Alejandra is the Director of Initiative 20x20 and of the Food, Land Use and Water Program at WRI Colombia, where she leads the coordination and implementation of the agenda related to the forests program. Her areas of focus include water, food, land use and governance, with a special emphasis on work in the Colombian Amazon region.

Her professional experience includes more than fifteen years in various roles at the Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development (FCDS), focused on work in the Amazon region on topics such as sustainable tourism, capacity building for local communities, sectoral analyses, and road green infrastructure analysis. She also worked at Colombia’s National Natural Parks System, where she served as coordinator of the Popayán sub-office of the Western Andes territorial directorate and supported the management of six protected areas in southern Colombia. At the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS Colombia), she served as Capacity Building Coordinator for Ecuador and Colombia, working on self-led research processes with Awá and Cofán Indigenous communities, and leading engagement with key partners in government, civil society, and local communities in both countries.

Alejandra holds a degree in Environmental Management from the Technological University of Pereira. She has also been trained in the implementation of the “Cycle of Inquiry” (Ciclo de Indagación) self-led research methodology with its founder, Peter Feinsinger, and has delivered courses in several countries across Latin America. She has published articles and book chapters on topics including sectoral analyses related to mining impacts, road green infrastructure, sustainable tourism strategies in Ecuador and Colombia, the Cycle of Inquiry as a research and monitoring strategy in protected areas with park rangers and local communities, and analyses of coffee crops as alternatives to conservation.

Alejandra has received two major awards: the “Peer Feedback Awards, Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge, Conservation X Labs” in 2020, and Colombia’s Simón Bolívar National Journalism Award in the multimedia category in 2023.