Krysten Aguilar
Krysten Aguilar is executive director of the Castanea Fellowship, a multi-sector collaborative that creates opportunities for transformative leadership to thrive. The organisation provides a two-year fellowship for diverse leaders working for a racially just food system.
Before Castanea, Krysten was co-executive director at La Semilla Food Center. She played a pivotal role in directing La Semilla to focus on intersectional work to address systemic issues facing communities in southern New Mexico and El Paso, Texas. She also worked within the organisation and the larger non-profit sector to decolonise the non-profit industrial mindset, pushing funders and philanthropy to hand over decision-making processes to community-led endeavours and disrupt the hoarding of stolen wealth. Her work centres justice, power building, anti-racism, and shared leadership. She uses food systems and leadership development as a tool to cultivate and support movement and power building in BIPOC communities.
Krysten’s transition to Castanea in September 2021 is an expansion of her work to support other leaders on a national scale. Her focus has been on redefining leadership development. She is working to ensure fellows have the time and space for the creative and generative work needed to support capacity within their organisations, in their communities, and among their peers. She designs nurturing spaces where leaders can heal, commiserate, and align to create new systems rooted in justice, healing, and trust. She aims to change systems of oppression through a nimble, iterative, and reflective program.
Krysten has a background in biology, anthropology, and food studies. She lives in the northern reaches of the Chihuahuan Desert in Las Cruces, New Mexico, with her family.