Dr. Angelina Cotler is the inaugural LACLxS Program Director. She holds a PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she completed a dissertation examining microcredit programs in Peru.

She was the Senior Associate Director of UIUC's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies for more than ten years, and was then Associate Director of the  Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, before taking up a position as the Director of Membership and Development at the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). 

At JHU, Angelina oversees all aspects of LACLxS programming, curriculum, and advising, and serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies and a Senior Lecturer in the program.