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Alexandria Lyons comes to the MALAS program after having earned a BA in Economics and Political Science from UNM in 2017.

She decided to continue with graduate school at UNM in part because the MALAS degree promised to help expand her skill set and support her interest in working more directly with communities from and issues pertinent to Central America. UNM was also a natural choice because it was important to her that she be able to stay near her hometown to build a network of resources that would connect to her research at UNM and draw on NM-Latin American relations.

Alexandria came to focus on Latin America as a field of study in part because of repeated experiences in the region. She first fell in love with Latin America's diversity during a faculty-led trip to Cuba in which she took part while an undergraduate at UNM. Beyond Cuba, her time in Latin America includes a stint studying Spanish in Ecuador at the Universidad de Cuenca, after which she traveled around South America, ending in Buenos Aires, Argentina. More recently, she led a small group of students to Wawashang, Nicaragua, near Laguna de las Perlas, and participated in a solidarity trip organized by Grassroots International to Honduras for the one year anniversary of Berta Cáceras' death.

On a more personal note, Alexandria has family in Canutillo, Durango, MX, which made her realize her connection to the region. She is a native Nuevo Mexicana from Los Lunas, and says," being part of the rural southwest I feel very connected to land and water in general, especially our rich acequia culture."

A graduate assistant at the LAII, Alexandria is the SOLAS program coordinator and also supports the institute's outreach programs and marketing efforts. Outside of the LAII, Alexandria is the secretary for the student group Quetzalkuetlachtli, which focuses on the practices and teaching of indigenous Mexicano scholarship through danza and workshops. Upon graduation, Alexandria wants to create a non-profit organization that assists local and indigenous communities in areas of land sovereignty and community development. In her free time, she enjoys gardening and working with youth, and is a community organizer with SWOP, where she works primarily on food justice issues around New Mexico. Her other pastimes involve riding her bike around town and visiting family in Valencia County.