Francisca Orellana Polanka

Francisca Orellana Polanka is a sociologist, anthropologist, and writer. Her focus is as diverse as her background. Born in Chile, Fran is of Czech, American, Bolivian, English, Scottish, and Peruvian descent. She started Oveja Negra Kids, a company that creates educational and cultural material for children. A Banana Slug at heart, Fran has been working for non-profit organizations since she was 16 years old and has dedicated her life to fighting for issues like environmental justice, education justice, and business development, and economic justice in communities of color. Her passion and work focus on social change and justice through education, empathy, and advocacy. Her most recent work focuses on indigenous languages around the Americas. With Oveja Negra Kids, she is exploring ways to bring indigenous languages to people's homes with picture dictionaries and coloring books. Her goal is to preserve culture and traditions. She currently lives in Coastal Georgia with her family.