Rosamira
Guillén is the Executive Director of Fundación Proyecto Tití in
Colombia and a Board Member of Proyecto Tití, Inc. in the United States.
With more than two decades of leadership, she has transformed Proyecto
Tití from a small local initiative into an internationally recognized
model for community-based conservation, dedicated to saving the
critically endangered cotton-top tamarin and restoring its tropical dry
forest habitat.
Trained as a landscape architect, Rosamira first encountered
cotton-top tamarins while designing their exhibit at the Barranquilla
Zoo. That experience sparked her connection to the species and
introduced her to the work of Proyecto Tití. After years of
collaboration through the Zoo, she formally joined the organization in
2003, convinced that protecting this species was a mission worth
dedicating her life to.
As Executive Director, Rosamira oversees strategic planning,
fundraising, donor relations, and program implementation, while ensuring
that local communities remain central to every initiative. Under her
leadership, Proyecto Tití has achieved major conservation milestones:
halting the construction of an airport that would have destroyed
critical forest, expanding the Proyecto Tití Nature Reserve from 70
hectares to over 900, and building a workforce where most staff come
directly from rural communities. She has championed programs that
combine education, habitat restoration, and sustainable livelihoods,
ensuring conservation success is shared by both people and wildlife.
Her vision of conservation is rooted in reciprocity. She believes
that success comes when communities are genuine partners, contributing
their knowledge and traditions while also benefiting from restored
forests, sustainable jobs, and cultural pride. This philosophy has led
to strong alliances with local farmers, artisans, and educators, many of
whom are now active protectors of tamarins and their forests.
Rosamira has also led the organization through difficult times with
creativity and resilience. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when in-person
gatherings were impossible, her team launched traveling puppet shows
that reached children and families with the message of conservation in
new and engaging ways. She sees these adaptations as proof that when
communities are at the center, conservation efforts can withstand even
the toughest challenges.
After more than twenty years, Rosamira treasures both landmark
achievements and everyday victories. She recalls with pride the
expansion of Proyecto Tití’s Nature Reserve, where restored forests now
shelter tamarins, howler monkeys, and spider monkeys. Equally meaningful
are personal stories of transformation: a father whose job at Proyecto
Tití enabled his daughter to graduate from university, or artisans whose
earnings have provided education and stability for their families. For
her, these stories show that saving a species also means changing lives.
Her leadership style is built on example, humility, and authenticity.
She believes that leaders must live the values of their organizations,
and that trust is earned through consistency and respect. Over the
years, she has worked closely with Proyecto Tití’s co-founder, Dr. Anne
Savage, building a partnership that combines international expertise
with local perspective, and ensuring that the organization remains
rooted in both scientific rigor and cultural relevance.
Looking ahead, Rosamira envisions a Colombia where cotton-top
tamarins live freely in connected forests, where illegal trafficking no
longer threatens them, and where rural communities prosper alongside the
forests they protect. She hopes to be remembered as someone who
dedicated her life to ensuring that tamarins and the forests of the
Caribbean region endure for generations to come.