About Us

Our Story

In 2024, our team launched our first legislative advocacy campaign in Florida. Through the process, we gained invaluable firsthand experience designing and developing our own clean energy policy, meeting directly with state legislators, and learning how to navigate the legislative process. By the end of that first campaign, our proposal had been formally drafted in both chambers of the Florida legislature. In 2025, we returned with a stronger approach. Building on lessons from the previous year, we refined and strengthened our policy with support from legislative staff, elected officials, and professors from the University of Miami and Florida International University.

While our policy has not yet been passed, the experience gave us something just as valuable: a deep understanding of how effective legislative advocacy works. Over two years of research, outreach, and policy development, we transformed what we learned into a comprehensive curriculum covering the full legislative advocacy process. At the same time, our policy evolved into its strongest version yet.

Equipped with both a proven educational framework and a more mature policy model, we realized this work could extend far beyond our own team and our home state. That vision led us to found Pioneer Energy. Today, our mission is to empower others to engage in legislative advocacy and accelerate the adoption of clean energy policy across states nationwide.

Our Leadership Team

Giovanna Santo

Executive Director

Francisco Fuentes

Executive Administrator

Ruben Yabrudes

Director of Outreach

Ideu Zaldivar

Head of Research

Valentina Torres

Director of Communications

Goals

Creating Leaders

We plan to train grassroots and student groups on how to take meaningful action in their communities through legislative advocacy, giving them the skills to create impact long after their participation in the Pioneer Project.

Clean Energy Mission

State by state, we will train and mobilize groups with the Pioneer Project to help advance the country-wide clean energy transition, starting in the states that need it the most.