Regeneration Field Institute Team
the year round staff that make the magic happen
LUCAS OSHUN | Director
Lucas has been working as an environmental education program developer and administrator since 2008 and he had led numerous reforestation efforts in Ecuador’s coastal tropical dry forest since 2010. Lucas has founded several environmental impact organizations including: Global Student Embassy, Regeneration Field Institute, and Los Arboleros Farm, our 70 acre bamboo and regenerative agroforestry operation in Manabi.
Currently, Lucas works as a full time supply chain consultant for Bamcore and Global Bamboo Technologies helping to develop sustainable sources of fast growing bamboo and eucalyptus fiber for structural panel fabrication. Whenever possible you will find him deep in the syntropic agroforestry fields at our farm, with his daughter on his back, pruning, checking on the health of trees, and envisioning a future of agriculture that resembles our natural forests.
RAISA TORRES | Operations DIRECTOR
Raisa Torres was born and raised in Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador where she has been an active advocate for environmental action and helped develop ecological education programs within public school systems. After studying environmental engineering at the Universidad Agraria de Guayaquil, she helped form the earthquake relief program, Bahia Beach Construction, and became RFI's Operations Manager. She ensures the logistics and coordination of our programs keeps students safe, healthy and maximizes their experience.
You may find her running, biking or swimming long distances, and being a super mom to Ayesha. Raisa continues to exemplify what it means to be a powerful leader in the local and global community.
Beth huggins | program DIRECTOR
Beth Huggins is a international program development specialist in rural resiliency and environmentally sustainability, originally from the United States. After studying chemical and materials engineering, she has spent much of her time supporting different international development projects. She loves the endless opportunities to learn from the diverse cultures, ecosystems and people around the world. Beth splits her time between Nepal, the US and Ecuador, supporting the development of programs for international students and participants that create learning opportunities while also contributing to more resilient, interconnected and abundant communities.
Dixon Olmedo | Farm Manager
Dixon is one of the two farm managers at Los Arboleros. Together, he and Darwin (both brothers) manage the groups of seasonal workers who help manage and harvest from our ~10 hectares of timber, turmeric and syntropic plots. Dixon grew up 5 minutes up the road, and worked in livestock and plantation agriculture operations before coming to RFI. His greatest dream is to see regenerative agriculture spread to other landholders in the area and grow the movement.
Darwin Olmedo | Farm Manager
Darwin is one of our two farm managers at Los Arboleros working with Dixon to manage year-round projects in trail building, tree pruning, harvesting and maintaining our timber, bamboo, turmeric and syntropic plots. Darwin also grew up in Pavón, 10 minutes up the road from the farm and worked seasonally with different farms for the 10 years before he came to farm. Both he and Dixon were present at the beginning in 2016 when RFI first came to Chone. His greatest dream is realize the institutes dreams of a full sized food forest with canopies filled with fruit and sustainably produced wood.
JORGE LOOR | ARCHITECT & INSTRUCTOR
Jorge Loor is an architect from Guayaquil, Ecuador who has a passion for teaching and industrial design. During his studies he assisted Design Workshop class and Construction Materials class with an emphasis on bamboo, after graduating from the Faculty of Architecture and Design at UCSG in Guayaquil, he and two partners started a Study/Workshop specialized on metallic construction, exploring ways on shaping metals into various functional and sculptural pieces of multiple scales that have been exposed in London, Dubai and many countries of South America. As a practicing architect, he incorporates bamboo as a “green steel” in projects that reinterpret traditional construction methods, with a social impact component through sharing knowledge on sustainable practices and materials.
OSCAR LUCAS-SOLIS | SCIENTIST & DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR
Oscar was born and raised in Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador where our organization was founded in the heart of coastal Ecuador. Oscar found his passion for nature and science while reforesting the tropical dry forest with his high school Eco-Club. He pursued Water Science Engineering at Ikiam University, deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, where he gained hands-on experience in environmental impact assessment. After working in government, assessing wildfire risks, he recognized climate change and agricultural expansion as critical challenges that needed urgent action. Now, as the leader of soil health research at RFI, he is proving that syntropic agroforestry not only restores degraded land but also empowers farmers to build a sustainable and resilient future.
MATTHEO SCHAFFNER | TRIP LEADER & OUTREACH COORDINATOR
Matteo is an educator, leader, researcher, and writer born and raised in Atlanta, GA. In June 2024, Matteo graduated from UC San Diego with a B.S. in Neurobiology where he also worked as a TA in a class relating to social and environmental justice. He has also written for the UCSD Guardian newspaper, interned at a research lab investigating cellular circadian rhythms, and volunteered at Caritas —a humanitarian service organization— in Puerto Maldonado, Peru.
He believes that, in the same way DNA is the blueprint for proteins, values are the blueprints for actions. Furthermore, in the same way mutations are the catalysts of biological evolution, changes in our inner and external lives are the catalysts for social evolution. In his free time, you might find him helping plant syntropic systems around the farm, meditating at a lookout spot, playing bossa nova on his guitar, or reading anything from earth science textbooks to Tolkien.
CRISTINA ValdiviesO | DESIGN ASSOCIATE
Cristina is an architect and designer based in Guayaquil, who's passionate about the relationship between cultural identity and the built world. After completing her BA in Architecture and Latin American Studies at Bennington College in Vermont, she returned to her hometown to further explore and understand her culture through an architectural lens. She believes that respecting the nature of materials is essential to the creation of authentic spaces imbued with a clear sense of place and culture. This led her to Ecuadorian vernacular construction materials such as guadua bamboo and wood, which she has steadily been incorporating into her practice.
