Dr. Myrna Cunningham, President and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC).
As one of the best-known figures of the global indigenous movement, she is notable for her excellent merits as a university graduate, researcher, public health specialist, member of parliament, and social activist for the rights of indigenous peoples, and in particular indigenous women from Nicaragua, America, and all over the world.
She was governing minister delegate of the North Caribbean Autonomous Region in Nicaragua.
In the 1990s, she created and founded the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua (URACCAN), becoming its founding president from 1994 to 2002.
Between 2011 and 2013, she served as a member of the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues, becoming chair.