TEAM

MARCELO MAIRA  ● FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

A Chilean musician and educator dedicated to sound research and the development of educational programs that prioritize innovation, play, and creativity as fundamental elements for learning processes. Professionally trained in Chile, Germany, and Cuba, throughout his career, he has developed various multidisciplinary projects, collaborating with professionals from Morocco, Albania, Germany, Spain, France, Croatia, Argentina, Mexico, the United States, the Netherlands, Korea, and Japan. In 2008, he founded the TárabusT Project, an organization dedicated to the development of experimental and improvised music, organizing multiple concert series, producing albums, and hosting residencies with prominent national and international artists. This organization founded the first directed improvisation orchestra in Chile, which operated steadily until 2018.

In 2010, he created the innovative inclusive methodology “Sound Stimulation Project.” After systematically working on it for eight years, he founded a new organization to ensure the project’s sustainability and continue its development, giving rise to the Creative Learning & Innovation Educational Foundation – CAI. He currently works as the Executive Director of CAI. He is a member of the academic committee of the Interdisciplinary Group for Education & Inclusion – GIEI, an international network of professionals, academics, and researchers from universities in Colombia, Brazil, Italy, Spain, and Mozambique. He is part of the international network of the Creativity, Culture and Education CCE Foundation, a platform dedicated to developing creativity in learning, and a member of Karanga, a global alliance dedicated to promoting socio-emotional development in education. He also collaborates as a teacher in the Social Inclusion Diploma program in the Occupational Therapy Department at the University of Chile and actively participates in seminars, conferences, and talks related to education, inclusion, the development of play, innovation, and creativity, both in Chile and abroad.

No one ignores everything. No one knows it all. We all know something. We all ignore something. That’s why we always learn.

Paulo Freire

JOSÉ FEUEREISEN ● RESEARCH, SOCIOLOGIST

His experience has been mainly linked to sustainable community and territorial development in the dimensions of poverty, culture and education in both public and private spaces. He led the nomination of Frutillar as the first Chilean city to be recognised by UNESCO as a Creative City and from there he articulates a sustainable development agenda around culture and creativity.

CHRISTIAN DELON  ● PRACTITIONER AND MUSICIAN.

Chilean musician. He collaborates actively in different groups dedicated to improvised music and experimental music sheets. His work is based on the possibilities of sound exploration and active and conscious listening. He has worked with artists from Spain, Japan, Austria, USA, Germany, Mexico, Peru, Argentina and Chile. In his career  he has performed in several  festivals  dedicated to the search of new forms, sound and aesthetic conventions through the use of field recordings, amplified surfaces and feedback. Since 2017 he has been part of the permanent team of Sound Stimulation Project.

CATERINA VALSECCHI ● PRACTITIONER, ART THERAPIST AND DESIGNER

Art therapist and graduated in Visual Arts. Since 2018 she has conducted workshops about exploration and artistic expression in different institutions contributing from the arts to people with special needs. She has developed workshops for Children at special schools and for adults in foundations and municipalities. With studies of Arts and theater in Chile, expression and disability in Argentina, she has specialized in generating spaces where people with disabilities can create and express themselves freely. In 2015, working at Las Dalias school she gets to know the Sound Stimulation Project and since then, she follows their interventions and progress. Finally, in 2018, she joins the project and becomes a monitor. On the other hand, she has developed a sustainable clothes brand from which she wants to encourage ecological awareness through the creative reuse of clothes not being worn.

CAMILA SOTO ● PRACTITIONER, DANCER AND EDUCATOR

Independent dancer, dedicated to pedagogy, interpretation and cultural management. The perspective of her work is related to the care and respect for the individual as an emancipatory paradigm of the values imposed by the hegemonic political-economic system. This interest has led her to investigate the study of various somatic practices, including Body-Mind Centering, Eutonia and Feldenkrais, to be a member of the first generation of the Diploma in Health of the Body in Movement and to initiate studies in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
She has developed her work as a teacher in formal institutions as well as in independent and self-managed ones. Much of her work as a performer has been developed in the street, in projects aimed at socialising dance and generating creative experiences with the audiences of these spaces both in Chile and abroad. Currently, together with Andrea Amaro and Diana Carvajal, she is making BAILABLE CONTEMPORARY SUDAKA, a practical research on dance in the territory of Santiago de Chile in the current historical moment. From the year 2020, she will join the team of the Fundación.

LUNA SOUSSA ● PRACTITIONER, DANCER AND EDUCATOR

A professor specializing in dance from the University of Chile. She has worked as a teacher, performer, and creator in various institutional and self-managed spaces. Her interest lies in the exploration of multiple pedagogies and interpretations that are connected to the joy and enjoyment of each participant, both inside and outside the classroom, thus exploring their own language and interests in each individual. From this search and interest, she has continuously focused on the study of somatic practices such as Body-Mind Centering, Feldenkrais, and Alexander Technique. Currently, she works as a dance teacher for early education in several municipal schools in the El Bosque municipality and as a monitor for the CAI Foundation.

FÉLIX LAZO ● PRACTITIONER, VISUAL ARTIST, AND MUSICIAN

He studied biology for three years at the University of Chile while simultaneously completing his music studies at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. He holds a degree in Advanced Music Performance from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, was awarded the Fulbright scholarship, and completed a Master’s in Music Education and a Master’s in Art Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. Between 2002 and 2003, he studied music composition at the Centre de Creation Musical Iannis Xenakis in Paris. Trained as both a scientist and a musician, he encountered the visual arts at an early age. After defining a visual language between color field painting and Arte Povera, he serendipitously encountered computers, merging his interests in science, music, and the visual arts. Since then, he has focused on creating a body of work that includes interactive installations, paintings, prints, music, and works in various media and formats.

JAVIER MORENO ● PRACTITIONER, COACH AND ACTOR

Ontological coach and actor. He is a trainer in emotional and communicative skills, as well as a facilitator of learning focused on emotional management and empowerment of individuals in both organizational and artistic settings. He is the creator of organizational coaching programs in culture, leadership, and empowerment for adolescents and organizations. He joined the CAI Foundation team as a monitor in the Los Lagos region in 2024.

ALVARO PACHECO BASCUÑAN ● PRACTITIONER, MUSICIAN, AND COMPOSER

Álvaro Pacheco Bascuñán holds a degree in Composition from the University of Chile. He is a multi-instrumentalist musician and composer. He began studying the violin at the age of 11 and later continued his studies in leveling programs at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba, and in composition at the University of Chile. As a violinist, he has participated in various ensembles of improvisation and both experimental classical and popular music. Since 2003, he has worked as a director, composer, and musical performer for theater, dance, and circus, developing a close relationship with the performing arts. In 2013, he was awarded by the Casa de las Américas in Cuba for his work Ascendiendo al Abismo; in 2015, he received the Excellence Scholarship in Composition from the Government of Mexico for the creation of his work Tres Bosques de América. In the field of pedagogy, he taught violin, piano, and theory for 7 years at the Tu Música Academy and was part of the team at Escuela Especial San Nectario for 5 years, where he worked on improvisation with the autistic community. Since 2023, he has led a music program for the neurodiverse community in the city of Villarrica through the 2023-24 Music Fund, and in 2024, he joined the CAI Educational Foundation team as a monitor in the Araucanía region.

DANIELA GONZALEZ SANDOVAL ● PRACTITIONER AND CIRCUS ARTIST

Daniela Gonzalez Sandoval is a circus artist with primarily self-taught training in Chile, Argentina, and Spain. She is a speech therapist with various post-graduate studies in Art Therapy, Psychomotricity, and Phoniatrics. Daniela has a keen interest in the intersection of the performing arts and health. In the performing arts, she works as a circus-theater performer, workshop leader, and cultural manager. She currently teaches at the university level in the field of Phoniatrics, and starting in 2024, she joined the CAI Educational Foundation team as a monitor in the Araucanía region.

JOSEFA PALACIOS ● SOCIOLOGIST, EVALUATION, AND MONITORING

Álvaro Pacheco Bascuñán holds a degree in Composition from the University of Chile. He is a multi-instrumentalist musician and composer. He began studying the violin at the age of 11 and later continued his studies in leveling programs at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba, and in composition at the University of Chile. As a violinist, he has participated in various ensembles of improvisation and both experimental classical and popular music. Since 2003, he has worked as a director, composer, and musical performer for theater, dance, and circus, developing a close relationship with the performing arts. In 2013, he was awarded by the Casa de las Américas in Cuba for his work Ascendiendo al Abismo; in 2015, he received the Excellence Scholarship in Composition from the Government of Mexico for the creation of his work Tres Bosques de América. In the field of pedagogy, he taught violin, piano, and theory for 7 years at the Tu Música Academy and was part of the team at Escuela Especial San Nectario for 5 years, where he worked on improvisation with the autistic community. Since 2023, he has led a music program for the neurodiverse community in the city of Villarrica through the 2023-24 Music Fund, and in 2024, he joined the CAI Educational Foundation team as a monitor in the Araucanía region.

MARKO RODRIGUEZ ● WEB CONTENT

Of Peruvian nationality, he holds a degree in Advertising from UADE, Argentina. He specializes in digital marketing and web content management. He works as a QA in an IT consulting firm and has been a collaborator with the CAI Foundation since 2022, supporting web content management and email campaign activities.

FRANCISCO ESPINOZA PÉREZ ● AUDIOVISUAL PRODUCER

His first work is the short documentary film “how do you see Santiago de Chile in 30 years on?(2001). In 2003 he co-produces and directed the medium-length documentary  film “Omnivadar family”. In 2005, his nano short film “Cazuela” got the third place in “urban nano short films competition” organized by Plagio Magazine and TVN. From 2006 to 2011, he made several short documentary films, social oriented, for the Pro-niño Foundation and the national council of culture of Chile(“human treasures alive”). In 2011 he was commissioned by DAV (Andean German club) and SOCHEX(Chilean Society of Exploration) the make the medium-length documentary film “Mother of God Island”, which is about the first Chilean expedition to the most rainy place in the world. Since 2012, he co-directs the production company “Orgánica Films”, where he has co-directed  the medium-length film “Boys and Girls in action” for Balmaceda Arte Joven about art workshops in shantytowns of Chile and the short documentary film “learning in my language” which observes a deaf teacher teaching the chilean sign language as a first language to first grade students of elementary school. In 2018, he released at movie theaters the documentary film “Last Year”, which is about the discrimination suffered by deaf people in their school years.

VICTORIA ALBORNOZ  ● DIFFERENTIAL EDUCATOR

She studied Pedagogy in Special Education with mention in Disability at the Catholic University of Valparaiso, and also she gets training as cognitive mediator PEI Level 1 accredited by the HWCRI Institute of Jerusalem,Israel.  She moved to Robinson Crusoe Island, working as part of the primary health care team, being in charge of the infant-juvenile room of the health center. In order to complement her training  and get updated into the current challenges, she studies a Diploma in cognitive neuropsychology and family health at Chile University, together with training in motor development by MINSAL and integral  health of second childhood at Valparaiso University.  As she came back, she gets training as Mindfulness  infant-juvenile  instructor and gets certified in Autism observation scale ADOS-2. She gets accreditation in the initial JASPER model. At the same time she started her Master Degree in Special Education with mention in language, hearing  and communication disorders.  Since 2017, she is part of the Sound Stimulation Project. She has been technical advisor  at Inclusion and disability-America Solidaria Foundation and currently she is leading an implementation of a Mindfulness program in early education at Kindergarten schools “Planeta tierra”.

BOARD

CLAUDIA YOLIN  ● PRESIDENT

Born in Santiago, Chile she is currently living in the rural area of the region of Valparaiso. With 20 years of professional career, she has been part of important companies in the country and stage designer of important plays with a strong emphasis in aesthetics. Her work searches for development through simple lines, open metaphors and accessible visuality, looking for the richness of emotive and mental  places, the structural foundation of her work, adding value to the design as an aesthetic context favorable for a deep trip that will enrich the theater experience of everyone involved. Her work has been seen in the most important theaters in the country and internationally she has participated in plays, residences and extensive tours in Spain, Netherlands, USA, Italy, Argentina, Brasil, Germany, Uruguay, Ireland, Japan and Mexico with an extraordinary international critical reception.

RODRIGO MOYA ● TREASURER

Born in Santiago,Chile. He graduated in Sciences of Engineering, civil engineer in Mines and MBA at Chile university. Innate planner with an intensive career of more than 25 years developing projects with an integral view, besides considering  strategic commercial accomplishments of the mining industry, he focuses on including environmental issues plus a strong emphasis in the quality of communication of his work teams.  He is certified in coaching by Newfiled. In 2015 he was part of a short courses program at MIT. Currently he works as a project development manager and projects vice-president at Antofagasta Minerals company.

TERE DÍAZ ● SECRETARY

Graphic Designer from the Diego Portales University with a Masters in Design from London College of Communication in the UK and recently, a Diploma in Cultural Management from the Catholic University of Chile. She has dedicated her professional life to the management of cultural projects and the generation of experiences around them. She is the founder of Casa de Oficios and Factoría de Oficios, an organisation dedicated to the teaching and promotion of manual crafts, research, training, dissemination and marketing of crafts and trades in England, Santiago, Frutillar and in various regions and localities throughout Chile. From this platform she has also provided consultancy services to communities of artisans and institutions on issues of programming, management of cultural and commercial spaces, teaching, experience design, as well as curating exhibitions and fairs. She is currently in charge of the Experiences area of the Teatro del Lago in Frutillar and the shop of the same space.

HERNÁN MILLAS ● DIRECTOR

Journalist, Master’s in Marketing Management from the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, PDE in Business Management from ESE Business School, and certified in Digital Transformation Leadership for Healthcare Companies from Harvard University. Founder and CEO of Alianza, the first consulting agency in Ibero-America specialized in the growth of healthcare companies. He has been involved in various institutions linked to education and social vulnerability. He is a board member of Enseña Chile Patagonia and was previously the director of the Astoreca Foundation. He served on the External Advisory Board of Civil Engineering Informatics at the University of Los Lagos and volunteered with América Solidaria in Haiti. He was part of the G100 business group. He was the director of Fundación Forja Chile and also served as Coordinator for secondary school students at Techo and as a professor at Infocap. In 2024, he joined Fundación CAI as a Director.