ABOUT ME
Design and Strategy for Social Change
I'm a strategic and systems designer working at the intersection of people, place and possibility.
I trained as a graphic and visual communications designer in my native Costa Rica, then moved to France for an MSc in International Business and Management for Design. For the past 14 years, I've worked internationally across social innovation, service and strategic design, regenerative practice, livelihoods and adult learning, partnering with organisations, communities and practitioners to navigate complexity and create meaningful change.
My work often sits between worlds: connecting strategy with lived experience, systems thinking with practical action, and global organisations with local knowledge. I've worked across Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America, in contexts ranging from circular fashion and social enterprise to humanitarian innovation, menstrual health, marine conservation, artisan livelihoods and education. My approach is systemic and place-based, with a strong emphasis on participation, learning and collaboration.
Today I work through a portfolio of independent consulting, facilitation, learning and creative projects. This includes consultancy with MADE51, a UNHCR initiative supporting refugee artisans and their integration into global markets, and co-hosting the Impact Innovation course on Systemic design, Applied AI and Conscious Leadership.
I'm particularly interested in how we can design the conditions for people, communities and ideas to flourish, and in regenerative approaches that honour the biocultural uniqueness of a place and support all life, human and more-than-human.
I'm currently based in Georgia, after several years in Ethiopia, and continue to work internationally.
Let's connect on LinkedIn.
Yoga, Birth and Women’s Health
I've taught yoga since 2016 in Myanmar, Costa Rica, the UK and Ethiopia, with over 700 hours of training in vinyasa, yin, pranayama, somatic movement, anatomy, and prenatal and postnatal yoga. My classes, retreats and trainings invite people to connect with themselves through their bodies and embrace what arises with compassion.
Becoming a mother deepened my interest in pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and postpartum. I trained as a doula in the UK with Red Tent Doulas and in Ethiopia under an elder midwife, and as a La Leche League breastfeeding peer counsellor. I'm currently completing Innate Postpartum training.
I volunteered at Lotus MCH Hospital in Addis Ababa, offering labour support and breastfeeding education for mothers and midwives. I also work with families across pregnancy, birth and postpartum, offering embodied care shaped around each mother's needs. I co-founded Ayzosh Berchi, an Addis Ababa collective supporting women and families through this journey.
I believe birth and becoming a mother are sacred thresholds that deserve to be tended with care, in body, heart and spirit. That is what I'm here to offer.
Beyond Work
I often find myself dreaming up creative initiatives rooted in the places where I live. In Addis Ababa, I co-founded Koti, a children's clothes and homewares brand that utilises handwoven cotton and celebrates traditional embroidery. It's now led by my local partner, whom I continue to mentor. Life there also inspired my children's picture book, Under the Addis Sky: A Coffee Celebration.
I'm always making something, whether in my pottery studio or alongside local artisans and artists. I love the rituals that bring people together and the knowledge communities carry through their histories and traditions. When I'm not creating, you'll find me exploring nature with my family or in ‘savasana’ :)
