Claire de Mézerville López welcomes Katherine Stanley Obando to the Restorative Works! Podcast.
Katherine shares how restorative practices show up organically in her work as a journalist, particularly in rural areas where trust, voice, and relationships are essential. Through El Colectivo 506, a Costa Rican journalism collective rooted in community, collaboration, and care, Katherine and her team practice a relational approach to storytelling by listening first, amplifying community voices, and prioritizing local leadership. Their journalism isn’t extractive—it’s connective.
Katherine is a journalist specializing in in-depth reporting on immigration, education, women’s rights, and civil society initiatives. She is the co-founder of El Colectivo 506, an award-winning, bilingual media organization that's using solutions journalism to build a "library of what works" in Costa Rica and beyond. She's also the co-founder of the Latin American Solutions Journalism Fund, which is training and funding in-depth journalism throughout the region. Katherine lives in San José with her husband Adrián and daughter Emma, for whom she wrote Love in Translation: Letters to My Costa Rican Daughter, published in 2016.
Tune in to hear as Katherine describes how this innovative model, including listening circles and relation-based editorial practices, helps strengthen civic engagement and social cohesion across Costa Rica.
