Estefanía Sánchez L., MS

Estefi is an urbanist and educator who worked as a Trustees’ Fellow in the International Honors Program Cities in the 21st Century. She is Executive Director of Balance Works to carry out educational programs and cultural exchanges. Estefi has a master’s degree in urbanization and development from the London School of Economics and a BA in policy studies and Latin American studies focused on education from Lafayette College. Her passion for food security merged with her dissertation at LSE, “Cities of Knowledge,” in which one of her main themes of study was the effect of urbanization on agricultural land and the livelihood of farmers in Ecuador. While in Ecuador, she worked as an urbanist specializing in emergency response and planning processes for cities suffering from disasters, particularly strong seismic events. Furthermore, she has developed within the social sphere inter-sectorial projects with international and local NGOs, public institutions, and private enterprise in Latin America. Estefi is an alum of SIT in Chile and Argentina (2009) and of IHP in Canada, India, and Mexico (2008).