I am from Quito, Ecuador. I studied at Escuela Politecnica Nacional EPN, where I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Agro-industrial Engineering. After I graduated, I worked as a technical assistant in the National Association of Poultry Producers (CONAVE) and with the National Association of Swine Producers (ASPE) for eight years.

As a part of my job, I developed the manuals of good practices for swine and poultry production, including issues of animal health, nutrition, productivity and environmental care. Additionally, I managed the eradication program of Classical Swine Fever at three provinces in Ecuador. Moreover, I was in charge of the management of trainings for the swine producers and members from Ministry of Agriculture. Those programs were sponsored by the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC). I worked on that with overseas experts in animal nutrition, teaching topics like managing of feed meals, animal care, purchases of commodities from USA, etc.

I met Dr. Stein in Ecuador during a conference organized with USSEC, where he was part of the expert’s team in soybean use in animal nutrition. Then, he kindly offered me the opportunity to come as a visiting scholar to the University of Illinois, I started working with the feed ingredients database and also managing the social media and the monthly newsletter where we publish research reports, peer reviewed and podcast.

In June 2023, I got the opportunity to become a Lab manager and start working in several experiments for different companies which is a perfect way to learn more about research and also to improve my administrative skills.