At the age of 27, Valentina Ramia received an urgent call from a friend in Ecuador, where she was born, to join a newly formed government. With her master’s degree in public policy analysis and management, Ramia left her work at a think tank in New York to return home and assist with governing in the new administration. The year was 2007. In her role as an under secretary, Ramia was put in charge of social policy in a newly formed department, and asked to help resolve a crisis in the prison system. Working with the prisoners’ unions and other…