Hey everyone! ¡Hola a todos!  I’m Valeria (Val) and I’m a queer Latina, first-generation university student who just graduated from McGill University's Bieler School of Environment with B.A. in Environment with my concentration being in the Ecological Determinants of Health in Society (a mouthful I know). I am pursuing a MA in Educational Leadership with my project focusing on environmental health and advocating for marginalized groups who face the brunt of the climate crisis. 

I was born in Montreal, but I grew up in Southeast Florida (shoutout to the sunshine state)! I received the IB diploma and had the wonderful opportunity to work in ocean conservation, education, and research with a special focus on threatened/endangered sea turtles. This is where my passion for environmental and marine conservation first came to be. 

I've participated in McGill's Barbados Interdisciplinary Tropical Studies Program learning about tropical horticultural ecology, sustainable land use, and renewable energy with a research project at a local ethnobotanical garden.  I couldn't possibly stay away from the Caribbean, so I returned, this time to Trinidad and Tobago to conduct research regarding disaster literacy levels in communities facing repeated flooding through the McGill-UWI Queen Elizabeth Scholars Program: Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience. 

You can find me drinking iced matcha at a cafe, rocking it out at concerts, or frantically studying for exams at the library. Don’t be afraid to say hi!