Mercedes Santiago

Mercedes Santiago has spent most of her life in Kansas. Born in Topeka, raised in Manhattan, and a repeat resident of Lawrence, Mercedes’ time on the prairie has been punctuated by stints in Northern Virginia, Washington State, and the UK. Her other home is in Puerto Rico, where her family resides and where her ancestors have worked on the land for as many generations back as they can trace. Her heart dwells in both these places: the misty mountain forests of the island Boriken and the windy flint hills of Kansas. Mercedes graduated from Kansas State University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and minors in English, Gender Studies, and Anthropology. Accepted into the KSU Ecological Genomics Undergraduate Research Mentorship Program, she worked as a researcher in a plant systematics lab. Though Mercedes values her academic education, her most powerful education has been on the land, working at various small farms and participating in the food justice community.