Patricia “Paty” Baum moved to Todos Santos, BCS, Mexico in 1995, from Portland, Oregon. She ran the Todos Santos Eco-Surf Camp at Playa Cerritos and started to rescue street dogs. She tackled the great plastic problem by recycling, then started volunteering at the Telesecundaria de Pescadero in 2001. Over 300 kids matriculated through her Future Biologist’s program over the next fifteen years, and got to work in a remarkable variety of field settings, including sea turtle projects, beach and arroyo clean-ups and recycling, and studying the impact of deforestation and gold mining. In 2014, she completed her thesis, Guia Ilustrada de la Tortuga Marina en BCS, for an MEA at the University of Guadalajara. Starting in 2003, she worked closely with the Todos Santos Festival de Cine and the Leonardo Perel Escuela de Cine, facilitating four Youth in Video films, including directing the award winning, El Principito (2020). She is currently the Director of the Biblioteca Elena Poniatowska at the non-profit Palapa Society, which houses 9000 books in English and Spanish. She gets in the ocean regularly with her rescue dog, Saragaya, and writes furiously in her spare time.
