Maria Emilia Martin is an award-winning independent multi-media journalist who currently directs the GraciasVida Center for Media, a nonprofit organization based in Austin, TX and La Antigua, Guatemala that is devoted to the practice of independent journalism in the public interest (www.graciasvida.org). For the last fifteen years, the Center has worked to improve the skills and working conditions for rural, provincial and indigenous journalists in Guatemala, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, as well as to improve the coverage of Central America on U.S. public radio.

An award-winning public radio journalist for over three decades, Martin developed ground-breaking programs and series for public radio, including NPR's Latino USA and Despues de las Guerras: Central America After the Wars (www.latinousa.org, www.afterthewars.org).

She is the recipient of two Fulbright and several Knight Fellowships, including the John S. Knight Professional Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University, and the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for Democracy. Martin has won over two dozen awards for her work covering Latino issues and Latin America and continues to report on Central America for public radio and other media.

She holds a Master's degree in journalism from the Ohio State University. In September of 2015, Martin was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Her journalistic memoir: ``Crossing Borders, Building Bridges: A Journalist's Heart in Latin America`` was published by Conocimientos Press in 2020.

Avexnim means “big field of young corn plants” in Maya K’iche’. A sociologist by profession, Avexnim has worked in the fields of immigration, multiculturalism, indigenous rights, and community development, in Canada, Guatemala and internationally. Her experience includes managing or delivering programs that aim to improve the conditions of vulnerable populations. Her volunteer work includes supporting her community in recovering its spirituality and supporting her elders with community health from indigenous systems of knowledge. Avexnim currently serves as a Program Director for Cultural Survival, a non-profit organization that supports indigenous communities and organizations in their initiatives for self-determination. Avexnim has a degree in Indigenous Government Studies from the Institute of Indigenous Government, Vancouver, British Columbia; a sociology degree from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver; and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Regina, Saskatchewan.

Demetrio is Mayan Kaqchikel from Guatemala. He has a doctorate in social communications from the University of Leuven, Belgium. He was a university professor and social researcher, a public official in the Ministry of Education and Culture of Guatemala. As a Mayan activist, he was a member of indigenous organizations and has several publications on indigenous rights. He was the Deputy Minister of Education in Guatemala and then worked as a consultant with programs in Guatemala with the OAS and the EU. He has 50 works in 119 publications in 2 languages.

Leonardo Villafuerte trained as a lawyer and worked for more than 12 years with public, private, and non-governmental organizations before returning to academia. He currently teaches and is a research professor at Universidad Católica Boliviana in La Paz, Bolivia. He is finishing a Ph.D. through the University of Antwerp in Belgium, with his area of interest in the collective rights of indigenous justice.