Karla Hernández Chan

Karla Hernández Chan is a Maya woman, science communicator, and graduate of the Universidad Intercultural Maya de Quintana Roo, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Alternative Tourism. She has extensive experience in community work in Quintana Roo and Yucatán, where she promotes and preserves local knowledge and biocultural heritage through environmental and popular education. Her work takes an intercultural and gender-focused approach. She has collaborated with a number of ten civil society, academic, and government institutions on social projects that support the well-being of Maya communities across the Yucatán Peninsula.

From 2021 to 2023, she took part in Baktun Pueblo Maya’s Cultural Mediators and Promoters Program, where she facilitated training sessions and supported community project development. More recently, she served as co-coordinator of the U kuuchil ik’o’ob (Place of the Winds) Collective, cultural manager for the Pixan K’áak Collective, a member of the Project Evaluation and Monitoring team of the Red Nacional de Guardianes y Guardianas del Territorio (National Network of Land Guardians), and head of the children’s program at U kiinil T’aan, Crianza con Ternura – Alternativas y Capacidades A.C. As a volunteer instructor with the Sal a Pajarear Yucatán birding initiative, she led environmental education and bird-monitoring activities with children.

Karla holds Mexico’s CONOCER EC0217 certification for in-person group training and completed the Lu’umen Lumo’on Collaborative Leadership Certificate Program through Baktun Pueblo Maya. She speaks Maya, Spanish, and English. Currently, she is a Program Associate at GPA, supporting our midwifery initiatives in the Yucatán Peninsula.