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November 14 2024 Staff Brazil

Maria Amália Souza

Maria Amália Souza is founder and Executive Director of CASA Socio-Environmental Fund. She has dedicated more than 35 years to designing systemic strategies that ensure that philanthropic resources reach the most excluded and vulnerable grassroots communities. Maria Amália is also co-founder of the Brazilian Philanthropy Network for Social Justice and leads her organization in many global/regional funder coalitions. In addition, she is an advisor at The Ocean Foundation and Chair of the Board of Directors of the NUPEF Institute (Research, Education and Training Nucleus). She holds a B.A. in International Services and Development, with an emphasis in Environmental Studies, from World College West in California, and is a fellow of the Donnella Meadows Leadership Program on Systems Thinking. In 2016, Maria Amália was a finalist, among seven global leaders, to receive the Olga Alexeeva Award on Innovative Philanthropy in the Global South.

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November 14 2024 Staff

Jennifer Astone

Jennifer Astone is a PhD and Principal at Integrated Capital Investing. As a financial activist, she works to transform philanthropic investing. She founded Integrated Capital Investing in 2019 to galvanize foundations and investors to move their funding, grantmaking, and leadership toward regenerative economies and healthy food systems. She served as executive director of the Swift Foundation, guiding its transitional investment portfolio for eight years. Jennifer is also a researcher, advocate, writer, and builder of solution-focused, community- and movement-led coalitions. She helped launch the Agroecology Fund and the Transformational Food Systems Investment Initiative. In addition, Jennifer is an Integrated Social Finance Capital Fellow at RSF. She earned her PhD in anthropology based on fieldwork on gender and agriculture in Guinea, West Africa.

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November 14 2024 Staff

Nicole Etchart

Nicole Etchart is co-founder and co-CEO of NESsT, an organization that invests in and provides strategic support to social enterprises that create decent jobs to lift people out of poverty in emerging market countries. With NESsT's support, these enterprises work to foster gender equity and sustainable environmental practices to amplify their impact. Nicole leads the organization's strategy, growth and impact globally. She is responsible for the development of NESsT's new initiatives, as well as its capacity and investment strategy and tools. She oversees a senior team to carry out NESsT's objectives and maximize the organization's resources and impact.

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November 14 2024 Staff

Bridgett Mccoy

Bridgett Mccoy is a U.S. attorney and a fellow with AIDA's Human Rights and Environment Program working in Bogotá. She holds a J.S.D. from Columbia University in New York, where she was a member of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic and published her research on laws that criminalize protest against fossil fuel infrastructure. Bridgett has been an environmental compliance consultant for the U.S. Agency for International Development, with a focus on regions of armed conflict.

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November 14 2024 Staff Mexico

Jorge Carrillo

Jorge Carrillo Bañuelos is Mexican and Fellow Attorney of AIDA's Climate Program. He is a graduate of the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (Mexico) and holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Harvard University, where he completed his studies as a Fulbright Scholar. Jorge also holds a Diploma in Climate Change Law and Governance from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. His professional and academic experience has been focused on climate change litigation, environmental rights and constitutional proceedings. He worked for almost three years at the Supreme Court of Justice in Mexico, where he had the opportunity to collaborate in the drafting and analysis of rulings. He has also collaborated with the Washington D.C. office of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL).

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November 14 2024 Staff Brazil

Camila Bartelega

Camila Bartelega is Brazilian and an economist with AIDA's Climate Program working in Belo Horizonte (Brazil). She has a degree in International Relations from the Universidad Estatal Paulista and in Economics from the Universidad Federal de Paraná. She also has a postgraduate degree in Development and Social Policies from the University of Minho (Portugal). Camila has significant experience working with civil society organizations and the United Nations. She is currently concluding a Master's degree in Economics at the Universidad Estatal de Campinas with a research related to climate finance.

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November 14 2024 Staff Brazil

Isabela Feijó

Isabela Feijó is Brazilian and and was Fellow Attorney with AIDA's Human Rights and Environment Program. She holds a law degree from the Universidad Federal de Pará (Brazil) and a Master's degree in Human Rights from the Posgraduate Program in Law at the same university. Isabela has extensive academic and professional experience in international human rights litigation, multidisciplinary scientific research work, as well as training and practical performance in strategic litigation, especially before the Inter-American Human Rights System. She conducted a research on cases of human rights violations in the Amazon region. She worked as a lawyer in international lawsuits in this area and in the Federal Prosecutor's Office of Brazil, where she advised the criminal enforcement of judgments of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

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November 14 2024 Staff Argentina

María José González

María José González is Argentinean and was an attorney with AIDA's Ecosystems Program. She is a lawyer from the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo and has postgraduate studies in Environmental Law and Water Resources, International Human Rights Litigation, International Law and Legal English. María José is a candidate for a PhD in Legal and Social Sciences at the University of Mendoza. She works also as a legal advisor in environmental and human rights law and is a member of legal teams of local and national organizations in defense of the environment.

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November 14 2024 Staff Ecuador

David Cañas

David Cañas is Ecuadorian and AIDA's Interim Director of Science, working from Quito. He has a degree in Geographic and Environmental Engineering from the Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE (Ecuador). He holds a Master's degree in Geospatial Analysis from the University of London (UK). David has significant experience in environmental impact studies and identification of socio-environmental conflicts related to oil and mining activities. He has worked as a cartographer and geographer in research on climate change, risk, demography and education. He has also worked as a volunteer teacher in a community school belonging to the Achuar nationality.

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November 14 2024 Staff Mexico

Abril Oliveros

Abril Oliveros is AIDA's Finance Coordinator, working from Mexico City. She has a degree in Economics, specializing in poverty, from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She also holds a master's degree in Studies on Cultural Diversity and Social Spaces at the Institute of Indigenous Studies from the Autonomous University of Chiapas (Mexico). For several years, Abril has collaborated with civil society in the administrative and research areas.