Helga Flores Trejo heads strategic communications for sectors at the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington. Prior to joining the IDB she served for six years as executive director of the Heinrich Boell Foundation in North America, a leading German think-tank, headquartered in Berlin, with twenty-six offices worldwide. is an expert on German and US foreign policy, EU affairs, the Balkans, and immigration issues. As head of the Boell Foundation's North American operations in Washington, she focused her work on global challenges confronting the United States and Europe, primarily regarding energy and climate change, the engagement with China and Russia, and confronting fundamentalism in the Middle East. Prior to leading the Foundation in Washington, Ms. Flores Trejo worked in the Balkans as senior advisor for the Parliamentary Support Program at the Belgrade Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). There she directed a program to install parliamentary control and oversight of the military and security services in the region. Ms. Flores Trejo worked previously on foreign and European policy issues in Germany, first as a foreign policy and development advisor in the German Bundestag, then as chief of staff to Hamburg's delegate in the Bundesrat (Upper House). She served concurrently as senior advisor on European Policy for the State Government of Hamburg where she also represented the State in the Bundesrat's Committee on EU Affairs. She is a frequent speaker and moderator in Washington and Europe as well as commentator on foreign policy issues in German TV and Radio. Ms. Flores Trejo has been awarded fellowships by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Prince of Wales' Business and Environment Programme as well as the BMW Herbert Quandt Foundation. She holds a master's degree in political science and international law from the Johann Wolfgang-Goethe University in Frankfurt.