Nicaragua

Indiana Siu holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy and a Master’s in Arts with focus in Asia at Chengchi University in Taiwan. She currently serves as Regional Director for Operation Smile in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Her interests are to further Operation Smile’s impact in rural sites, build local capacity, and ramp up programs to promote health access and timely quality care. Indiana strongly believes that more than ever nonprofit health organizations have a duty to support their beneficiaries and become more centered around patients’ needs; how to overcome their barriers to care and avoid catastrophic health expenditure. Before being promoted to Regional Director she served as Executive Director for the Nicaragua chapter, becoming one of the strongest foundations of Operation Smile in Latin America by providing completeness of care for patients born with cleft and expanding programs to impact the public system.

Maryangel Alemán is a fully trilingual professional with a strong academic background in Global Business and Innovation with more than three years of experience in the areas of research, team leadership, and entrepreneurship. She has a broad expertise and knowledge in managing, monitoring, and evaluating projects with social impact in Central and South America. Some of the organizations she has worked with are the Organization of American States (Peru), Techo Costa Rica, AIESEC Brazil, World Vision, Global Shapers, and Thrive Nicaragua. Through her professional experiences, she has been able to connect with social entrepreneurs, key partners, and donors from the United States and Europe. Furthermore, her strong educational background in business and professional experiences provided her with a broad knowledge in Project Management, Partnership Development, and Administration. Her postgraduate in Innovation gave her strong creativity skills and an excellent entrepreneurial mindset.

Felix Rugama is an agronomist with more than ten years of experience working on topics related to agriculture, climate change, food security, gender, community organization, and empowerment. Lately, he is working at a nonprofit organization as a Project Manager, ensuring that girls and boys have access to basic services and that women and men have the same opportunities to achieve their social development goals. He has specialized studies in fields related to disaster risk management, climate change, child protection, gender, evaluation and monitoring, and girls and women empowerment. Felix is passionate about topics related to leadership, believing that we all can be leaders in any field and we all can contribute to making this world better and leaving a better future for the next generations.

Frank Sarria is a native of Managua, Nicaragua. He is a lawyer by profession, with a Master’s degree in Corporate Law and almost a decade of experience at the management level in the areas of marketing and sales in transnational companies such as Pepsi and Colgate-Palmolive among others. He has been responsible for the planning and execution of distribution channel development plans as well as commercial investment projects. Since March 2022, he assumed the challenge as Country General Manager with the Swiss organization Buy Food with Plastic, responsible for cementing the operational foundations of the organization for Nicaragua and providing support to the global management team in the elaboration of its development plans for India and Ghana towards 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-ivan-sarria-palacios/ https://www.facebook.com/frank.i.sarria

Lestel Ma. Kelly Aburto is an afrodecendance woman with a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and a Master’s degree in Intercultural Communication from the Universidad de las Regiones Autonomas de la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua URACCAN and Bluefields Indian & Caribbean University BICU. She is the Co-Founder of afrodescendance Woman in Nicaragua OMAN and Founder and CEO of Partners Construction S.A. PCONSA in Nicaragua. She also participated in several fellowships with the U.S. Department of State as leader of different groups in her community. She has previously worked in project management & community development with women, children and youths in areas like economical empowerment, combatting violence and drug abuse, human rights, and leadership. Lestel is particularly attracted to the quest of creating and enabling a safe environment for vulnerable groups. She has been involved in various initiatives to improve the quality of life among vulnerable women, youths, and children to increase school enrollment, gender inequality, poverty, child rights, and climate change. Her goal is to help people, especially vulnerable groups like women and youth where they could have more opportunities.

Shaidy Baltodano is passionate about assisting entrepreneurs in the creation, management, and growth of their businesses. She pursued an MBA and a Master of Entrepreneurship and Innovation as part of her personal development and to better prepare herself to mentor others. She also worked as an Electronic Engineer. Her current occupation is Intellectual Property Engineer. She has prior experience analyzing inventions to determine whether they are novel or not.

Wilbert Ríos is an economist with a specialization in development. He has more than 15 years of experience in the social sector and has volunteered since he was 12 years old, with which he has had the opportunity to carry out projects in Tanzania and Nepal. Wilbert has three years of formal experience in the financial sector and a little more than four years of formal experience in the social organizations sector. Wilbert is a young man passionate about the design and execution of social projects. He is currently the Development Director of the organization Agua Para La Vida, where he is in charge of fundraising, alliances, communications, design, project follow-up, support in the administrative area, human resources, and processes. He also has a diploma in Youth Leadership, in addition to being awarded volunteer of the year in 2015. In his free time, Wilbert likes to travel and visit new places in and out of his country. He is an energetic, passionate, charismatic, and friendly young man with a big heart.

Maria A. Castillo is a young professional with eight years of experience in the field of education, public policy, and social services. She has been involved in the creation and execution of health education and social intervention projects at various non-profits, which have been valued at more than 1.5 million dollars for the prevention of drug abuse and violence among Nicaraguan adolescents. Interventions that she has led have directly impacted over 14,000 youth, influenced over 50,000 families, and empowered over 500 teachers. Currently, Maria leads the fundraising and partnerships efforts of Casa Alianza Nicaragua, one of the few centers in the country that offers holistic and innovative treatments for youth experiencing drug addiction and/or abuse. Maria received her Masters in Education, Health Promotion and International Development at University College London’s Institute of Education where she was a Chevening Scholar, a prestigious scholarship scheme for global leaders by the U.K.’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office. During her time in London, she represented Nicaragua at the 2017 World Education Form. As an undergraduate, she obtained a BA in psychology and a Minor in Biology at Manhattanville College, New York.

Brayan Torres has six years of experience in the non-profit sector and has earned a Bachelor of Social Work from the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua. Throughout the years, Brayan has inspired more than 600 volunteers from diverse backgrounds to become global leaders and change-makers in Latin America and the Caribbean. Brayan worked with a service-learning and youth leadership development program in the Dominican Republic, supporting community-based projects in order to improve the sanitation and public health of local rural communities. Previously, as a School Counselor, Brayan worked with Costa Rican youth in Monteverde by providing training and workshops about soft skills, leadership, and career advice. In addition, he was awarded a scholarship funded by the Senate of Hamburg, Germany to represent his hometown Leon, where he learned about youth mobility, cultural exchange, and conflict management. Currently, Brayan is based in Managua, Nicaragua, building technical skills in the outsourcing industry.

Monica has four years of experience in the nonprofit sector. She earned a Bachelor’s degree (with honors) in International Business from Universidad Americana in Nicaragua. As a Business Development Manager at Thriive Nicaragua, Monica provides training to help micro businesses grow while having a positive impact in their communities by creating new jobs. Monica has also fostered the implementation of socially responsible practices in each of these businesses, which has resulted in more than 2,000 people being benefited through donations or capacity building. She has served as a business consultant and mentor for micro and small businesses in partnership with organizations like Teach a Man to Fish and MicroMentor, as well as universities like Cornell and Ohio University. Motivated by driving social change, Monica founded Net Impact Nicaragua, an organization of young business professionals who are committed to putting their careers to work for social impact. As part of the leadership team, she plans and leads development projects in the fields of education, women empowerment, business development, and environmental impact. Her experience has caused her to develop strong competencies in social entrepreneurship, project management, and monitoring and evaluation. Monica has a keen interest in youth development, economic empowerment, and education.

Vanessa is passionate about the arts, culture, and environment. She has six years of experience in the nonprofit, public and private sectors in Nicaragua. Vanessa earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Central America University (UCA) in Nicaragua. In several of her previous roles, she contributed building and reinforcing leadership abilities of students from different high schools and universities from the United States. Vanessa worked with university students to help them design work plans and write grants focused on health awareness, women’s rights, environmental care, education and economic development for the community of Masaya. Previously, Vanessa worked with GSE, where she leads educational exchange trips that focused on sustainable small-scale agriculture and promoted the social leadership of students from the USA and local community members from the State of Boaco, Nicaragua. She guided in the process of finding sustainable solutions to address the common challenges as species. Through these experiences Vanessa has developed capacity-building abilities and project management, creating spaces in which art is included as a channel for recognition of the self and transmission of ideas. In November of 2017 she founded the social program: “Potencial de Nicaragua” and in April of 2018 participated as a finalist in the international competence, (TIC Américas), celebrated in Lima, Perú in the framework of the VIII Summit of the Americas. Her main goals are to strengthen human potential and promote respect for the environment.

Host Org: The Nature Conservancy

Fellow role at The Nature Conservancy: Vanessa will serve as an Ecosystem Disaster Risk Reduction Fellow and will contribute to the design and development of outreach tools, guidance and other resources pertaining to coastal risk and resilience. She will assume the lead role for one or more projects pertaining to strategic priorities and support website content development/maintenance and social media outreach.

Lucia has ten years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Master of Science in epidemiology from the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua in León. Currently serving as a research coordinator, Solorzano works in translating research protocols and logistics planning with a team of researchers in Nicaragua. Before this, Solorzano worked as a research assistant in the mental health unit of CIDS UNAN León coordinating and conducting research, and providing methodological tutorials, logistics, and capacity building programs. Solorzano also worked as a program coordinator for Global Glimpse in Nicaragua, where she had the opportunity to create and implement an international education program for secondary students, which led her to establish a new Global Glimpse site in the Dominican Republic. Through her experience as a program manager in Global Glimpse Dominican Republic, Solorzano gained valuable knowledge in nonprofit management, and the creation and execution of international educational programs for youth and leadership development. Solorzano’s current interests are in research, nonprofit management, and youth leadership. In addition, Solorzano is excited by the prospect of creating a leadership program for youth in a new country while maintaining and respecting the dynamics and characteristics of her Nicaraguan heritage.

Host: Latin American Youth Center (LAYC)