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Team Members

Alison Macalady

Strategic AdvisorGlobal Water Initiative

Alison Macalady is a strategic advisor to Forest Trends’ Global Water Initiative, where she advises on scaling nature-based solutions for water security in Latin America and globally. She spent nine years as an Environment Officer with USAID, most recently as Water and Marine Team Lead for USAID/Peru and the South America Regional mission, and previously as Senior Water Security Advisor at USAID headquarters in Washington. In Peru, she managed a portfolio of multimillion-dollar environment projects, including the Natural Infrastructure for Water Security (NIWS) project, led by a Forest Trends-headed consortium; Por la Pesca, focused on fisheries sustainability in coastal Peru and Ecuador; and CINCIA Acierta, addressing monitoring and ecosystem recovery from artisanal gold mining in the Amazon. Earlier, Alison led studies at the National Academy of Sciences on climate modeling and weather prediction and began her career as a wildland firefighter and environmental journalist working on land and water issues in the western U.S., experience she’s now excited to bring full circle at Forest Trends. She holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Arizona and a Master of Forestry from Yale University.

Angel Soto

Interim DirectorForest Trends Peru

Angel has over 20 years of experience in finance and operations with international nonprofit organizations. Prior to joining Forest Trends, he held the position of Senior Manager, Global Administration at Rainforest Alliance, where he led all operational aspects of the organization in the Latin America region. Before Rainforest Alliance, Angel worked at Conservation International (CI) as the Operations Director for Mexico and Central America, where he led efforts implement financial and operational strategies for the region. He also worked at Save the Children Guatemala, leading financial and operational functions for USAID funded projects.

Mia Sakura Smith

Senior Program ManagerGlobal Water Initiative

Mia is a registered Civil Engineer with over a decade of experience in water engineering and nature-based solutions (NbS) in watersheds across Latin America and California. She recently served as lead author and project manager for the most comprehensive global report tracking investments in NbS for water, and led monitoring and evaluation for a $52 million USAID-funded project scaling natural infrastructure investments in Peru. She holds a Master’s in Environmental Engineering from MIT and is fluent in English, Spanish, and Japanese. She was raised in Honolulu, Hawaii and is currently based in Mexico City.

Fernando Momiy Hada

Senior AdvisorGlobal Water Initiative

Fernando Momiy is an internationally-recognized champion of natural infrastructure in Peru and is a Senior Advisor to the Forest Trends Water Initiative. Fernando holds an MBA and MA in Regulation of Public Services and Infrastructure Management. He has held numerous leadership positions in his nearly 25 years of government service at Peruvian infrastructure and sanitation agencies. Fernando has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Latin American Association of National Water and Sanitation Regulators (ADERASA), the President of the Board of Directors of Peru’s National Superintendence of Sanitation Services (SUNASS), and Director of Investment Promotion at the Agency for Promotion of Private Investment. In these roles, he led Peru’s water sector tariff and regulatory reforms, like the incorporation of Payments for Ecosystem Services (now MERESE) into water and sanitation tariffs, as well as the creation of disaster risk prevention and climate change adaptation tariffs for water utilities. He led the establishment of a methodology for calculating groundwater tariffs and promoted the inclusion of a MERESE reserve in Public-Private Partnership (PPP) contracts. He created a regional Green Infrastructure Working Group during his time at ADERASA.

Pamela Alvarez

Project AccountantForest Trends Peru

I have a little over a year working at Forest Trends. I am a graduate of the Accounting career. I have experience in accounting and administrative work in private companies and in organisms financed by International Technical Cooperation.