Russell T. Porter

Russell Porter is Deputy Director for the Central America and Mexico Office at USAID, where he manages a team of over 20 pro-fessionals that provide strategic direction and oversight for pro-gramming in the region. As Staff Director and head of operations for the Northern Triangle Task Force from 2021-2022, he led the development of the Root Causes Strategy for USAID, managed in-teragency coordination, and oversaw the alignment of USAID pro-grams under the new strategy.

Russell has held several leadership roles during his 25-year career at USAID. He previously served as USAID’s first Global Coordi-nator for Countering Violent Extremism; Director of the Program Office for Afghanistan and Pakistan; director of the Haiti Task Team following the devastating 2010 earthquake; and director for Latin America in the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI). Russell started his career at USAID serving as the Agency’s senior press of-ficer. He spent nearly three years on Capitol Hill working for Sen. Sam Nunn (D-GA). Russell has worked in over 20 countries and is proficient in Spanish.

A native of Atlanta, Russell is a graduate of Rhodes College and later earned an MA in Latin American studies and international eco-nomics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).