For over 20 years, Natalia has dedicated her career to sustainable agriculture, weaving together research, education, production, and advocacy. A proud supporter of OSA since 2012, she is honored to serve the brilliant, passionate, and talented OSA staff by being on their board, drawing daily inspiration from their work. Natalia’s journey has taken her from analyzing soil microbes at the Rodale Institute to wrangling goats as the owner of a micro-dairy, harvesting a mind-boggling variety of vegetables as a farm worker, feeding worms and microbes as a compost maker, marrying mycorrhizae with their vegetable symbiotes as a mycologist at USDA-ARS, designing permaculture systems that recycle human waste to grow food in the tropics, and advocating for Latin American agroecology through activism across Central and South America, including her homeland of Colombia.
As co-founder of Farmer Campus, Natalia develops award-winning multimedia education programs that blend online learning with on-farm practices. These programs help farmers confront climate uncertainty, ensure economic viability, and build resilience by connecting them to peer networks and providing practical tools to navigate an unpredictable future. Currently a Postdoctoral Scholar at UC Davis, she collaborates with geoscientists to harness climate models and co-create decision support tools tailored to the needs of small and diversified farmers. Natalia is committed to advancing ecological and equitable farming systems that empower growers to thrive in a tumultuous economic and environmental landscape.
