Hometown: Andagoya, Chocó, Colombia

Bio: Heiner Mauricio is a first-year candidate in the M.A in Latin American Studies. He was born and raised in Andagoya, Chocó, Colombia and he is a Fulbright Scholar under the Fulbright Program for Afro-Descendant Communities. Mauricio, as his close friends call him, holds a law degree from the Universidad de Medellín, a specialization in Territorial Public Management, and a master's degree in Territory Governance and Public Management, both from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá.

Mauricio has over eight years of professional experience. Currently, he serves as the Vice President and Project Director of the Andagoya Cultural Foundation, where he works on local development processes and the management and strengthening of the cultural heritage of communities in the Colombian Pacific region, which he views as a fundamental component of human development.

In the public sector of Colombia, Mauricio has served as an advisor for the protection of cultural heritage at the Ministry of Culture and as an advisor at the Office of International Affairs at the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.

Research Area – Substantive: The role played by civil society and international organizations in local development, the creation of bottom-up strategies to encourage the cultural industry and the creative economy as alternative means to foster local development in his region, local development, international cooperation and development, government decentralization, cultural heritage, and the cultural industry.

Research Area – Geographic: Pacific Coast of Colombia, The Caribbean, Brazil