Lucía Fernandez

Lucía has worked for WIEGO as both Wastepicker Global Coordinator and Waste Picker Sector Advisor between 2007 and 2022. She then became the Acting General Secretary of the International Alliance of Wastepickers where she steered the process towards its first elective Congress. She decided to step down from her role to provide the needed autonomy and new leadership within the Wastepicker International Movement. Thus she applied for the ORP Director Position where she was appointed in October 2023 and joined in June 2024. She is a PhD candidate of the Doctorate in Architecture at Universidad de la República Uruguay and assistant professor at the Institute of Urban Studies of the Faculty of Architecture Design and Urbanism (on leave since 2022). She was also an assistant professor at the Social and Solidarity Economy and Cooperatives Unit of the University (2017-2019) and when she was based in Boston she had a research affiliation at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT (2011-2013). Lucía holds a MA in Architecture, focused on spontaneous recycling dynamics from the Ecole National Superieure d’Architecture (ENSAG, 2010) and a MA on Ethical and Sustainable Development from the Philosophy Faculty of Universite Lyon (2011).