Senior Management

Alfredo Cuellar, Jr., Ph.D., MSD Founder and President, has more than twenty-five years of experience in international development.   Dr. Cuellar is a multilingual former Foreign Service Officer with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He taught political science at the Claremont Colleges in California, and thus combines strong academic perspectives with comprehensive field experience in designing and implementing judicial reform, democracy, and human rights initiatives in the developing world.  Dr. Cuellar continues to be an active leader in strengthening the work of civil society through NGOs, and building sustainable rule of law, human rights protection, and development programs throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa.

Helen Muñoz-Baras, Ph.D., Vice President for Operations and Development, has more than twenty-five years of experience in public health and human services.  Dr. Muñoz-Baras' arrival at MSD in 1998 expanded the firm's in-house senior technical expertise to include public health administration, HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, mental health, substance abuse, maternal and child health, gender equity, and community service organizational leadership and effectiveness.  Dr. Muñoz-Baras' doctoral research on community-based organizations and managed health care, as well as her experience as an Annie E. Casey fellow, illustrates her commitment to giving voice to marginalized and minority population groups. She led the firm through a period of growth and expansion and is responsible for daily operations at MSD headquarters. Dr. Muñoz-Baras is a multilingual social scientist, an expert in organizational change, and a key member of the MSD senior management team.

Ruth Sanchez-Way, Ph.D., Vice President for Health and Community Initiatives, is an experienced senior executive with more than thirty years experience in substance abuse prevention, civil society mobilization, and minority health concerns.  Dr. Sanchez-Way is former Director of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), where she was responsible for planning, directing, and coordinating the activities of approximately 114 employees and a discretionary budget of $175 million.  She was instrumental in developing the award-winning ¡Soy Unica! ¡Soy Latina! program, a public information campaign aimed at Latina girls.   She brings grants management, program development, and human resources experience to the sphere of social service delivery mechanisms that support the transition of marginalized populations from program recipients to advocates for improved social services.

Peter Dunkelberger, CPA, Chief Financial Officer, has more than thirty years of experience as a Comptroller/Chief Financial Officer forcommercial and not-for-profit enterprises. At MSD, Mr. Dunkelberger manages accounting, human resources, information technology, and administrative services, in addition to supervising local field accounting staff in Bolivia, Panama, Rwanda, the Dominican Republic, and Colombia.   He has extensive government contracting experience, which includes contract and grants management and cost accounting, as well as the formulation of budgets, indirect costs, and competitive bidding/cost proposals.