Gretchen Hernandez, MA

Phone: 778 782-6720
Email: gretchen_hernandez@sfu.ca

Gretchen is currently a Researcher with the Centre for Sustainable Community Development and a PhD student in the Department of Geography at SFU. Her areas of research interest include sustainable livelihoods, community development, and new social/economic models in Latin America.

She is the coordinator of the Bolivian Specialization in CED project, a CSCD project to support Community Economic Development (CED) training and research in Bolivia. Her previous international research includes an assessment of economic survival strategies in a squatter settlement in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and a study on the socio-economic impacts of micro-credit lending in Managua, Nicaragua. She worked in Bolivia as a co-operant on projects related to CED.

She also taught in the Latin American Management Program (LAMP) at Capilano College, coordinated human rights projects in Central America with women maquila workers, and was a founding member of Fair Opportunities Group, an organization that supports educational projects in Nicaragua. Gretchen holds a Bachelor degree in International Relations from Concordia University and a Masters degree in Community and Regional Planning from UBC, with a focus on international development planning.