CONAPAC: Our Staff
Get to know the staff and consultants behind CONAPAC.
We’re dedicated professionals invested in our mission and in the people of the Peruvian Amazon.
CONAPAC, the Civil Association for Conservation of the Peruvian Amazon Environment, is an NGO formed in July 1990 by a group of teachers, forestry engineers, and employees of the travel operator Explorama Lodges in Iquitos, Peru. Registered with the Peruvian government, our purpose is the conservation of the Peruvian Amazon primary rainforest. Though our staff is small, it serves those most in need of education and other tools for sustainable living in the rainforest.
Looking for our board of directors? Click Here.
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Executive Director
Megan, originally from Colorado in the US, was a high school science teacher who first learned of CONAPAC while participating in Morpho Institute’s Educator Academy in the Amazon in 2014. Having felt transformed by the overall experience, she co-organized a study abroad program at the high school and became a cohort leader for the Educator Academy. Each visit included a service day with a CONAPAC community, a profound experience for her students, other teachers, and herself. Motivated to experience more, Megan volunteered with CONAPAC for Adopt-A-School in 2019 and 2020. Megan left teaching in 2019 to pursue a Master of Science in Environmental Studies from Antioch University New England, emphasizing Environmental Education and CONAPAC’s work. Now living in Iquitos and working with CONAPAC to support the rural and Indigenous communities, Megan strives to lead with cultural humility, understanding that every community member is a partner, and none of the work CONAPAC does is prescriptive. She is passionate about community-driven conservation and honoring traditional knowledge and is motivated to ensure CONAPAC’s projects reflect both principles with genuine and authentic engagement.
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Director of Social-Environmental Projects and Community Relations
Michel joined CONAPAC full-time in 2019. He was exposed to CONAPAC’s work as an intern from 2010 to 2013 before pursuing other work. He has an engineering degree in Environmental Management and a master's in Social-Environmental Conflict Resolution. His previous experience working with Indigenous and rural communities of the Loreto region and other areas of Peru, for government and private institutions, in environmental monitoring of soil, air, and water projects, and implementing community clean water systems, prepared him well for the needs of our CONAPAC projects. Michel oversees all of CONAPAC’s projects in the partner communities, including community relations and coordination, clean water implementation and monitoring, managing all aspects of the agroforestry program and the community conservation project, and maintaining records and reporting. And as he says, his job is to provide solutions.
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Coordinator of Community-Based Conservation Programming
Karin was born in Requena, a small town in the department of Loreto. Since she was little, she visited various communities on the Ucayali and Puinahua rivers, accompanying her mother in her work as a teacher. She is an Environmental Engineer passionate about the community-based conservation model with Indigenous peoples. She is working to strengthen the active participation of CONAPAC's partner communities in protecting their environment and promoting sustainable development. Karin firmly believes that leadership, traditional/community knowledge, and the inherent knowledge of conserving and protecting the natural environment must be given importance and respect; upon this respect, we can build our partnerships with communities.
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Education Consultant
LIRA FAJARDO GÓNGORA is originally from the San Salvador community in rural Amazonia. Profesora Lira has been supporting CONAPAC for over eight years in the various processes developed by the DREL and the UGEL (local Department of Education), especially in contracting teachers for schools that belong to the CONAPAC agreement. She worked as a classroom teacher at the primary level for more than 22 years and as a director for almost 20 years in different schools, including Manati I Zona, a CONAPAC partner community. “I love my profession of being a teacher; that is why it is a great honor to direct schools to bring good practices in the conservation and protection of forests.”
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Education Consultant
Oscar is the school's principal in Timicuro I Zona, a CONAPAC partner community on the Amazon River, and supports us by participating in the teacher hiring process for the community schools, curricular framework, and administrative regulations. He is a seasoned math teacher at the secondary level and held the position of Education Specialist in the Red Educativa Rural de Indiana for two years. Oscar was a team member with CONAPAC from 2016 to 2018 as our water treatment system project coordinator, and he has supported the community authorities with conflict resolution. CONAPAC is grateful to have Oscar’s expertise in the office with us!
Our Staff
CONAPAC does not unlawfully discriminate internally (in its administrative and program operations) or externally (in the provision of services) on the basis of race, political orientation, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, ethnicity, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, or mental or physical disability or any other status prohibited by applicable law.
Megan
Oscar
Karin
Lira
Michel
IN MEMORIAM
ALBERTO VELA MUÑOZ lost his battle with COVID-19 on May 18, 2021. As a longtime employee, friend, and mentor to CONAPAC, Alberto's loss is keenly felt by all our staff, CONAPAC Partner Community teachers, regular volunteers, and donors. His contributions to CONAPAC were great.
We, as well as the teachers, residents, students, and communities we serve, feel his absence, as the great leader in education that he was for CONAPAC and the Adopt-A-School program. He was a career educator with the Peruvian Ministry of Education until his retirement in 2006, when he joined the staff of CONAPAC. He worked tirelessly in the intervening years as the lead in our community education efforts, as a teacher education specialist, and champion of conservation education.
