I am the Executive Director of Fundación Pachaysana, an Ecuadorian non-profit organization that partners with indigenous communities to restore their territories and re-story their identities. I specialize in fostering connections and designing innovative systems to circumvent the oppressive and extractivist structures responsible for deforestation, biodiversity loss, and the erosion of indigenous culture, language, and cosmovision. In 2019, I founded Humans for Abundance, raising over $300,000 to carry out socio-environmental restoration with rural communities in the Amazon Rainforest and other areas of Ecuador. My work has been featured by BBC News, BBC StoryWorks, and other international media outlets.
In 2022, I co-created the Forest School in collaboration with the women of an indigenous community in the Amazon, responding to their pressing need to keep the youth engaged in the village to learn how to protect their forests. I successfully secured the necessary partnerships and funding to execute this project in which students are learning in their own Kichwa language, with a curriculum that blends ancestral knowledge and wisdom with essential Western skills such as mathematics, English, and Spanish.
Previously, I founded and led three socially-oriented for-profit ventures, including one focused on women’s support circles and wisdom sharing. I began my career as a primary school teacher in Quito and later served as principal, where I gained valuable insights into human behavior and transformation by closely observing and learning from children.