María José Solano, 

Strategic Management Officer

María José works for Cristosal since 2019 when she joined the executive direction team. As the current strategy officer, she works to monitor and guarantee that programmatic actions are implemented according to the institutional strategy. Besides, she monitors the fulfillment of theobjectives traced by each program and aims to promote the internal strengthening of the organization.

María José has a bachelor’s degree in International Relations at the University of El Salvador and is finishing a master’s degree in Direction of International Cooperation Projects with emphasis in project management at the International School of Project Management. She has over 7 years of experience working in social and, humanitarian matters, working for diplomatic missions, civil society organizations and United Nations agencies.

Before working at Cristosal, she was the Senior Program Assistant of the United States Refugee Admissions Program at IOM in El Salvador in which she supervised case management activities and interviewed refugees in Ecuador and El Salvador. Previously, she worked at the Embassy of Canada to El Salvador as advocacy and international cooperation assistant.