Committee

The governing body of the Region is the Regional Conference which takes place once every three years. All Member Organizations in the region are invited to send a delegation to the Regional Conference, which takes place in a different country each triennium. The Conference elects six members to the Regional Committee for a three- year term. Members can be elected for one additional term, to serve a maximum of six years. At least one member of the Committee must be under the age of 30 at the time of the election.

The Western Hemisphere Committee WAGGGS was elected by delegates to the 11th Western Hemisphere Regional Conference, which met in Canada in July 2007. Find out more about the Western Hemisphere Committee on this page.

The members of the Western Hemisphere Committee are:

María Elena Murillo Echeverria - Chairman

Costa Rica (Age: Over 30) 

María Elena was first elected to the Western Hemisphere Committee in 2004. María Elena is an Ex-Officio member, Former National Chief Guide and National Trainer of her association. She has a degree in Psychology and is a Specialist in Clinical Psychology.

María Elena hopes to collaborate in the strengthening and the improvement of the quality of Girl Guiding in the Region, with stronger organizations, and better positioned as the healthier alternative found in non formal education of girls and young women. She hopes to achieve this through better educational programmes and more modern training processes. In her free time she likes to read, walk, dance to tropical music and cook.

Perla Casco Pérez - Vice Chairman

Honduras (Age: Under 30) 

Perla is National Chairman of her association. Professionally she is a dentist. She hopes to support Member Organizations and learn more about the Caribbean countries. Perla also hopes to help many countries to increase their membership. In her free time, Perla enjoys reading and play with her children.

Tanya Dawkins

USA (Age: Over 30) 

Since 2004, Tanya has brought her commitment to gender equity; social and economic justice; leadership development and global engagement to the Western Hemisphere Committee. Professionally, Tanya is the founder/director of the Global‐Local Links Project. Her work focuses on developing a new generation of globally‐minded, community‐centric tools, policies, networks and metrics that “put people and communities at the center of the global economy” by engaging the question of what it means to build citizen and community power in an age of intensifying globalization(s).

She is a social entrepreneur, analyst, writer and frequent speaker on the communities, trade and globalization debate; leadership and leadership development; public policy, governance and citizen action.

Rechanne Browne

St Vincent & the Grenadines (Age: Under 30) 

Rechanne was first elected to the Western Hemisphere Committee in 2004. She is Division Commissioner for Kingstown in her association. Professionally Rechanne is a Barrister at Law and a Solicitor. She hopes to serve her Guiding sisters in the region and contribute to the quality product that is Guiding.

She also hopes to generate enough excitement about Guiding to cause Member Organizations to be constantly improving and serving the girls and young women better. In her free time Rechanne enjoys cooking, reading and enjoying the outdoors.

Kirsten Ramsay

Canada (Age: Over 30) 

Kirsten (Kika) is a Brownie Guider in her association and Leadership Development Trainer. She also works on a task group for the Twinning Project (Canada-Dominica). Professionally she is an Operations Facilitator for International Education- River East Transcona International Education Program. Kika notes that Guiding has given her so much and she now wants to give back to Guiding. The international scope of Guiding is exciting and it provides wonderful opportunities for us to make a difference in the lives of all girls and young women.

She wants to work with the countries in the region to grow and strengthen our movement so that we can become the voice of girls and women now and in the future. In her free time Kika enjoys doing anything outdoors such as running, biking, camping etc. She loves the theatre and listening to all types of music as well as reading and spending time on her computer. She also volunteers for another organization which works with children with cancer.

Laura Salvador Puig

Ecuador (Age: Over 30) 

Laura is the Vice President (Technical) as well as a National Trainer and Guider of her association. In her professional life she is an Educational Psychologist and facilitator on developing processes. She would like to use her personal and professional skills and strengths in the Western Hemisphere committee and contribute so that more girls and young women can share in Girl Guiding.

Her main area of focus will be training. She also hopes to strengthen adult members so that they can continue to fulfil our mission. In her free time Laura enjoys reading, writing listening to music and doing handicrafts.


The Regional Chairman is also a voting member of the WAGGGS World Board.

Ex-officio members, without vote, are:

The role of the Committee Members is to further the Mission and policies of the World Association through the work of the Region by leading the development and implementation of Regional strategies towards the achievement of the WAGGGS goals, strategic plan and policies.

The Regional Director works closely with the Regional Committee, in line with WAGGGS Strategic Plan, ensuring its implementation for the promotion and development of Girl Guiding/Girl Scouting in the Region and also coordinating and managing the provision of service and support to all Member Organizations  in the Region.