Maria is a young environmental scientist, researcher and social entrepreneur. She grew up in Bucaramanga, Colombia, a typical car-centric and rapidly-growing city in a country that is undergoing a long-awaited, transformative peace process. Maria is passionate about advancing the development of sustainable initiatives that provide multiple environmental, social, economic, and health co-benefits. Today, as a Research Assistant in the department of Environmental Health at Boston University School of Public Health, she works on a NASA Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team (HAQAST) study. Maria is co-founder of UpTica, a social venture that creates alternative income sources and learning opportunities for women from upcycling in rural communities of Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica; COO of RedLAtM, a Latin American and the Caribbean network of youth in atmospheric sciences and meteorology; and a Contributor Author for Ciclaramanga, a community-focused organization promoting urban cycling as the solution to the issues of mobility, health and pollution in Bucaramanga. Her sustainability efforts have been recognized through a Resolution Project Fellowship, multiple fellowships and awards from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an Audi scholarship to attend One Young World Summit 2017. Maria strongly believes that we must create intergenerational and multi-sectoral collaborations to mitigate air pollution and climate change, take climate action as an opportunity for health, and co-create sustainable cities and communities for a more inclusive and resilient future. Maria is convinced that youth should be at the forefront of this process because they are inheriting the results of today’s choices and will be the ones affected if we continue with business-as-usual. She urges us to do what is ethical and act now.

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