As a co-founder of Colmenar Cooperative Consulting, and then as a worker-owner, Mayerling Castillo was instrumental to building our organization from early conversations in 2019. Mayerling contributed with her practice of well being and self care to our space. She supported the formation of organizations in their initial stages of business formation. Below is her bio from her times in Colmenar.
Mayerling Castillo is a business consultant and the Co-Founder of Colmenar Cooperative Consulting. Her roles include management, workshop facilitation, and wellness coaching. Originally from Chile, her first career was in the Hotel Management Industry and later she worked in the fitness industry where she discovers her passion for health and wellness.
After working in the corporate world, she founded Forma Fitness in 2008 helping individuals to achieve their fitness and wellness goals. Her experience working in cooperatives started in 2011 with a Parent-Owned Preschool bilingual Spanish/English that encourages values of diversity, social justice, and community.
Mayerling understands the barriers migrants go through when looking for work or starting their businesses. Her goal is to promote the Cooperative Movement to help families achieve economic stability and to be treated with dignity, respect and fairness at their workplace.
She is pursuing a career in Social Entrepreneurship and, she will be graduating with a master’s degree in business management from Mills College University in 2021. She completed a fellowship program for Cooperative Development at Prospera Cooperative in Oakland, California, where she continues collaborating and supporting worker-owners and small businesses of the Latin community.
She is a mother, a passionate advocate of gender and racial justice, shares a great interest in native communities’ culture, loves snowboarding, cooking, wine tasting, and salsa dancing.