Beatriz Oliva Soto Ruvalcaba (she, her, ella) is originally from Chihuahua, Mexico. Through her childhood and youth, she grew up in a bi-cultural setting between Mexico and the United States, navigating the broken US immigration system. She studied architecture at the Instituto Tecnologico de Chihuahua and practiced architecture for over 15 years.
She has been at the intersection of community building and working towards a stable climate for the past two decades. Beatriz is a LEED certified architect that worked on a variety of energy related projects, from Net-Zero affordable housing to high-performance strawbale homes, sustainable developments in the Pacific coast of Mexico, as well as providing professional trainings with the US and the Mexican Green Building Councils. Beatriz developed a bilingual program for just transition and empowerment of construction workforce, which she ran for the Community Office of Resources Efficiency in Pitkin County.
Beatriz is former Director of Defiende Nuestra Tierra for The Wilderness Workshop, and also a co-founding member of Voces Unidas de las Montañas, the first political non-profit organization in the central mountain region, created and led by Latine leaders to create opportunities for their communities to speak and advocate for themselves. She currently is the Director of Protegete, a statewide initiative from Conservation Colorado, whose mission is to elevate Latino driven solutions to protect our lands, water, air and fight for environmental and climate justice.
If she’s not out in nature, you can find her volunteering in local schools, encouraging Latine youth to see themselves as leaders in STEM fields, as the next generation of elected leaders, as stewards of the land and as an important voice in environmental and social issues.