*In December 2022, Cristina was assigned to the USAID Colombia Destination Nature Activity as Nature Tourism Destination Development Lead. In 2023, she became an employee for DAI, WhereNext’s partner for Destination Nature Activity.

Cristina has focused her professional journey on developing projects with social impact. She is a psychologist with a master’s in legal psychology from the University of York and started her career in neuroscience and research. She worked for the Colombian government for over 8 years, where she had strategic advisory roles and designed numerous national public policies.

In her previous role as an advisor to the Vice-Minister of Tourism, Cristina led the formulation of Colombia’s first Sustainable Tourism Policy, “Together with Nature.” She guided its implementation by developing tools such as an online training platform in sustainable tourism business practices, a practical course on sustainable gastronomy, and an action plan to reduce the use of single-use plastics in the sector.

Cristina has also been a national and international speaker on sustainable tourism. Other key achievements in her sustainable tourism journey include developing the Agenda on Climate Change and Sustainable Development of Tourism in the Americas, contributing to the development of Colombia’s COVID-19 economic mitigation strategy for tourism, and proposing sustainability dispositions that were included in the new tourism sector law.