Virginia Marie Bouvier (1958–2017)

VIRGINIA M. BOUVIER, "Ginny" was an assistant professor of Latin American literature and culture at the University of Maryland. Ginny was a graduate of Wellesley College, and had an MA in Spanish from the University of South Carolina, and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley in Latin American studies.

She was the United States Institute of Peace 's (USIP) senior advisor for peace processes.
Ginny was the face—and essence—of USIP's work on Colombia's peace process for over a decade. The Colombian peace accord signed last September was unprecedented in its inclusion of victims, women and minorities, due in no small part to Ginny's unrelenting support and advice to so many of those involved. She was among the few foreign guests invited to attend the signing ceremony in Cartagena.

Ginny also had been a consultant and research director for the Women's Leadership Conference of the Americas, a joint project of the Inter-American Dialogue and the International Center for Research on Women, and a consultant for USAID, UN Women, World Bank, Levi Strauss Foundation, Levi Strauss and Co. and the C.S. Fund. She had served as senior associate at WOLA, a human rights organization, working on Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

A think tank in Colombia, Corporación Arco Iris, in 2012 named Ginny among four Americans on its list of the 11 most influential international experts advising on the peace process over the previous decade. [from USIP Obituary]