Biography

Nivia Rossana Castrellon Echeverria is the vice president of Business circle, an organization improving education. She is also the presidential council for achieving the permanent headquarters of the FTAA (2001-2004). Nivia has been the deputy foreign minister of the Republic of Panama (2003-2004). Educational Associations: President of the Board of the Cultural Institute, president of the National Union of Private Educational Centers for 18 years. She was also the ambassador of special mission for Panama Nivia's career is comprised of a series of firsts. Nivia is a trailblazer in the fields of Education, Economic Development, Special Education and more whose work is not only helping to shape the economic landscape of Panama but all of Central America and beyond. As the first Panamanian women to be accepted to Harvard Law Nivia knew that she was going to use her law degree to facilitate change. She knew this because she raised the beliefs that money is not the end goal. The Echeverría and Castrellón family members for generations in Tolé and Aguadulce were involved in educational work seeing that as a key component of community development. Nivia's mother whose life is chronicled in the book Pasión y vida : biografía de Nivia Graciela Echeverría Sáez by Nivia Rossana Castrellón Echeverría (2012) was a guiding force in Nivia's life and In 1959 the year Nivia was born her mother established the school Cultural Insituto for K-12 students located in El Cangrejo neighborhood in Panama City. The school led the vanguard on its approach to education with the mission to develop the potential of each student, respecting their individual differences and reinforcing moral values and placing an emphasis on STEM subjects and the arts. In 1997 after practicing corporate law Nivia joined her mother in the operation of the school which operates today in the sector of El Bosque in Panama. Nivia's work has been in various areas of the business and government sectors; through her law work, the corporate work and in government and the international policy stage as the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of Panama, Ambassador to Special Mission Panama. She is a policy maker who as an advocate of economic development, environmental protection, and education has used her connections in the business community to help improve conditions in Panama and the rest of Central America. Nivia was for 18 years president of the Association of Private Colleges of Panama and founder of the Business Circle for the Improvement of Education. "In such challenging socioeconomic environments, the school must be a neutralizer of the environment, a living space of hope for aspirations, as well as a great social leveler, not a manifest destiny for the perpetuation of poverty and unequal distribution of wealth." As the mother of her son with autism, she has fought to establish educational access to all. That everyone deserves the same treatment to education regardless of socio-economic status, disability. The freedom that comes with education is for all children. Nivia's belief is to be an agent of change. My goal is to leave the work a better place than it was when I came into it. As co-chair of National Strategy Information Center, she developed curriculum with representatives of John Jay College, Rutgers University and Georgetown based on case studies of the culture of culture lawfulness. A curriculum that today is being used in many schools.