Sonia Garcia grew up in Spain with Catalan, Galician and Spanish as her family languages. Her career has largely focused on policy and programme management.
In the Catalan public service, Sonia designed and managed grants and programmes to support the internationalisation of Catalan literature. She later pursued her interest in fisheries, earning a PhD from the University of Technology Sydney for research on Australian fisheries policy.
Sonia moved to Aotearoa in 2020 and worked as a Senior Policy Analyst and Programme Manager in the international fisheries team at the Ministry for Primary Industries. In this role, she led legislative reforms to the Fisheries Act and managed Te Pātuitanga Ahumoana a Kiwa, a capacity development programme for Pacific fisheries agencies.
A first stint at NPM was instrumental in Sonia’s bonding to Aotearoa. Now as Pouhere Rangahau, she feels privileged to support Māori researchers to achieve their goals and loves operating in a Māori-led environment.