©Lucia Hofmaier

In 2018, a new vision came into focus for Panta Rhea's President and Chair Dr. Lisl Schoepflin.

She had just spent nine months in Peru. She was living in Mexico with her future husband and his family, pregnant for the first time, and her father and founder of Panta Rhea had recently asked her to step in as President and Chair. As a US and German citizen, she enjoyed self-determination, freedom of movement, and social and economic stability. Meanwhile, billions of people around the world were constrained by unjust ecological, economic, and socio-political conditions.

“I was deeply influenced by the concept of reciprocity in the Andes, and how it could be applied to the redistribution of wealth and power,” she says. “It was a vision of an embodied, creative, and inclusive philanthropy working towards social justice and ecological sustainability."

In the six years since, Panta Rhea has been steadfastly moving toward this new vision. In 2025, we appointed Amalia Brindis Delgado as our new Executive Director and brought on two new board members—Sofía Arroyo Martín del Campo and Shawn Escoffery—to join Lisl, Vice Chair Holly Roberson, Cedric Brown, and Solomé Lemma on the board. Our board and staff draw on deep roots across the Caribbean and Americas, grounding our emerging strategy in this region.

This past year, in partnership with so many of you, we launched our new strategy: Panta Rhea is a family foundation that supports people building power, honoring culture, and regenerating nature across the Caribbean and Americas.

“Our strategy boldly reflects the self-determined priorities of Afro-descendant, Indigenous, and other communities advancing human rights and climate justice,” adds Amalia, Executive Director of Panta Rhea. “Our goal is to strengthen the ties between grassroots and philanthropic partners so resources flow in support of community-led strategies across the Caribbean and Americas.”

We invite you to our explore our website to learn more about our vision and mission, values, and the throughline between where we’ve been and where we’re going. As we deepen our commitment to this vision as a foundation and move through a theory of change process in the months ahead, we’ll be sharing more about our strategy, highlighting the leadership of our community partners, and offering deeper insight into the evolution of our grantmaking priorities.

Thanks for joining us on this journey,

Panta Rhea