Karen Pineiro
Program Manager, India
Anand, Gujarat, India
Languages: English, Gujarati, Hindi
“CoRe’s work on creative collaborations and systems entrepreneurship appeal to me as they spotlight contextual social, cultural, political, and economic processes, and urge combined resources to manage them. From my experience working at the grassroots and regional-organizational level, creating spaces for diverse people to dialogue helps set in motion suitable and continual change. With CoRe, I have the opportunity to witness and be part of global collaborations on people’s resilience.”
Karen is hosted at Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), and her role at CoRe focuses on supporting the partnership between CoRe and FES in India, specifically the Promise of Commons initiative. Growing up, she moved across different states in India, learning different languages and making friends from different cultures. People and their diversity have always interested Karen and motivated her education. She holds a Bachelor’s in mass media specializing in journalism from St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai, a Master’s in political science from the University of Delhi, and a post-graduate diploma in development anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Her work over the last six years has spanned program management, network building, capacity building, communications, policy and research. In Gujarat, she has worked with the Mahila Housing Trust (MHT) on water and sanitation, women in civic governance, rural women’s livelihoods and land rights; the Working Group for Women’s Land Ownership (WGWLO) on rural women’s land, agriculture and forest rights; the Society for Women’s Action and Training Initiatives (SWATI) on women’s public safety in rural areas; the Maldhari Rural Action Group (MARAG) on pastoralism and climate change; and the Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS) on social justice of urban and rural women. She has also supported gender initiatives in social justice programs on health, education and gender-based violence in Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam and Himachal Pradesh for PRAGYA, the non-profit network based in Gurugram.