Email:maria@lighthouse.global
Maria is the Global Director of Lighthouse.
She is a Doctor in Political Science from the Free University of Berlin, where she previously completed a Gender and Diversity postgraduate degree. She graduated in Communication and Cultural Science. She has worked within academic circles and non-governmental organisations in European, South American and Asian countries on issues of multidimensional human development, postdevelopment, intersectionality, masculinities, care economy, knowledge production, fair trade, role of experts and collaborative participatory action research, sustainability discourses and global North-South power relations, amongst others.
She has collaborated as a consultant, researcher and trainer with universities, development and cooperation agencies (e.g. GIZ), NGOs, and local governments (e.g. City of Barcelona).
During her time as postdoctoral researcher and teacher at diverse European universities (UNESCO Chair Women, Development and Cultures, Universitat de Vic – Universitat Central de Catalunya) she gathered theoretical and methodological knowledge, which she combined with her ten years’ experience as the director of a civil society organisation (Equality Factory). Before embarking in this new venture with Lighthouse, she was researching the methodological foundations of transdisciplinary sustainability research at the Methods Centre of the Leuphana University.
Whether speaking at an international conference about human flourishment or working with Andean communities in sustainable agriculture programs, it has always been clear to her that in order to better grasp and work for sustainable futures, creative and collective ways of thinking and acting need to be explored. In her role as Global Director she is developing the strategies for these ways of thinking and acting to emerge from the work done by Lighthouse.