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Meet the 2026 Winners

We're proud to present the winners of the third edition of the Luis von Ahn Visionary Award

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Magdalena Cholotío

She helped turn the ancestral wisdom of thousands of midwives into national public policy.​

LinkedIn

Magdalena is a Maya therapist, day keeper, and practitioner of medicinal plants who began her work in community-based integral health 50 years ago. Since 1976, she has served as a health promoter and nutritionist in community health through the integral development project in her community, and over the decades has contributed to numerous efforts promoting the leadership of young and adult women in spaces of decision-making. She is the founder of the intergenerational association Mayab' Ixoqi' Tejiendo Historia, where she currently serves as general coordinator. In 2010, she founded the Maya Tz'utujil Therapist Council, which gave rise to the national movement of midwives. A year later, in 2011, she became a pioneer and founder of the National Midwives' Movement Nim Alaxík – Gran Nacimiento. Over the following 15 years, that movement consolidated 22 departmental councils, bringing together more than 23,320 midwives nationwide from Maya, Garífuna, Xinka, and Mestizo communities. She continues contributing to efforts defending the rights of women and Indigenous peoples in the pursuit of a just, equitable society grounded in social justice.

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Gabriela Asturias

She turned technology into a gateway to healthcare for millions of people.

LinkedIn

Gabriela Asturias is a Guatemalan doctor, scientist, and entrepreneur. She studied Neuroscience at Duke University and earned her medical degree at Stanford University, where she is currently completing her residency in Psychiatry with a focus on public and community health. At Stanford, she also leads the Global Mental Health Initiative in the Department of Psychiatry, a special initiative connecting psychiatry, law, and global health to respond to urgent public mental health and human rights challenges. In 2015 she founded FUNDEGUA, a foundation that drives Guatemala's development through accessible scientific research, inclusive technology, and innovative solutions. In 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, she led the creation of ALMA, a free national telehealth service in partnership with the Ministry of Public Health that has supported more than 3 million Guatemalans through its chatbot, multilingual call center, and digital applications. Over the years, ALMA grew into a comprehensive digital health ecosystem that today includes almaRED, for training community health workers; alma Mujeres, focused on women's health; and Salud Juntos, for epidemiological outbreak detection. She also co-founded Línea 1582, Guatemala's first national crisis line. Her work has been recognized by MIT Technology Review (Innovators Under 35 Latin America), Forbes (30 Under 30 in Health), Bloomberg (100 Latin American Innovators), the 2025 Princess of Girona International Research Award, and Prensa Libre, which named her Person of the Year 2025. Her purpose is to close the gap between international research and the reality of communities in Guatemala and Latin America, so that health becomes a right accessible to all.

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Pilar Ramírez

She transformed how Guatemala protects children from disappearance and online exploitation.

LinkedIn

Pilar Ramírez is a Guatemalan lawyer and Global Vice President of National Capacity Building at the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC). For more than 18 years she has worked to strengthen the systems that protect children and adolescents from disappearance, violence, sexual exploitation, and emerging risks in the digital environment. In Guatemala, she has contributed to the development and strengthening of public policy, legal frameworks, and national child protection mechanisms, including the adoption system and the institutional strengthening of the Alba-Keneth Alert System, as well as initiatives to improve the country's response to online child sexual exploitation. Currently, from ICMEC, she leads programs across Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe, coordinating governments, justice and security systems, civil society, and tech companies. A central part of her work focuses on protecting children's and adolescents' rights in the digital environment, promoting public policy, international cooperation, and institutional capacity to prevent and respond to online child sexual abuse and exploitation. Her international career maintains a strong connection to Guatemala, promoting knowledge, cooperation, and global best practices to strengthen institutions and more effectively protect children and adolescents.

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Eleanor Menchú

(Young Leader)

She is proving that technology can become the greatest equalizer of opportunity for Guatemalan youth.

LinkedIn

Eleanor Menchú, 23, works so that Guatemalan talent doesn't have to choose between its country and its ambition. At 21, she led programs that awarded more than 10,000 technology scholarships. Today she builds AI products, seeks out and backs emerging founders in Europe and Latin America, and represents Guatemala as an ambassador for Cursor, Notion, and other technologies in the United States, Finland, and Europe, bringing back every tool, network, and open door she finds. Her goal: to live in a Guatemala that develops on its own terms, and to leave the world better than she found it.

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