Dr. Maguire retired in 2017 as a full-time professor of International Development Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs, where he also directed the Latin American & Hemispheric Studies Program, the Brazil Initiative, and the Focus-on-Haiti Initiative. At the Elliott School, he created and taught a graduate seminar called, “Bottom-Up Development,” which he has continued to teach after retiring. Between 2001 and 2011, he taught at Trinity Washington University where he created and directed its International Affairs Program. From 1979 to 1999, he served as the Representative for Haiti and the Caribbean of the Inter-American Foundation, a U.S. government agency that supports grassroots, bottom-up development initiatives undertaken by local, community-based organizations. In 2000, he worked at the U.S. Department of State as Special Haiti Advisor. As a respected expert on Haiti and US-Haiti policy, he advises numerous U.S. Executive Branch agencies, the U.S. Congress, and various international organizations. He was a Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace during 2008-2009. His foundational experience in development came as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Dominica, West Indies from 1969 - 1972. He is an avid fan of baseball, Caribbean music and dogs.
Development studies; Bottom-up/grassroots development; Haiti; US-Haiti policy; Latin America and the Caribbean
Maguire earned his BA in Social Studies Education from Trenton State College (now the College of New Jersey), his MA in Latin American Studies from the University of Florida, and his Ph.D. in Geography from McGill University in Montreal.
He has published extensively on development issues and on Haiti. His most recent book is an edited volume entitled Who Owns Haiti? People, Power and Sovereignty (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2017).