This is our team, a diverse group of people spanning the globe, all connected by a passion for Fungi.
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Founding Director
Founding Director
Giuliana Furci is the Founding Director of the Fungi Foundation. She is a Harvard University Associate, Dame of the Order of the Star of Italy, Co-Chair of the IUCN Fungal Conservation Committee, and author of several titles including a series of field guides to Chilean fungi and co-author of titles such as the 1st State of the World’s Fungi (Kew, 2018). Giuliana has held consulting positions in U.S. philanthropic foundations as well as full-time positions in international and Chilean marine conservation non-profits. She sits on the Board of Fundación Acción Fauna, and on the Advisory Board of Myco-Medica Life Sciences and of the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN).
Program Lead
Program Lead
Daniela's passion in the fungi kingdom began at the Universidad de Concepción, where she studied biotechnology and eventually specialized in the research of mycorrhizal fungi. Prior to becoming the organization's Program Lead, Daniela joined the Fungi Foundation as a volunteer in 2017 and acted as its CEO for three years. One of her first tasks was to create a plan for the sustainable collection of a species in danger of extinction, the Butyriboletus loyo. Today, she continues to be particularly driven by mycological expeditions and the development of activities at the intersection of colleges and fungal education of kids and teens. Daniela believes that there are unique moments in life - when one is at the right place, at the right time - and that these moments should be seized. She regards finding the Fungi Foundation and becoming part of it as one of those moments.
Communications Lead
Communications Lead
Alejandra is a Chilean journalist, devoted nature lover, as well as a big music and landscape lover.
UK Policy Lead
UK Policy Lead
Dr.Merlin Sheldrake is a biologist and author of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures, a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, and winner of the Royal Society Book Prize and the Wainwright Prize. He is the presenter of Fungi: Web of Life, a giant screen documentary narrated by Björk. Merlin is an honorary research associate of the University of Oxford, a research associate of the Vrije University Amsterdam, and works with the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks.
Development and Partnerships Lead
Development and Partnerships Lead
Marios is a lover of all things nature and technology (and the intersection between the two). His fondness for nature began with foraging for chestnuts and oregano in the mountainous heartlands of Greece with his grandmother. He was infected with a passion for fungi at an early age, during his walks to school. During his mechanical engineering degree, he maintained his interest in all things fungi- through physical applications, creative and digital media, and cultivation. Marios wanted to apply his tech skills to spread the mycelial message of fungi and the need to conserve them, and so found the Fungi Foundation to be his calling.
Program/Expedition Development
Program/Expedition Development
Cristian, motivated by his first encounters with fungi, decided to study Engineering in Renewable Natural Resources. From the age of 13 he’s practiced Hankido, where he met and became friends with Furci. He eventually began working with her distributing our Field Guides dedicated to mushrooms in Chile. Cristian was one of the first foundation’s members, which he joined in 2013 and currently works for full time. As a lover of beer and specialty coffee he has routine encounters with the Fungi Queendom through the yeast. He enjoys playing sports and spending time in nature where he often keeps an eye to the ground in hope of spotting mushrooms.
Finance Lead
Finance Lead
Steve Mendelsohn oversees the Fungi Foundation's financial business operations. His career has focused on leading a variety of humanitarian, arts and media non-profits/NGO's in their work around the world. He currently also consults for SPUN, one of the Fungi Foundation's important partners. Steve has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Before working with non-profits, Steve managed marketing at American Express and Razorfish, a digital consulting firm.
Executive Assistant
Executive Assistant
Amanda Herrera joined the team of talented individuals advancing funga on the world stage as our Executive Assistant. Integrating her yogic practices for wellbeing on every level, Amanda has made a career using her analytical skills together with a mindfulness approach across a wide swath of industries. Her passion for working with clients and mission-driven organizations has helped her identify links between our experiences and capabilities to the opportunities that generate healthful, inspiring work with more enriching, impactful success. Amanda believes that education on the Fungi Kingdom and its unique benefits will have the incredible ability to balance the body and mind while symbiotically healing our environments and ecosystems.
India Program Lead
India Program Lead
Prithvi is an entrepreneur, yoga practitioner, citizen scientist, and mental health advocate with a deep interest in the therapeutic benefits of mushrooms. Being the co-founder of Nuvedo, her vision is for people to reclaim control of their lives through mushrooms. She has been a startup catalyst, in building organizations from the ground up across diverse fields. Through Nuvedo, she forges connections with local farming communities and myriad mycophiles across India and is fostering a mushroom revolution that goes beyond mere business. She's on a mission to revolutionize India's allyship with fungi, not just on a plate but in policy as well. With a commitment to conservation, her interests focus on ethical biodiversity research and Indian ethnomycological exploration. As a permaculture advocate, she believes these principles will be instrumental to shaping the Fungi Foundation Chapter in India.
India Program Lead
India Program Lead
Malavika is a public educator bringing fungi to the people, and the people to fungi in New Delhi, India. They began foraging for mushrooms nearly a decade ago, which led them to a social, cultural, and ecological exploration of the kingdom of fungi. Their work is focused on investigating the interplay of community and ecology through the lens of fungi, intertwining mycology and queer theory with the aim of cultivating alternative paradigms of self and other. Through their work, they foster a community of mycophiles across India, creating space for scientific learning as well as novel sociological interpretations of our shared ecology.
Co-Curator FFCL Fungarium
Co-Curator FFCL Fungarium
Lives in Argentina, he is a mycologist and is the co-curator of the FFCL Fungarium. Although the value of a fungarium is mainly Biological, Francisco also enjoys the historical and artistic importance of the materials, since each sample presents a certain calligraphy, language and methods of the person who collected it. It becomes part of mycological history. He also enjoys literature, opera, reggaeton and trying foods from other countries, especially if they are spicy.
These are our volunteers. They are an integral part of the
foundation who help us spread the mycelial message.
Education Program Volunteer
Education Program Volunteer
Catherine is a Venezuelan-Canadian multimedia bio-artist, citizen scientist, community enthusiast, and storyteller with a background in film and fashion. Her work centers around deepening our relationships with the more-than-human worlds. In her practice, she challenges the need to use materials and methods that are non-compatible with living systems. She is the co-founder of Fungal Matters, an online training course for mycomaterials. Catherine is also a certified yoga instructor and psychedelic advocate. She's trained with the Beckley Academy and Chacruna Institute to better understand and help guide people through these liminal states.
Education Program Volunteer
Education Program Volunteer
Colin is formally trained in Sport Management, but a shift in priorities led him to the study of permaculture and mycology. This journey led him to the Fungi Academy in Guatemala, where he served as the Community Manager. Colin is passionate about fungal education and has shared the magic of mushrooms with hundreds of people through courses with the Fungi Academy and workshops with Fungadelic Farms. Now a freelance writer, Colin hopes to use the lessons instilled by fungi and permaculture to cultivate harmonious relationships between humans and the rest of the natural world.
Elders Program Volunteer
Elders Program Volunteer
Spencer has always been fascinated with the intersection between geography, cuisine, and cultural formation. While studying cultural anthropology in college, he discovered that he could learn more about the world through the lens of ethnomycology. Spencer has since earned UCSB’s Research Promise award for his paper on Latin American ethnomycology. He is passionate about preserving endangered cultures, both human and fungal. His goal is to explore the multifaceted world of fungi, including their culinary, medicinal, spiritual, and environmental aspects, while also striving to reduce ethnocentric biases on a global scale.
Partnerships Volunteer
Partnerships Volunteer
Kai is a naturalist deeply passionate about fungi and their role in the ecosystem. He is doing his undergraduate in Ecology at the University of Edinburgh.
Elders Program Volunteer
Elders Program Volunteer
Mariana Villani is an ethnomycologist, agroecologist, herbalist, researcher and teacher. Her focus is on preserving fungi and the traditional ecological knowledge of Indigenous peoples, traditional societies and local communities around the world. She has done projects with different Indigenous peoples in North America and volunteers on the Elders Project. She has researched hundreds of uses of mushrooms around the world, and the threats Indigenous peoples and fungi face. She is currently researching the Funga of Chapada Diamantina National Park and also teaching classes about the fantastic uses of fungi in Brazil.
Communications Volunteer
Communications Volunteer
Betsy is a British postgraduate student in Munich where she is studying anthropology of science and working part-time for an environmental NGO focused on transitioning the oil and gas sector. She thinks that by paying attention to the complex and surprising behaviour of fungi, we can learn a lot about how to manage our own actions and responsibilities as part of a global, multi-species ecosystem. She likes to swim in the sea and watch live music.
Conservation Program Volunteer
Conservation Program Volunteer
Belle is a forager, food justice activist, and videographer. She just completed an undergraduate degree focused in sustainable agriculture and is passionate about the role mycorrhizal fungi play in healthy soil and carbon sequestration. She's worked on farms all over the world and loves getting her hands in the dirt! Her favorite mushroom is a cinnabar chanterelle.