Elsa C Garcia

Scholar since
2022

Scholarship received
2022 Sho-Ping Chin Women's Leadership Summit Grant

Education

Universidad de Santiago de Chile

Hometown
Kansas City, MO

Elsa was born in Santiago, Chile. Her mother was a teacher, and her father was an engineer. She has a younger brother, who is a doctor. Since Elsa was a kid was inspired by her dad. In the 80’s, he opened an architectural office and she used to play with models, stencils, and drawing pens. She dreamed with cool houses design from magazines and loved listening her dad’s stories and knowledge. She studied architecture at University of Santiago of Chile and obtained her architect degree in 2004. She worked for 7 years for two municipalities as plan reviewer and as project manager of the city’s new projects. In 2011, she joined one the biggest shopping center developers in South America and worked at the permits and project regulations compliance. In Patagonia in 2015, she unexpectedly met her husband Joshua Garcia, an American marathon runner, and took the tough decision of moving to the United States in 2016. For 8 months, she studied English professional proficiency and in May 2017 she got a job offer at Travois. Elsa is a project manager and loves working on housing and economic development for American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian communities. She is currently pursuing NCARB certification and soon will obtain her architectural license in the US, so she can call herself an architect again.