I was born and raised in a small city surrounded by the Sonoran Desert in Northwestern Mexico. I spent over a decade advocating for communities and creating partnerships in the northern Gulf of California, leading science-based marine and land conservation projects that incorporate local knowledge. I moved to the United States to join the Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans' work team in its Tucson headquarters in December 2015. Two years later, in January 2018, I joined the Arizona Institute for Resilient Environments and Societies at the University of Arizona as the Program Coordinator for the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice. My job at the Haury Program focuses on administering a grantmaking program and creating partnerships among community and university members working on project-based solutions to social and environmental challenges facing underrepresented communities, including matters relevant to Native Americans.