WCS COLOMBIA
STAFF

Equipo de trabajo

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Carlos Andrés Ríos
Coordinador de Sistemas de Información Geográfica
Carlos is an Environmental Administrator from Technological University of Pereira (2005) and a specialist in Geographical Information Systems-GIS at the Francisco José de Caldas District University (2007). He joined WCS Colombia in 2008 as a contractor and later as an employee and coordinator of the GIS area, from there he has supported or led different projects in all WCS lines of work. He has extensive experience in thematic mapping, relational databases (spatial databases), handling of unmanned aerial vehicles, programming in Python and especially spatial analysis and modeling. Additionally, he has interests in urban mobility, free software and cycling in all its ways.
Leonor Valenzuela
Analysis and Synthesis Coordinator
Leonor joined Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) - Colombia in March, 2014. She is currently Analysis and Synthesis Coordinator and leads the monitoring team that works in the conservation of landscape species and their habitat and the tracking of conservation activity, compensations and decision-making, under an adaptive management framework. Leonor is a Biologist from the Universidad del Valle, where she worked with bat systematics. She obtained an MSc and a PhD in Ecology from the Universidad Católica de Chile. There she worked with biodiversity patterns of mammals in insular systems at island and archipelago level, focusing on the effect of the spatial arrangement of the islands and the implications of body size on colonization and extinction rates. Her main interests focus on the macroecology discipline, understood as the search for general principles that explain diversity, in order to apply the results to the conservation of biodiversity and, in particular, to the analysis of the conservation status of animal species.
Luz Dary Acevedo
Coordinadora de Salud
Luz Dary is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine DVM from the Universidad del Tolima (Ibagué, Colombia). For more than 15 years, she has worked in wildlife health, management, and conservation in different zones of the country, especially in protected areas. She coordinated the Wildlife Program and generated the National Wildlife Strategy for National Parks of Colombia. Her experience Wildlife Health has been focused on the surveillance of diseases and the assessment of associated risk factors to reduce threats in different species and landscapes, including the development of conservation initiatives with peasant, indigenous, and Afro-descendant communities. She joined the WCS Colombia Program in 2012 and since then she has coordinated the Wildlife Health Program and since 2017 she has led the initiatives of the Colombia Program to reduce Wildlife trafficking, jointly with WCS countries in the Andes-Amazonia region. With the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, she supports the implementation of the National and Binational Strategies for the prevention and control of wildlife trafficking, as well as the National conservation programs for threatened species, especially amphibians and primates.
Lina Caro
Coordinadora Paisajes Sostenibles
Lina is a biologist from the Universidad de Los Andes, where she investigated the reproductive success of the tropical mockingbird (Mimus gilvus) and its relationship with singing. In 2008, she studied for an MSc in Ecology and Evolution at Universidad de Los Andes. Her thesis focused on the speciation patterns of the grey-breasted wood-wren (Henicorhina leucophrys) associated with elevation, in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. In 2013, Lina studied for an MPhil in Conservation Leadership at the University of Cambridge, where she designed a conservation strategy based on tourism for the Ometepe Island Biosphere Reserve, Nicaragua. She is currently part of WCS’ monitoring team where she works with the conservation of landscape species and their habitat, the tracking of conservation activity (i.e. reforestation, biological corridors, work with communities), compensations and decision-making.
Paola Andrea Mejía
Coordinadora programa marino
Biologist and Doctor in Sciences-Biology from the Universidad del Valle, Colombia. Marine leader of WCS Colombia since 2017. She has been supporting processes for the declaration and management of marine protected areas, as well as strategic planning processes based on community participation and adaptive management, as mechanisms to direct and execute actions towards the sustainability of the resources and their ecosystem services. She has experience in population assessments of fishery resources, based on both life history and demographics and poor data, aiming to contribute to the management of those resources of economic importance and food security of coastal communities.
Héctor Fabio Ortiz Cortázar
Contador
Accountant from the Libre University of Cali, he joined the WCS organization since April 2023. Extensive experience leading accounting, tax and administrative areas, knowledge of the agricultural sector, foundations and the services sector. Always promoting the human and professional development of his work group.
Alexandra Areiza Tapias
Líder Áreas de Conservación
Environmental Administrator and a Master in Geography, she has over 10 years of experience in issues related to the conservation and use of biodiversity. Her professional career includes participation in intersectoral planning for the Amazon region and the strengthening of the National System of Protected Areas-SINAP. She has been involved in intersectoral planning for the Amazon region and has contributed to the strengthening of the National System of Protected Areas (SINAP). Her work has included contributions to the creation, management planning, and effective governance of protected areas. In Colombia, she has also contributed to the conceptual and methodological development of Complementary Conservation Strategies and Other Effective Conservation Measures Based on Areas.
Luis Peralta
Líder Logística
Luis Angel Peralta Zapata. Logistics Leader. Luis Angel joined the WCS team in August 2023 to support all logistics operations of the organization. His professional training is focused on everything related to supply chains, supported by more than ten years of experience in both the industrial and service sectors. He has extensive knowledge in Supply Chain Management, Logistics Management, Transportation Management, Purchasing and Import Management, Location Management, and Tool Management. He is an Industrial Engineer from the Universidad Nacional a Distancia – UNAD-, and a Technologist in Production Management, with a Diploma in Business Management from the UNICUCES Universidad Center in Cali.
María Antonia Espitia
Líder Procesos Sociales
María Antonia is a psychologist. She joined WCS in 2014 as coordinator of the Wildlife Project in the Magdalena Medio region. She has led the development of participatory, organizational, educational, investigative, deliberative and environmental territorial planning practices within rural communities, with the purpose of enabling them to act as managers of their own initiatives. With her work, María Antonia mainly strives to strengthen the healthy coexistence between man and nature.
Patricia Falk Fernández
Líder Procesos Sociales
Patricia is a marine biologist from the Universidad del Valle, with a specialization in Environmental Management, with studies in Communication for Environmental Education and Aquatic Conservation Biology. In 30 years of experience, she has worked as a researcher in different groups of birds and marine mammals and in projects coordinating education and social action strategies that seek to generate strategies to articulate and understand the relationships of communities with nature and, from the appropriation of these elements, promote new attitudes of appreciation and respect for the environment. Since February 2023, she has been working as Leader of social processes in the WCS´s Marine Program, where she bases her work on the empowerment of the communities of the Andes-Chocó Landscape.

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