Fiorella Yvette Guerrero Calle (37), from Peru, is completing her doctorate in rehabilitation sciences at the University of Florida.
Fiorella’s studies focus on developing a family quality-of-life instrument—a holistic instrument measuring the physical, emotional, and social wellbeing of families with children with disabilities—in Peru’s rural highlands. This tool can then be used to measure the effectiveness of future policy and program interventions, which she hopes to design and implement.
An activist-academic, Fiorella is already implementing programs through the organization she founded: Warmakuna Hope. This organization provides free rehabilitation services to children with disabilities; empowers families through various training programs; promotes inclusive education at the community and policy level; and creates collaborative networks among teachers, therapists, and other specialist interventions. Fiorella’s long-term career goals are to turn Warmakuna Hope into a sustainable organization and conduct research in the disability field to gather evidence for public policymaking.
Fiorella’s commitment is to “making children with disabilities visible,” which she aims to achieve by changing how parents see the potential of their children; how teachers set expectations for them; and how policymakers see and support their role in society.
