SOAR - Panama Chapter
Panama joined the SOAR family in May 2018. Panama, home to more than 4 million people, is a country on the isthmus linking Central and South America. The Panama Canal, a famous feat of human engineering, cuts through its center, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to create an essential shipping route. In the capital, Panama City, modern skyscrapers, casinos, and nightclubs contrast with colonial buildings in the Casco Viejo district and the rainforest of Natural Metropolitan Park. Panama is the only place in the world where you can see the sunrise on the Pacific and set on the Atlantic.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
Loucine Hayes
President
Loucine Hayes was born in a small town in the Armenian highlands. Upon completing her undergraduate studies, she worked as a journalist in Armenia, where she met and married a Peace Corps Volunteer. Loucine and Tom have two sons, Mateos and Markos, who are 19 and 16 years of age, respectively. Hayes also holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Edinburgh Business School in Scotland.
Hayes taught English in Saudi Arabia, worked as a Communications and Program Manager for World Vision-Armenia, and then began a career with Habitat for Humanity. With Habitat, she served as a Country Director in Vanuatu and as a Regional Program Manager, before taking on the responsibility of Housing Finance Manager for Habitat Europe and Central Asia. In her role, she supported 25 countries in the region, aided by her ability to speak over 10 languages.
Under Hayes’ leadership, a failed program in Vanuatu became a successful, self-sustaining social enterprise. A program in Tajikistan also experienced incredible growth, expanding their services from only 100 families to more than 10,000. Additionally, Loucine was a key strategic team member, who worked to establish the Global Housing Fund for Habitat, which hired Triple Jump to manage the fund that is now providing affordable wholesale housing loans for developing countries. Loucine launched a new program in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and laid the foundation to start a new program in Georgia.
In 2011 Hayes was appointed as the Peace Corps Uganda Country Director position where she worked for five years and then supported Peace Corps Botswana as an Interim Country Director in the transition period. As Country Director, she has initiated several innovative partnerships, which enable Volunteers to have greater impact in their communities. Through their work with the Global Education Fund, the Education program has been able to focus on primary education and literacy, while the Agribusiness program has emerged, thanks to Feed the Future Partnership, providing Volunteers with adequate resources and increased visibility. She also launched innovative PPP with SEED Global Health to place American doctors and nurses as adjunct faculty to teach in Universities in Uganda.
Loucine Hayes presently works as Lumos Regional Director for LAC region. She is responsible to develop the region launching new programs in dinstitutionalisation and supporting the development of existing programs. She has successfully launched a program in Colombia, developing partnership with central government and municipality of Bogota, continues the development of the program in Haiti and launching a hub in Panama.