About
Colmenar is plugged into the cooperative movement, advocating, connecting, and helping move the field forward.
Who we are
Member owners
Daniella Preisler she/her
Co-founder, cooperative development consultant, and certified coach
From Chile, more than a decade in cooperative development, with a Master in the Next Economy. Works with cooperatives on formation, participatory governance, financial literacy, bookkeeping, and communication, and provides coaching. Vice President of CICOPA Americas and President of CICOPA North America. As of January 2025, a loan officer at Shared Capital Cooperative.
Boards: USFWC, CICOPA Americas, Up and Go
Patty Viafara she/her
Cooperative developer and organizational strategist
Joined Project Equity, helped two businesses convert to member ownership. Over fourteen years supporting more than fifty organizations toward employee ownership, and helped launch three cooperative financing funds. A first-generation immigrant who grew up in Miami.
Boards: Miami Workers' Center, Midwest Farmers of Color Collective, Pacific Community Ventures
Adrián Roberto Román he/el
Cooperative consultant, mediator, and facilitator
Builds governance and decision-making systems for worker-led organizations, with a background in cooperative development, conflict navigation, and popular education. Co-owner of Colmenar and the Dorchester Art Project, a certified mediator and re-entry mediation advocate.
Boards: US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, Greater Boston Chamber of Cooperatives
Practice
Approach
Popular education
We start from your team's own experience and design from there.
Language justice
Built in English and Spanish from the start.
Autonomy and dignified work
Real authority for workers over the conditions of their work.
Cooperative as practice
We operate by the principles we teach.
Origins
How Colmenar started
In 2012, Daniella Preisler joined a Latina cleaning cooperative in San Francisco and started going to every cooperative conference she could find. The trainings and materials were almost all in English, so the immigrant and mixed-status workers who make up much of the movement were shut out of their own field. Colmenar launched in 2020 to close that gap, founded by Daniella with Ana Martina Rivas and Mayerling Castillo, with capital support from Prospera. It began as cooperative education built in Spanish and English from the start, and the practice has grown into organizational design.
Affiliations
