Lorena Ardila is a program assistant at the foundation’s Andean Region office. She supports the program team with core operations, grantmaking, administrative, and project management needs and is one of the initial points of contact for grantees and stakeholders in the region.

Lorena joined Ford in 2016 as administrative assistant and was promoted to program assistant in 2020. Prior to this, she worked in the private sector, focusing on administrative management, finance, operations, and logistics with a total experience of over 15 years in these fields. Her work approach is specialized in ethnic and gender justice, just energy transition, peace building, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Lorena holds a master’s degree in business administration with a specialization in event planning from the Universidad Externado de Colombia, a business finance diploma from Universidad de los Andes, and a bachelor of arts in graphic design from Los Libertadores University in Colombia. In June 2022, she was awarded a scholarship for a research symposium at Harvard University in collaboration with the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.