Team & Collaborators

Meet our team

Mrs. Flor Angel Perez Sanchez

Ecological Co-Researcher & Indigenous Field Associate

CITRO, Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico

Flor Angel Perez Sanchez is a biologist and postgraduate researcher in Tropical Ecology at the Centro de Investigaciones Tropicales (CITRO), Universidad Veracruzana, and a core organizer for the international working group Equidad y Justicia para Comunidades Indígenas de las Américas (EJUCIAM). A Zapotec woman originating from Juchitán de Zaragoza in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, her research explores socio-environmental conflicts, land tenure, and territorial governance surrounding the Interoceanic Corridor megaproject (CIIT).

Her professional background includes service with the Consejo Nacional de Fomento Educativo (CONAFE) as a community educational leader in rural Oaxaca, as well as field extension work with the federal agricultural program Sembrando Vida.

Within WONDER, Perez Sanchez integrates her training in tropical ecology and popular education to analyze the nature–society interface. She facilitates focus groups, coordinates participant member-checking, and supports local community engagement across Oaxacan territories.

Mrs. Celeste Cuevas

Environmental Co-Researcher & Field Coordinator

Oaxaca, Mexico

Mrs. Celeste Cuevas holds an MSc from the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, specializing in sustainable water governance, traditional natural resource systems, and biocultural conservation. She currently collaborates with El Colegio de San Luis on the project Gestión Comunitaria Eficaz del Agua en Comunidades Indígenas, while delivering community workshops on sustainable hydraulic management to Indigenous groups in Oaxaca.

A native Mazateca woman born and raised in Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, Mrs. Cuevas brings deep knowledge of local environmental care practices, customary governance (usos y costumbres), and ecological traditions.

Within the WONDER project, Mrs. Cuevas leads logistical and cultural coordination within the Sierra Mazateca. She bridges environmental science with ancestral Cosmovisions, leads linguistic translation between Mazatec and Spanish, and ensures that the participatory workshops respect community norms, local leadership structures, and regional epistemologies.

Mrs. Yesica Gomez

Co-Researcher & Indigenous Liaison

BUAP, Puebla, Mexico

Mrs. Yesica Gomez is an academic researcher at the Centro de Investigaciones Sociales y Dirección Estratégica at the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP). She coordinates the Programa para el Progreso Social, Bienestar e Igualdad para las Mujeres, established through the Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres (INMUJERES) and supported by the Secretaría de Desarrollo Social. Mrs. Gomez has dedicated her career to designing and implementing capacity-building and participatory programs alongside rural and Indigenous women across central and southeastern Mexico.

As an Indigenous Nahua woman, Mrs. Gomez provides cultural, epistemological, and linguistic continuity for the project. For WONDER, she directs participant recruitment across Nahua communities residing in Oaxaca, ensures informed, culturally grounded consent protocols, and facilitates participatory focus groups. Her bilingual skills and insider perspective safeguard the ethical validity of data collection, facilitating transparent, trusting relationships between community members and international researchers.

Dr. Eleanor Brown

Principal Investigator

University of York, UK

Dr. Eleanor Brown is an Associate Professor of International & Development of Education in the Department of Education at the University of York, based within the Centre for Research in Education and Social Justice. She has fifteen years of research experience leading projects at the intersection of global development, popular education, and social transformation across formal, non-formal, and grassroots NGO sectors.

Her scholarship utilizes critical, participatory, and decolonizing methodologies, with focused publications on Indigenous epistemologies—specifically Andean Buen Vivir (Sumak Kawsay)—to challenge hegemonic development models. Dr. Brown has lived, taught, and researched extensively across Spain and Latin America (including Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua) and is a fluent Spanish speaker with extensive knowledge of Mexican socio-political contexts. She has led initiatives funded by the British Academy, ESRC, and DfE, coordinating interdisciplinary teams crossing epistemic divides.

For WONDER, Dr. Brown operationalizes her institutional ties with the Universidad de la Tierra (Unitierra) in Oaxaca. She guides the popular education strand, facilitating critical inquiry into how alternative spaces for learning protect ancestral wisdom and counteract the marginalization of Indigenous knowledge systems within mainstream development discourse.

Dr. Angel Urbina-Garcia

Principal Investigator

University of Hull, UK

Dr. Angel Urbina-Garcia is a Chartered Psychologist (BPS) and a Scientist expert on Early Childhood and Educational Psychology in the School of Education and Social Sciences at the University of Hull, and former Director of Postgraduate Programmes in Education. As a Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol) with the British Psychological Society (BPS) and an Associate Member of the American Psychological Association (APA, Divisions 7 & 15), he brings over twenty years of higher education experience across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.

Dr. Urbina-Garcia’s research centers on socio-emotional child development, transitions across educational settings, and subjective mental health and wellbeing under conditions of stress and vulnerability. He has secured competitive research funding from major bodies, including the British Academy / Leverhulme Trust, the Newton Fund, the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), and CONAHCYT. His advisory portfolio includes consultative appointments with the Mexican Ministry of Public Education (SEP) and UNESCO-OREALC (Santiago de Chile) as well as UNESCO Malaysia, guiding regional teacher-training and socio-emotional policies.

For the WONDER Project, Dr. Urbina-Garcia directs overall project governance, methodological rigor, and institutional ethics. He oversees the application of psychological principles to create safe, non-judgmental spaces for dialogue, while leading the qualitative and mixed-methods analysis to ensure findings translate into actionable mental health and wellbeing policies internationally.

Partnerships

Universidad de la Tierra (Unitierra), Oaxaca

An autonomous, community-led learning center dedicated to decolonial inquiry, rural regeneration, and the defense of Indigenous ways of knowing. Unitierra acts as the project’s pedagogical anchor, hosting seminars and community workshops, and co-creating non-formal educational materials to ensure project insights circulate back into local community initiatives.

Psicología y Derechos Humanos (PSYDEH A.C.)

A prominent Mexican non-governmental organization specializing in the psycho-social development, human rights, and civic empowerment of Indigenous and rural women across central and southeastern Mexico. PSYDEH provides regional infrastructure for external community engagement, advisory support, and public dissemination to translate findings into sustainable policy and grassroots initiatives.

Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP) & Universidad Veracruzana (CITRO)

Academic institutions providing Mexican regional institutional backing, data management support, and collaborative networks. They anchor the project within the Latin American academic ecosystem, supporting national symposiums, student exchanges, and direct engagement with Mexican education and environmental ministries.

FAQs

What is your process working in smaller projects?
Who is behind WONDER?
I’d like to get to meet researchers or Indigenous Women, how can I do that?
Can I apply to be a part of the team or work as a Global & International host?

Contact us to collaborate and make the WONDER project even more WONDERful than already is!!!

Collaborate with other Indigenous Women.
Work with International Researchers.

Aerial view of a mountain range and valley under morning mist — Huasteca Region, Veracruz Mexico