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Community Engagement | Graphic Design | Urban Design | Geographic Information Systems | Architecture

Valeria (Val) Henao holds a B.Arch. from the Universidad Nacional Colombia and is a licensed architect in Colombia. Additionally, she has a master’s degree in urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado Denver. In 2019 she was awarded the APA Foundation scholarship. Val’s Architecture thesis on informal settlement in Medellin was awarded the Otto de Greif award as one of the best thesis projects in Colombia in 2017. 

Val’s professional philosophy is based on empowering marginal groups by using her skills and creativity to improve urban environments. She has found that marginalized communities often are not included in the planning process, even though they build their neighborhoods based on their empirical wisdom. She believes that a crucial strategy to break such power imbalances resides in highlighting the local knowledge of the communities in the planning process.

Her planning and architecture work expands to Colombia, the United States, and Mexico. Val led the strategic master plan of the neighborhood "Colonia" La Campana in Monterrey, Mexico, an informal community with incredible infrastructure deficits; the international design team included the internationally renowned Equipo Mazzanti. 

Val’s teaching experience includes her work as an instructor for the Universidad San Buenaventura in Medellin, Colombia, where she led her students to win the national stage of the Saint Gobain student contest. Additionally, she has worked with a non-profit called Mobility-Movilidad as the On-Site Coordinator of the Global Seminar Medellín Practicum.