Jennifer Carr - Executive Director

Jennifer Carr grew up in Gainesville, Florida where she attended the University of Florida. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Wildlife Ecology & Conservation and completed the Master of Sustainable Development Practice program with a certificate in Tropical Conservation & Development. She has gained an understanding of the multidimensional nature of development challenges and has the analytical capacity and tools to be a critical thinker of the development process and its implications. Her studies focused on community-based tourism development in Petén, Guatemala where she executed her field practicum in collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society and other stakeholders. Her work contributed to the community of Uaxactún located within the Tikal National Park.

Jennifer has a lot of great field experience for wildlife conservation having worked for the U.S. Geological Survey on a Gulf Sturgeon tracking project in Florida. She was also a volunteer research assistant for the Sea Turtle Conservancy which was founded by her grandfather and world-renowned sea turtle expert Dr. Archie Carr. The STC's Leatherback tagging program is located in Tortuguero, Costa Rica which is where Jennifer fell in love with her tico husband Jesús, who was also in the program in 2007.

Jennifer joined the SCLC team in January 2013 and she is honored to be able to work in such an important biological corridor and will strive to take a holistic approach to conservation and community development. Jennifer also hopes to apply her library work experience to continue Bertha Carter's dream by reinvigorating the SCLC library as a community resource center.

Yazmin Iglesias - Assistant Director

Yazmin was born in Texas and grew up just outside of New York City in Stamford, Connecticut. She studied Hospitality Management at Johnson & Wales University in both Providence, Rhode Island and Miami, Florida. She also received a second degree in business at the University of Connecticut. After studying abroad in Nepal, Yazmin decided she wanted to spend her life traveling and immersing in the different cultures of the world. In 2005, she relocated to Honolulu, Hawaii to head up operations at a local not-for-profit organization. In 2008, from Hawaii, she began a year long journey around the world, crossing the USA, living in Morocco, Egypt, India & Thailand. Yazmin has spent a lot of time in Uruguay where her parents migrated from and the majority of her family still lives.

She is fluent in both Spanish and English, and is a certified translator. She has come to Costa Rica to work with environmental education and eco-tourism. Yazmin joined the SCLC team in May 2011.

Jasmin Bütow – Rural and Community-Based Tourism Program Assistant

Jasmin grew up in a small town in the northwest of Germany. Dreaming of travelling the world, she studied International Tourism Management in the Netherlands and Spain. After realizing that sustainability and equality are two of the concepts she truly cares about, she opted for a postgraduate degree in Global Development and Gender at the University of Leeds, UK. For almost three years, she has lived, studied and worked in Madrid, which is where she became fluent in Spanish. Jasmin joined the SCLC team as a long-term volunteer in October 2012 and will assist in running the tourism and community development activities here in Sarapiquí. 

Caitlin Granfield - EFL Program Coordinator

Born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, Caitlin realized from a young age that she much rather preferred the summer season in contrast to her home-state’s long drawn-out winter months. When the time came to scout for colleges, she narrowed her search down to only Florida schools, so she could soak up the sunshine all year round.

In 2007, Caitlin graduated from Barry University in Miami Shores, FL., with a major in English and a specialization in Professional Writing, with a minor in Photography as well. She met her extremely handsome Peruvian husband at the university and they’ve been married for 7 years.

Caitlin enjoys discovering new passions – she has worked as a wine consultant and was also the Operations Manager for South Florida’s largest weekly publication. She decided to give food-writing a shot as well and she now has more than 20 published articles about Miami’s food scene. She hopes to one day be a professional travel writer.

With an unrelenting quest to be the captain of her own ship, as the saying goes, Caitlin joined the long-term volunteer team in Sarapiqui in January of 2013; she hopes her knowledge of English will help the communities of Sarapiqui advance to new heights in their levels and understanding of the English language so that her students will have better opportunities in their lives to find suitable jobs, as she hopes new doors will open for them as they advance in their English studies.

Caitlin joined the SCLC team in January 2013.

Sarah Blézy - EFL Teacher & Scholarship Program Coordinator

Sarah was born and raised in a small francophone community in rural Saskatchewan, Canada. Growing up bilingual she continued her study of language and culture getting a degree in both International Relations and Languages & Linguistics majoring in French. It was during this time that she first became involved in community development working within the francophone community in Saskatoon. After two years of working locally there as a Coordinator, she absolutely wanted to go further and do more in this field, and moved to Brussels to get her Master’s in International Conflict and Security with a focus on cultural conflict.

She went on to work for an environmental consulting organization in the Swiss Alps managing the research team and doing research herself as well as assisting to design courses, training programs and conferences for various UN organizations. It was there in the Alps that she renewed her passion for the outdoors as well as for the pace of rural life, and after 9 months of UN work she escaped to return to grassroots development and to travel the world studying language and culture. This new gypsy lifestyle took the form of a year-long journey across Western Europe and then South America doing work in translation and development, getting certified and teaching English, and of course studying Spanish. She is now very happy to be settling here for a while living the rainforest in rural Costa Rica as part of the SCLC team since January 2013.

Cena Rouzes - After School Program Coordinator

Cena’s joys can be summed up with three verbs: teaching‚ exploring and cooking. Born in eastern Canada and raised in various cities in Canada and abroad‚ her family finally settled in the beautiful Comox Valley on Vancouver Island‚ British Colombia. It was there she first got involved with volunteering, community development and discovered her love of nature.

Growing up as francophone in a minority setting‚ Cena had many opportunities to learn firsthand the importance of maintaining cultural identity through language and decided to pursue a degree in Francophone Elementary Education. Her decision opened many doors in the local community of Edmonton‚ Alberta but she was searching for something more. Cena opted to become a certified English teacher and accepted a teaching contract in Arequipa‚ Peru. Life would then bring her to a coastal Ecuadorian fishing village to teach English to adults and in local elementary schools, to the city of Bogota, Colombia to study Spanish, and now to Costa Rica.She is looking forward to putting her many skills to good work with the SCLC as of January 2013.