Astrid Portilla-Revelo

Focus Areas

Astrid Portilla-Revelo is the MEL Program Lead of La Ruta del Kamaleón at La Mixera Foundation, an initiative that integrates art and creative pedagogies into rural Colombian schools to make socioemotional wellbeing visible and accessible. Working across six municipalities in post-conflict and Afro-Colombian communities, the program creates safe creative spaces where adolescents strengthen self-esteem, self-expression, and family dynamics, proving that creativity is not a luxury but a right and a healing tool.

Portilla-Revelo has led monitoring, evaluation, and learning efforts that produced the first evidence-based scalable arts and wellbeing program in rural Colombian schools. She specializes in designing creative community-rooted models that pair validated wellbeing instruments with youth narratives, centering local knowledge to build sustainable ownership and program fidelity even in remote, low-connectivity territories.

“As a visionary leader, I believe the creativity of the Global South is one of our greatest assets for healing, resistance, and social cohesion — I strive to prove it is a right, so that no young person’s wellbeing is ever treated as optional.”