Mónika Aldarondo-Lugo is a photographer, podcaster and creative shape shifter. As an artist her medium always follows the idea and that has led her to various art forms from paper making and sculpture to audio storytelling and video. Photography has woven itself throughout her life. Since her first 110mm magenta Mickey Mouse camera as a child, creating images has always been a grounding force when she needed it. Her formal and informal studies have included dabbling in photojournalism, documentary, conceptual and family photography. She holds degrees in journalism and art education. She spent a decade as an educator and then Creative Director at Boston Arts Academy.

Mónika’s grandparents all moved from Puerto Rico to New York in the 1950s, a time of mass migration from the island for various social, political and economic reasons. She is immensely proud of her Puerto Rican heritage and identifies strongly with the broader Latine community in the US. She has lived in 3 countries (USA, Spain, and the Dominican Republic) and 6 states and now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and son.  She has been involved with various Latine focused organizations from co-founding the Latino Alliance at her high school, to NALEAO, to currently being active with We All Grow and founding Our Latina Lens.

Mónika is also a passionate advocate for organ donation through Donate Life and for patients with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis and other Autoimmune Liver Diseases through PSC Partners and other organizations. Her first podcast that she produced and hosted is PSC Mami, a podcast that interviews parents, such as herself, who have lived with a PSC diagnosis and may have also had life saving transplants.