lf565@georgetown.edu

Country
Colombia

Education
J.S.M. (Stanford Program in International Legal Studies SPILS), Stanford University (2015); LL.B., Universidad de los Andes (2012).

Faculty Advisor
J.Peter Byrne

Areas of Study
Human Rights; Electoral and Participatory Processes; Environmental law and Climate Change Adaptation

Luisa is a S.J.D. candidate at Georgetown Law. Her research is about processes of participation in adaptation to climate change. Luisa was awarded with honors for her SPILS thesis on “Mining in Colombia and Environmental Justice: How the ‘Popular Consultation’ Process Works in Practice”, which she published in the Environmental Law Reporter, Environmental Law Institute, 46 ELR 10416, May 2016. Following her graduation from SPILS, she was selected for a Stanford Human Rights Center (HRC) Fellowship for postgraduate work at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

She is an electoral specialist at the Department of Electoral Cooperation and Observation at the Organization of American States (OAS). She has participated in more than 15 OAS-Electoral Observation Missions in 14 countries in the region. This experience has enabled her to study participation processes through a legal and political framework but also through an empirical perspective. Prior to OAS, she worked at the Permanent Mission of Colombia to the Organization of American States as a diplomat in charge of the human rights portfolio. This work was informed by her previous work at the Programa de Justicia Global y Derechos Humanos – Universidad de los Andes [Global Justice and Human Rights Program], where she focused on empirical legal research on human rights and environmental justice in Colombia and Latin America.