Announcing New DSE Faculty Advisor: Professor Alejandra Echeverri

We are thrilled to announce that Alejandra Echeverri, Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, joins our leadership team as the newest Faculty Advisor! Professor Echeverri is an interdisciplinary conservation scientist whose research explores human–wildlife interactions, cultural values of nature, and the impacts of people on biodiversity. 

At DSE, Echeverri brings deep expertise in conservation, community-based research, and AI specifically. One of her lab’s current projects called FaunaSentia involves development of a fully autonomous, solar-powered, AI-assisted wildlife sensing station that integrates acoustic and visual data, energy independence, edge computing, and real-time connectivity. 

"FaunaSentia began not in a lab, but in the field. After visiting monitoring sites in the San Joaquin–Sacramento Delta with PhD student Mel Baldino, I saw firsthand the fragility of our current systems,” said Professor Echeverri. “Batteries died prematurely. SD cards filled when wildlife activity spiked. Weeks of data were lost; not because wildlife was absent, but because our devices were not designed for real-world ecological conditions. This is unacceptable, and it is exactly why new technologies need to be developed.” 

Achievements at UC Berkeley and Beyond

Born and raised in Manizales, Colombia, Echeverri’s experiences as a Latina in STEM (including roles in the Norwegian Peace Corps and as an environmental consultant for Colombian private sector companies) inform her practice. She is a National Geographic Explorer, a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar, a UCLA Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award Nominee, and a former UN CBD Youth advocate. Her work has been featured in Forbes Science, Nature News, Elle, and Colombian and Costa rican newspapers and more. 

Field Research Snapshots

Professor Echeverri’s current work examines biodiversity, tourism, and cultural diversity in Latin America, while also advising governments on environmental policy.

This lefthand image depicts the Great Parade, which is the culmination of the festival, a day of great creativity. With a deep commitment to intangible cultural heritage, there are parade floats that depict ancestral figures, myths and legends, and local biodiversity. Here we see a float with native butterflies and birds. 

The "Festival of Negros y Blancos" translates to the festival of Black and White people. Despite its name it is full of color. It takes place in Pasto, a city in the southern part of Colombia. This festival tells the story of Colombia, Indigenous traditions, slavery and independence. The origin of this celebration dates back to the celebrations that Indigenous peoples in this region held to give thanks for the harvests. In recent years, this festival has incorporated elements from Spanish and African fairs and festivals, due to the close contact with the colonos and Afro-Colombian communities in the region. 

This second lefthand image shows two residents from Chocó and their dresses for the San Pacho festival resembling a Dendrobates auratus also known as Green and black poison dart frog, and depicts the intricate connection between biodiversity and cultural diversity in Colombia, and its relationship with ecotourism. 

Every year in October, the residents of the city of Quibdó, in the department of Chocó, Colombia celebrate the "Feast of San Pacho", a nickname for "San Francisco". In 2012, the San Pacho Festival was declared a Cultural and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, which describes it as the most important symbolic event in the life of the city of Quibdó. It strengthens the identity of the Chocó department and fosters social cohesion in the community, while promoting creativity and innovation through the revival and recovery of traditional knowledge and respect for nature. 

DSE Collaborations

Echeverri is already a frequent collaborator with our team. Alongside Faculty Advisor Carl Boettiger, postdoctoral researcher Kristin Davis, and DSE staff, Echeverri is evaluating possible emerging projects related to biodiversity and land monitoring needs in Colombia and biodiversity outcomes of sustainability certifications in Latin American cocoa supply chains. 

“Professor Echeverri is an incredibly accomplished scientist, and we’re fortunate she’s joining our team in a more official capacity,” said Kevin Koy, DSE Executive Director. “Her ongoing guidance in collaborating with international Indigenous peoples and local communities, particularly in the Global South, will be invaluable to our team.” 

Echeverri joins Professors Fernando Pérez (Faculty Co-Director), Douglas McCauley (Faculty Co-Director), Carl Boettiger, and Justin Brashares on our advisory team. 

“I'm thrilled to join DSE as a faculty advisor, to be the first woman on the leadership team, and to bring my perspective as a Colombian biocultural conservation scientist,“ said Echeverri. “AI is here to stay, and it's helping us work more efficiently, but the real opportunity is biodiversity: we will soon monitor it as routinely as air quality. I'm glad to contribute to conversations around ethics and data governance to ensure this moment is equitable and inclusive, for many species and many communities on our planet." 

Recent Publications

Some of Professor Echeverri’s recent work includes:

• Echeverri, et al. (2025). Toward sustainable biocultural ecotourism: An integrated spatial analysis of cultural and biodiversity richness in Colombia. People and Nature, 7(1), 194-214. This publication is one of the 10 most-cited articles in the journal last year.
• Echeverri, Smith. et al. (2022). Biodiversity and infrastructure interact to drive tourism to and within Costa Rica. PNAS.
• Echeverri, et al. (2020). Can avian functional traits predict cultural ecosystem services? People and Nature.
• Echeverri, A., Furumo, P. R., Moss, S., Figot Kuthy, A. G., García Aguirre, D., Mandle, L., ... & Lambin, E. F. (2023). Colombian biodiversity is governed by a rich and diverse policy mix. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 7(3), 382-392.