My name is Paola Arias-Arévalo. I am Colombian, the mother of a three-year-old, and an associate professor in the Department of Economics at the Universidad del Valle, Colombia.

Years before, I did my bachelor’s in economics in this same department. Like many in this community, I was dissatisfied with the mainstream economic approach to Nature. For this reason, I did my Ph.D. at the Barcelona School of Ecological Economics (ICTA-UAB).

Since then, my research focus has been on the values that different social groups attribute to nature, who and how to decide which values are prioritized, and how this understanding can contribute towards sustainability.

I am also the vice president of the Andean Society of Ecological Economics (SAEE). I have co-organized two SAEE congresses in 2019 (Lima, Peru) and in 2022 (Cali, Colombia) in which we discussed Ecological Economics from Latin American perspectives (e.g. Latin American political ecology, participatory action research, social movements, and non-Western worldviews of human-nature relationships). I believe that Latin America is a fruitful laboratory for the conceptualization and practice of ecological economics. For example, I am happy to see some of the results in our small (but significant) action area, such as that today economics students at the Universidad del Valle have to take a mandatory course in environmental sciences and can choose to take an ecological economics course. Something unthinkable in my student days.

I am running for the ISEE Board Election because I believe that from my position I can contribute to channeling diverse perspectives and practices in our community. Particularly l would like to contribute on:

• Including children and youth as a relevant audience of our community.
• Promoting the inclusion of other professions/practitioners in our community (e.g, layers, artists, communication scientists, environmental activists)
• Diversifying our communication tools aimed at reaching broader audiences.