Francisco Vio Giacaman

NOLS Patagonia Director

Francisco Vio Giacaman

Francisco (he/him) was born in Viña del Mar Chile in 1969. When Francisco was ten years old, an interest in the outdoors led him to join his school’s excursion club, which was the beginning of an ongoing passion for environmental protection. He began studying physical education while working in a high school as well as and in the Chilean Mountaineering Federation. Francisco also began organizing inter-school mountain climbing excursions to train young leaders to be mountaineering leaders, and his work was the first of its kind in Chile. In 1994 he accepted a scholarship from the NOLS. He moved to Aysén, but also traveled to the United States, Mexico, and Chile to educate young people and Park Rangers. He later began working with CONAF’s ‘Aysén Biodiversity Project’ to support environmental education. Around this time he founded and created the curriculum for the Patagonia School for Guides, later he work on private and public university in the Aysen Region. He has return to NOLS after 20 years of working on other programs. Since Feb 2023 he is the Patagonia Location Director.


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