Rene Tonalli is born from a Mexican immigrant mother and a European American father in Goleta, Ca. Her mixed race of Indigenous, Spanish, Scottish, and German roots have informed much of her learning and work in the world to this day. She is a writer, project manager, facilitator, and Somatic Practitioner. 

Rene has supported Indigenous-led conservation efforts since 2012. She worked with Omaere Ethnobotanical Park and the Sacha Warmi Center in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Currently she works with the Indigenous Peyote Conservation Initiative, a pan-tribal bio-cultural conservation effort and has supported the initiative for seven years. 

Rene has completed a Mexican Traditional Medicine course at Hoja Santa in 2017, a Transformational Facilitation and Community Healing Arts Training with Vanessa Stone in 2019 and completed training as a Psychosomatic Practitioner with the Integrative Psych Institute. 

The weaving of land, justice, conservation, and our bodies has given Rene a wide picture of the health of an ecosystem. She deeply believes that when the land is well we are well and vice versa. She currently is studying methods of moving through conflict and difference to further support the internal movements of these external efforts. 

As a mother many of her teachers are found in the stillness of the land she calls home with her daughter or in the leaf folds of the corn she grows every year. She is grateful for those who have supported her on her journey through teachings, care, and joy – including la Madre Tierra, el maiz, a dear spring she knows, her mother Yolanda, her father Dan, her grandmother Juana, Teresa Contreras, Baltazar Lizama, Pakcha Samari Vimi, Yasacama Nantu Kashijint, Alexis Slutzky, Katie Root, Nany Zepeda, Jessica Stewart, Spirit Pine Family, her husband Sam, and her daughter Ofelia.