Biography

Ana Maria Peredo, PhD

Dr Ana Maria Peredo is a former member of the Board of the POLIS Foundation and continues to be involved with POLIS in an advisory capacity and through the discussion series. Ana Maria received her PhD with a specialization in Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Development, the Environment and Anthropology from the Faculty of Management of the University of Calgary in 2001. Ana Maria is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Business at the University of Victoria developing alternative business models that rely on the social and cultural values of communities. She has worked for various UN and European development agencies involved in rural development projects with the Quechua and Aymara peoples, including designing micro-credit and income generation projects for Andean women. She is a founding member of PRODIMA, an organization promoting research and development in the high Andes and has a strong interest in community alternatives and participatory action research among Indigenous peoples.

Ana Maria was honoured with the "Ascendant Scholar Award" from the Western Academy of Management, a non-profit regional division of the US-based National Academy of Management. She is one of four scholars, only two of whom are Canadian, presented with the 2007 award. Read media release