stakeholders, students, and others to better understand and navigate the U.S. and global trade policy apparatus.
Thank you to our WITA Academy Sponsors
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