Maria Elisa Pinto-Garcia

Maria Elisa has lived at the intersection of peacebuilding, art and communications as a social entrepreneur, facilitator and artist. She is convinced that creative approaches and imagination are a must in changing relationships and systems. At the same time, she believes that inner and systemic change are totally interrelated and therefore, she has approached transformation from the personal level, to the interpersonal and the systemic level. 

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As a social entrepreneur, she created a new mission for Prolongar Foundation in 2013 and for almost a decade she positioned the organization as one of the leading NGOs in Colombia in art-based strategies for capacity building, peace, reconciliation and trauma healing. She has led more than 20 creative projects including mobile museums, community murals, memory initiatives, and a documentary to advance a culture of peace and raise awareness around structural and cultural violence in Colombia.

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She has lived in three different continents (America, Asia and Europe) spending two years in Japan where she earned a Master’s Degree in Global Studies from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and received a full scholarship from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). 
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In Sonder, Maria Elisa currently serves as the Operations Lead of Reimagine Peacebuilding, a translocal community of activists and peacebuilders that aims to re-imagine, co-create and co-lead spaces and action for a just, equitable and dignified peace. She is also a singer and songwriter and leads her own musical project.