Central/South American Region (Region 16)

Welcome to the Central/South American Region! Our mission is to provide value to our members by offering a connection point that represents the needs, concerns, and support efforts of industrial engineers across 45 countries in Central and South America. Our region has one professional chapter located in Costa Rica and 24 university chapters across Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras Peru and Costa Rica.

Region Vice President - Dr. Eng. Martha Ramírez-Valdivia

Martha Ramirez Dr. Ramírez-Valdivia is a professor, researcher, and consultant in Higher Education, Manufacturing, and Healthcare Quality Management Systems. She earned her Industrial Engineering degree from Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, Nicaragua, her M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and her Ph.D. from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

She is currently appointed as Associate Professor at the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Universidad de La Frontera in Temuco, Chile. She has authored several articles, and book chapters and participated as a researcher and co-researcher in several R&D projects in Chile, Nicaragua, and the US. Furthermore, she has served as Director of Quality, Director of the International Affairs, Director of Industrial Engineering, and Director of Master in Integrated Quality Systems Management, at Universidad de La Frontera. In the US, she worked as Project Engineer at the Enterprise Systems Center in Lehigh University, Pennsylvania. In Nicaragua, she served as a full professor at Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, consultant for the Bolivar Program for Small Companies, consultant for the Central American Bank for Integration, and National Director of Quality Control at the Ministry of Economy and Development.

Click to email Martha Ramírez-Valdivia

Assistant VP Professional Development - Juan Sebastian Sánchez

Juan Sebastian 2 Professor Sánchez-Gómez is a biomedical engineer, lawyer, magister in Education, magister in Public Policy, and a doctoral student in Industrial and Systems Engineering at Universidad de Los Andes. He has worked as a professor of civil and telematics engineering at the Universidad Distrital, professor of Industrial engineering at the Universidad El Bosque, professor of Environmental engineering at the Universidad de Cundinamarca and pedagogue of educational innovations at the Center for Innovation in Technology and Education (ConectaTE) at the Universidad de Los Andes. He has experience in research and project management in education and innovation with ICT, and he has certificates in the English, Portuguese and French languages. He has been a designer of courses and educational programs, leader of national (CNA) and international accreditation (ABET), pedagogue, and teacher trainer in secondary education. Actually is a professor of industrial engineering at the Universidad Sergio Arboleda and a professor of Systems engineering at the Universidad de Los Andes.