Ruivaldo (Valdo) is a climate and social justice advocate who believes in the coexistence of people and nature. He is from Timor Leste and has lived in Brazil and Italy.
He is also a recent graduate with a major in Economics and minor in Visual Communications from Luther College, Iowa. For his senior thesis, he explored the probability of credit participation in small-scale fisheries in Indonesia. At Luther, Valdo was also part of the international student associations and the Luther College soccer team.
Prior to joining Rare, he was a research intern for the East West-Center think tank in Washington D.C, a project management intern for Management Systems International, and a data visualization intern for Health in Harmony non-profit.
In his free time, he loves trail running, playing soccer and basketball, as well as playing with his two cats; Goose and Piglet. He seeks to enroll in a scuba diving course as he continues to explore his passion for the ocean and its ecosystem.