Associate Director of Programs

 As Associate Director of Programs, Claudia oversees Rise Up’s program planning and implementation across the world, and leads the Oakland, California-based programs team. She joined Rise Up in 2013 as a Project Coordinator to launch our Youth Champions Initiative. She is passionate about sexual and reproductive health and rights advocacy and access to health and education for young people. Claudia has extensive qualitative research experience on women’s social movements in Argentina, as well as quantitative research experience in preterm birth in Puerto Rico.

Claudia holds a degree in Social Anthropology from Washington University in Saint Louis, and a Master’s degree in Public Health with a focus on Maternal and Child Health from the University of California at Berkeley. Claudia was born and raised in Puerto Rico. She lived in Peru for four years, where she was a Peace Corps Volunteer, working to reduce women and children’s exposure to indoor air pollution through improved cookstove technologies and prevent teen pregnancy through youth empowerment and comprehensive sexual education programs. Claudia is also a skilled photographer and filmmaker, and believes strongly in the power of audiovisual material to generate discussion.