Fredy R. Grefa
Fredy R. Grefa
Fredy Rafael Grefa Andi is a first-generation Napo Runa in receiving a Ph.D. in Geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, in 2020. He received a MA in Latin American Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Masters in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Currently, he is a professor at the Sociology and International Relations Departments at La Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) in Ecuador. His work and research interests in political geography takes an environmental humanities approach that uses Indigenous concepts of human-environment relations, such as Sumak Kawsay and the Living Forest, to analyze how Amazonian peoples engage with, contest, and inform global conservation programs. He is member of the OCKIL (Organization of Kichwa Communities of Loreto). He worked as environmental and community affairs supervisor in private oil companies in the Ecuadorian Amazon and as undersecretary for SENPLADES (Ecuadorian Planning Secretariat for Planning and Development) for the provinces of Pichincha, Napo and Orellana. He also served as Director of Environmental Management at Yachay Public Company and has collaborated with different indigenous grassroots organizations at the Ecuadorian Amazon level, as CONFENIAE and COICA.