Paola Verano

Paola Verano is from Bogotá, Colombia; she was born in the southwestern part of the city and lives in the Techotiva territory, which she describes as the place of her struggles, dreams, and learning. She is the daughter of a single mother and grandmother, from whom she has inherited a sense of solidarity and a deep connection to the land. By profession, she is an ecologist and anthropologist. She has worked both professionally and locally in the areas of community feminism, popular and formal education with young people and children, community research, energy transition, and the water sector with a focus on the commons. 
She is pursuing a master’s degree in Political Ecology and Alternatives to Development and currently works as a professional in the Vice Ministry of Water and Basic Sanitation, where she is involved in a presidential directive that mandates the executive branch to make the necessary transition from water as a resource and commodity to water as a common good, with a focus on water justice and the hydro-social cycle. She is also a member and researcher at the consulting firm Intersaberes, an anti-patriarchal, anti-colonial, and anti-racist political project that seeks to research, explore, and contribute to issues of peace and armed conflict, territorial defense, popular memory, and political ecology.