KARINA ROSARIO EMSLIE

Karina focuses on climate justice and democratic processes, with a practice grounded in deep awareness of relationships, context, and the wider social and ecological environment.

Karina worked with NESCAN (North East Scotland Climate Action Network) as Project Officer, leading on the Diversity Strand and supporting the co-creation of the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) system for the Just Transition Communities Project in Aberdeen City and Shire communities.

Originally from Peru, Karina has lived in Scotland for over 17 years and brings her Andean knowledge, native wisdom, and relational approach to her work and those she connects with. She is now working with GREC (Grampian Regional Equality Council) through the No Recourse North East Partnership, tackling and preventing destitution for people with NRPF (No Recourse to Public Funds) and facilitating lived experience groups to guide policy and practice.

Karina is proud to be part of the Grassroots to Global team, contributing to international dialogues on democracy, justice, and community empowerment; a trained Go Deep Scotland facilitator, skilled in participatory methods for community transformation; and a supporter of the grassroots We Are Nature: A Collective Weaving stories.

She facilitates creative women’s circles, including The Artist’s Way and The Path of the Rose, blending creativity, self-discovery, and collective empowerment. A skilled storyteller, writer, and photographer, Karina sees photography as her medicine—a way to witness, heal, and connect the visible with the invisible. Her work can be seen at www.photostoriesbyk.com. Karina works alongside vulnerable communities, including ethnic minority women’s groups and asylum seekers, with a passion for climate justice, democratic capacity building, and community engagement informed by an Indigenous environmental justic