Tatiana Gumucio is Landesa’s Sr. Research & Evaluation Specialist based in Washington, D.C. Tatiana began working for Landesa in 2022.

What brought you to Landesa?

I had worked previously as a gender research specialist in agriculture, food security, and climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives. I was impressed by Landesa’s commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment in all its work. I also felt like I would be in the company of colleagues who share a vision and values with me, concerning approaches for achieving rural prosperity, based on addressing systemic change.

What or who inspires your work?

Through my work on the Research, Evaluation, and Learning (REL) team, I like thinking that I’m helping others—Landesa partners, country teams—do the amazing work that they are seeking to do, with more helpful information and evidence of what works well. In this way, we can be sure that we are implementing approaches and strategies that we are sure will be successful at strengthening land rights and livelihoods for women and men.

What work at Landesa makes you particularly proud?

In general, I’m impressed by and proud of the work that Landesa puts into making sure that interventions are led by the needs, preferences, and interests of local communities and stakeholders. An example of this is how the Liberia country program works to support local customary communities to strengthen their land rights through land rights awareness-raising, capacity-building on land use planning, and advocacy with local and national government and civil society organizations.

How do you spend your time when you’re not working?

I love spending time with my family; for example, spending time outside at local parks. I’m almost always listening to music when I’m at leisure.

Describe your vision for a better world.

More opportunities for people, no matter where they live, no matter what type of community they come from. This means breaking down the barriers that limit people, in all their diversity, from pursuing the lives they would like to live.