Elvia Raquec is the Programs Director for Women’s Justice Initiative (WJI) and has worked with WJI since its founding in 2011. Prior to joining WJI, Elvia worked for four years at Population Council’s Abriendo Oportunidades, a program dedicated to the empowerment and education of Maya girls. Elvia mentored adolescent girls, advising them to stay in school and inspiring them to be leaders in their rural communities, and was able to travel internationally to present at numerous conferences. Since joining WJI, Elvia’s work implementing and overseeing women’s rights programs in indigenous rural communities is fueling social change in Guatemala.  Over the past eight years, first as WJI’s Program Coordinator and now as Programs Director, Elvia has played a critical role in the development and execution of initiatives to empower Maya women and girls through programs focused on access to legal services, women’s rights education, and leadership development.

In 2015, Elvia was selected as a Centroamérica Adelante Fellow, a leadership development program that supports high-impact leaders driving change in Central America. She was awarded the Women’s World Summit Foundation Prize for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life in 2018 for her work promoting Maya women’s rights.  Elvia was one of ten women around the globe to win the prize.

Elvia is a graduate of the University of Rafael Landivar with a degree in Social Work. Elvia grew up in Los Pinos, a small rural community in Patzún, Guatemala and she currently resides in Tecpán with her husband and two young sons.