Karina Merced Arzola
Karina N. Merced Arzola studied Special Education at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus and was certified as an agroecological producer in the Josco Bravo course in 2022. She joined the Plenitud team in April 2023 as part of the AmeriCorps VISTA program. Her current role is to be the harvest and quality control coordinator where she seeks to maintain the highest level of our products for the community. In addition, she will be assisting in the creation of educational material on the farm. Her passions are music, animals, educating children, being in nature and creating art. In her free time, she likes to explore Puerto Rico, listen to music, connect with nature, and make crafts for her loved ones.
Vilmary Lugo Osuba
Vilmary Lugo Osuba was born and raised in Las Marías, Puerto Rico and lived there until she started her Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Design in the University of Puerto Rico’s School of Architecture. In 2020, she had the chance to serve with Plenitud PR virtually as part of the Bioconstruction program, where she volunteered for several months supporting with proposals for the building of SuperAdobe homes. After finishing her studies and deciding to come back to the mountain side, she continued to collaborate with Plenitud PR in different ways, from graphic design, to conceptualizing of structures. When she is not serving with Plenitud PR, she enjoys reading, painting, arts and crafts, or taking walks.
Giovanna Huyke
Giovanna Huyke is a renown chef, known for pioneering concepts in restaurants in Puerto Rico and the media, and presenting in cooking shows, all of which gained her the title of “Julia Child of Puerto Rico.” She was a part of over 10,000 cooking episodes, which reached millions of spectators daily, and which remained on the air uninterruptedly for 23 years. She has also published 6 cookbooks and 20 original recipe collections. Huyke is known for combining the use of local ingredients with traditional cooking practices, and has created a new style of lighter, healthier dishes that don’t sacrifice cultural flavors. Always moving, Huyke returned to her first love a decade ago: running a restaurant. Now located in Cambridge, MA, Giovanna Huyke is the executive chef behind the restaurant La Fábrica Central, a Caribbean restaurant located between Harvard and MIT, right on the edge of the biotech innovation district. Since its launch in 2017, the restaurant has obtained winning reviews from main news outlets, such as Boston Magazine, The Boston Globe, Phantom Gourmet, Best of Boston 2018 y Diner’s Choice 2019.
She returned to Puerto Rico to help the next generation of Puerto Rican chefs and entrepreneurs.
Victoria Sagardía Calderón
Victoria is a writer, trauma specialist, translator, teacher, and professional dancer. She is also, a part of the Plenitud PR communications team since September, 2023. She normally writes about subjects regarding connection with the environment (including food), healing and health, relationships, and community-based resilience. When she is not writing or serving with Plenitud PR, she enjoys being in nature, singing, cooking, and connecting with medicinal plants.
Ilsia M.Ortiz Lara
Ilsia M.Ortiz Lara received her Bachelor's degree in horticulture and curricular sequence in agricultural education from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez. Now, she resides in San Juan where she works as a horticulture teacher at the IMEI school in Río Piedras and as an agricultural sciences teacher at Líderes Online School. She wants to continue learning about agroecology and is interested in becoming certified as a horticultural therapist.
Alyn Bermúdez
Alyn Bermúdez resides in Ceiba, Puerto Rico in a sacred space where she lives in harmony and respect with all forms of life. She has served as a mother in her life mission, a psychologist as a profession, and now in her joyful later stage of life as a farmer. Alyn has been involved with Plenitud PR since the beginning, in positions such as the President of the Board of Directors and volunteer. In 2022, she began her role as Senior Care Program Director. She seeks the development of consciousness through service to those most in need.
Virgen Ramos Ruperto
Virgen Ramos Ruperto is an English teacher at Dr. Silverio Medina Gaud School from Las Marías, where she was born and raised. She has worked at this school for the last 21 years. She loves learning new things and sharing her knowledge with others. She has been vegetarian since 2012 and believes that she’ll never go back. She is an animal lover and loves sharing time with her family, the most important thing to her.
Elisa Edelstein
Elisa Edelstein is an Eckerd College and Hamline University alumna who has been involved with Plenitud PR since March 2013. She first made her way to Plenitud PR through a service trip offered through Eckerd. She was inspired to come to the farm to honor her friend, Nate’s, memory after his passing in 2012. The memorial garden initiated her interest, but the staff and the service-focused intention has kept her coming back for over a decade!
Nicole Bottman López
Nicole Bottman López joined the Plenitud team through the desire to train as an educator and impact her community in Las Marías. She Studied Natural Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico in Cayey where she delved into various branches of physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics. Has completed certificates or research in environmental sustainability, climate science, agroecology, caribbean herbalism folklore, forestry, and nutrition. Nicole is co-founder of Bosque Caos, a forest ecology project whose vision is the conservation, regeneration and education of the subtropical humid forest and its cultural values. She met Plenitud PR through the "Agroecological Producers and Promoters Course" of the JoscoBravo and continued involved taking the "Healthy Eating and Wellness Course". She is creative, adventurous, and a dreamer; in her spare time she enjoys surfing, hiking, over-landing, being among the diversity of the forest, planting trees, reading indigenous ancestral knowledge and cooking for her loved ones.
Karla Michelle Capacetti-Quintana
Karla joined the Plenitud PR team with a lot of excitement and desire to serve. Karla currently lives in Las Marías, Barrio Buena Vista, and it is a dream come true to be able to live in Boriké. Her Puerto Rican parents left the island when they were young, and Karla grew up in various places, mostly in North Carolina, where she studied environmental studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. There she had her first experience in an organic garden! Her master’s degree in Sustainable Food Systems from Green Mountain College and more than 10 years of experience in community food systems have prepared her for this new stage as a Holistic Educator at Plenitud PR in the Children and Youth program. If Karla had eight hands, she would be playing various instruments, planting, cooking, preparing herbal medicine, crocheting, and painting all at the same time!
by Cindylisa Muñiz Santos
Cindylisa Muñiz Santos has taught high school English for over thirty years. She now directs the Global Engagement Department at Trinity School in New York City. She is looking forward to spending a week at Plenitud with her students in June, and the rest of the summer in Rincón with her Titi, going to the Me Salve and making really good pastelón.
by Marlia Bosques Martinez
Marlia is originally from Aguadilla, and her passion for agriculture began when she started growing her own food in her garden in high school. She holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science, a Master of Plant Pathology, and is currently a doctoral student in agricultural education and extension at the University of Florida. During her Ph.D., she has participated in projects related to the labor rights of farmworkers, food sovereignty, and gender integration in agriculture. Marlia is also the co-founder, leader, and content creator of Women in Ag Science, a platform that highlights the stories of women in agricultural science and educates on the importance of agriculture. In her free time, she grows vegetables and fruits for herself and her family and sells the surplus at the farmer’s market.
by Rebekah Sánchez
Rebekah started at Plenitud PR as an intern from the University of PR and now is an essential part of the team, helping to manage the agricultural efforts on the farm. She has a passion for serving the youth of P.R. and beyond through agro-ecological farming, and she loves mentoring youth & beginning farmers in our programs. Rebekah is devoted to our crops and the health of the soil; she works super hard in the fields, and she is capable of anything. Rebekah is also a talented musician and singer, and she loves God.
by Freddy Jusino
Freddy Jusino graduated with a degree in computer engineering from the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez. He has a goal to start his agroecological project and while that is happening, he supports as an advocate for different agroecology projects like Plenitud PR. In 2021, Freddy participated in an intensive Agua Segura workshop and has shared about his experience to the community in virtual talks. In his free time Freddy enjoys mountain biking and hiking.
by Laura Sofía García Canto
Laura began collaborating with Plenitud PR in August 2020 on bioconstruction-related research projects while completing her civil engineering degree at the University of PR. During her time in school, she collaborated with community-based projects and organizations working for empowerment and sustainability. While working with grassroots organizations following Hurricane María, Laura became interested in alternative forms of building that are more accessible and adaptable to the needs and contexts of people on the island. This interest began her journey in bioconstruction, leading her to Plenitud PR and joining the team as an AmeriCorps VISTA in August 2021 to support the research on code guidelines of SuperAdobe housing and the development of educational materials related to Super Adobe construction techniques. Laura is also passionate about cooking, yoga and sharing with the people she loves.
by Mirna Janet
Mirna is a teacher at Salón a Tiempo Completo Modificado at the Eva Patria Custodio High School in Las Marías.
by Seona Boyle
Seona first encountered Plenitud PR through a community-based learning course focused on rainwater harvesting systems with Drexel University in December 2019, and immediately connected with the community and mission of the organization. She continued to strengthen the relationships formed on the farm from Philadelphia, and returned to serve through the AmeriCorps VISTA program as an Administrative Systems Developer (2020) and Local Food Systems Coordinator (2021). She supports with digital communications, coordinating local produce for our Amo Mis Abus program, and organizing events at the Community Center. Seona can often be found engaging in conversation, practicing yoga, or jumping at any opportunity for an adventure!
by Samantha López Muñiz y Omar A. Torres Calvo
Samantha López Muñiz and Omar A. Torres Calvo are wellness educators and plant-based food chefs. They have been promoting and practicing a natural lifestyle together for more than 10 years, based on the fresh fruits of the land and the culinary traditions of the Caribbean. Through their business Ama Pachana, they are dedicated to supporting people to integrate a sustainable healthy lifestyle, through classes, cooking courses, and personalized meal plans. Their mission is to inspire and educate people to connect with their unique and healthy nutrition, to fall in love with whole foods and to introduce more vegetables and fruits to their diet in an easy, accessible and delicious way!
IG: @ama_pachana
FB: Ama Pachana
by John Hutchison Maxwell
John is from Massachusetts, and he has worked at Plenitud PR for 7 years, focusing on permaculture design, implementation, and education in the tropics and northeastern United States. John has also stepped up to do the needful on the administrative side of the organization, and he now assists with grant writing, finances, fundraising, and supervising the AmeriCorps VISTA service members. John is always smiling, and he is an avid cyclist, farmer, and musician.
by Alexandra Mantilla
An undergraduate student at Cornell University studying International Agriculture and Rural Development, Alexandra is passionate about transforming our current food system through agroecological farming practices and building community resilience. She has worked at various rural and urban small-scale farms in Maryland and New York and came to Plenitud PR in November 2020. While not farming, Alexandra enjoys baking, crocheting, and running!