Kelly Kirschner, born March 11, 1975, finished working for Idaho State University as the National Director of the Chisec Community Conservation Project in northern Guatemala in 2003. Leading a staff of nine Guatemalan nationals, 89% of whom were local Mayan Q'eqchí, Kelly helped create Guatemala's first community-based Biological Conservation Corridor amidst more than 15 Mayan communities in an extension of 600 square kilometers, 65% covered by virgin, primary tropical forest and home to large indicator species including the jaguar and tapir. Before taking this assignment, Kelly served for nearly three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Chisec, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala in a Municipal Development program. Through his work with the local Municipal government, Kelly and other residents of Chisec recognized the Municipality's inability to meet the host of disparate municipal needs due in most part to the legacy of Guatemala's thirty-five year civil war that was particularly devastating to the area of Chisec. Fertilized by this realization, Kelly and local residents founded and legalized SANK as a non-profit organization in Guatemala in 2001. Presently, in addition to being Deep Roots' implementing partner in Guatemala, SANK is working on two USAID funded development projects in the Chisec area, a Mayan video project, and operating an internet cafe/restaurant whose modest profits are reinvested into the scholarship program. Kelly graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in 1998 in a five-year, dual degree program, earning his Bachelor of Science degree in Foreign Service and his Master of Arts degree in Latin American Studies.