ulia Álvarez Icaza Ramírez heads the environment secretariat of Mexico City, since October 2024. A restorative justice lawyer, environmentalist, activist and political analyst, she has worked on gender, human rights and socio-environmental issues. She is a founder and member of the Alternative Food Networks of Mexico City, has worked with peasants in fair trade and agroecological production, and has done much legal work defending agricultural workers, agrarian communities and indigenous peoples. She was also involved in a lawsuit against GMO corn and with the national campaign, “Without Maize There’s No Country.” At UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico), Álvarez Icaza was a research assistant in human rights and works in the area of restorative justice. She has also collaborated at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and is a member of the gender and human rights working group of Yale’s Latin American Interdisciplinary Gender Network. Earlier, she worked on adult literacy and taught literacy in rural communities.