“We should never think or say we can’t do this or that, we have within us the energy and the wisdom. We are persistent, stubborn, and resourceful.”

Tell Us About Yourself!

I am a passionate environmentalist-nature lover from the Andes Mountains in Colombia who grew up in the urban frontier of a big city and became an engineer to solve pollution problems that I saw were affecting everyone and nature. I first worked with wastewater and sewage, and then with solid waste, and finally with air pollution and climate change. This journey took me away from my home city to other countries, Cuba, India, New Zealand, Brazil and the United States. All my professional life I have worked with non-profit organizations that share my same mission: we need a pollution free world for all people. I am also a cyclist fanatic, and I have combined my passion for zero emissions mobility with biking advocacy. Cities need more people on bikes to solve congestion, pollution and to connect people more. I am a networker and I love making new friends and learning from them, especially women, who follow their passion. I was born, of all days, on March 8th, the day we celebrate women internationally and that in itself has been an energizing fact. I live in Ōtautahi, New Zealand, with Matthew, our daughter Almudena and our dog Rocky. 

What Are Your Accomplishments / What are you proud about?

Like many people who do extraordinary things,  I am the first in my family to go to university and it is a great accomplishment for both my parents who didn’t even finish high school when they married, and none of my grandparents finished primary school. I am the oldest of four siblings and since I knew I had to break that ceiling, it has been a driving force. Both my parents encouraged me to study, I was first in class in many of my school years and was able to graduate from the public university in Colombia, where admissions are very difficult. I graduated 5th in my class in the chemical engineering department in 1995 and I was able to get two scholarships to undertake postgraduate studies abroad. I learned English as an adult and, like many immigrants, I took it as a challenge to master it no matter how heavy my accent was (and still is).

My family (as the movie Encanto now made it possible to share) emigrated from the countryside due to the innumerous civil war conflicts in Colombia. My grandparents had to work very hard as manual labor to raise their families in a city that wasn’t theirs. My mom became a small-truck driver after her divorce, before my dad and her had a home business.  I was the first one to earn a living from a professional degree and my sisters, brother, and cousins have followed me.

Living the legacy of the previous century, my mother was dependent economically on my father as he managed the home business they both worked in. The responsibilities of the house and kids were entirely the woman’s role. I feel very proud of having accomplished  my economic independence and having found a partner with whom I shared all the household and childcare responsibilities with. My professional development has been as important as his, and in some cases prioritized over as a family (when I had to travel a lot my husband took care of everything). My husband has empowered me.

Professionally, one of my early accomplishments was in 2002  when I participated in the Rio + 10  Earth Summit in Johannesburg. The famous Rio Summit in 1992, was an important moment for me, as I was still in University and I didn’t have the chance to go, but seeing from afar that governments were caring about the relationship with nature was inspirational. In 2001, my first job after graduating from my masters degree in Environmental Engineering was precisely in one of the Rio Summit legacy programs: Agenda 21. As part of that job, I  took a delegation of Latin American local governments to Joburg and witnessed how countries, still with the ambition to foster sustainable development, were struggling and it was important to show the progress cities were making. Since then I have always had a global vision and a connection with the local work I do.

I was named a Remarkable Women in Transportation in 2020 by the German Cooperation Agency and their Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative, among 50 other  female-change makers in the world. After two decades working in the field, providing technical assistance, doing policy advocacy, and managing campaigns for cities to reduce emissions investing in public transit, electric mobility, and bike networks, it was great to have been publicly recognized by my peers.

And in 2015, just before signing the Paris Agreement on Climate, one the major milestones many activists and professionals like me have worked over years, I was part of the preparatory U.S. – China Climate Summit in Los Angeles. In that event I had the chance to meet in person, then the Vicepresident, now President Joe Biden (!). In this photo Joe Biden, Margarita and Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles (I only wished I had worn high heels that day).

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person/s who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

All the strong women of my family, especially my paternal grandmother, who is a force of nature and only learned to read and write in her late 40s (when I was going to school!) having fled the countryside too young. She never gave up on learning and doing better. Until today in her early 90s is my inspiration. My mom who defied many norms of her generation, like getting divorced and being agnostic, and fighting for her own independence and voice. She gave me the confidence from an early age that I could fly alone, and that she would be on the ground watching me and she did.
My chemistry teacher in high school, Mauro, and my thermodynamics lecturer at university, Marcelo, were a great push, both of them knew I could do more. My first boss after university, Miguel, not many years older than me was a good example, as he was the first person I knew who had left Colombia to study abroad and his experience helped me: if he could, why can’t I. Those were men but engineering is a very male dominating place. Later in my career I started to have women bosses and they were a great inspiration. My boss in Brazil, Laura, showed me how leadership was about teamwork, not giving orders. In the US, I met amazing colleagues with stories I felt mine: chicanas born in California’s Central Valley from agricultural workers families, black women from underserved areas in Oakland, and latinas immigrants with heavier accents than mine! And they all were thriving and overcoming barriers, it has been soul lifting to meet them.

Are you part of a Lean in Circle group, or any other resource group? Can you tell us your experience with it?

Yes! I met Latinas in San Mateo Lean in Circle through fellow moms at my daughter’s school, Adelante in Redwood City. I joined the Circle in spring 2018 in a meeting organized by Irma Zpoef. When I was invited it intrigued me, as I have read Sheryl’s book a few years prior but wasn’t familiar with the concept of circles, and after the first meeting, I knew I had found my group. Meeting and learning from other latinas like me, being inspired by other driven women, was fantastic.The sessions allow us to share our intimate experiences and learn from each other how to overcome all those overwhelming feelings of today’s life as mothers, students, independent business owners, artists, scientists and as friends . The pandemic hit us and it actually united us more, as it provided a space to cope with a crisis collectively. The group is central to my story now. It has been four years (hard to believe) and I have enjoyed, laughed and come to tears with them and grown as a woman.

What Is Your Call To Action?

I am capable of it and more!
We should never think or say we can’t do this or that, we have within us the energy and the wisdom. We are persistent, stubborn and resourceful. We need to put all our efforts into following our passion starting from wherever it is we are starting. I know some women are in harsher conditions than I was, but if we embrace all that makes us women, helping others, laughing and crying along the way, we all can do it.

Thanks For Participating!